Date Published: 05/06/09

N3 Billion Contract Fraud: Senator arrested, Reps on the run

Senator Nicholas Ugbane, Kogi East

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane has been arrested in connection with the N3 Billion rural electrification project said to have been paid to different contractors in December 2008 while three members of the House of Representatives also involved in the contract scam are currently on the run.

Pointblanknews.com had exclusively reported the arrest of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Dr.Aliyu Abdullahi who was acting Minister for Power when the controversial contract was awarded.

A source who confirmed the arrest of Senator Ugbane, Kogi East, told pointblanknews.com that members of the Senate and House Committees on Power had inserted the rural electrification project into the 2008 Appropriation Bill sent to the National Assembly by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua with a bid to offering the contracts to their cronies.

The Source, a highly ranked official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, where the Senator is currently being detained said the National Assembly appropriated N6 Billion for the Rural Electrification Project from where N3.5 Billion was earmarked for Grid Extension and N1.8 Billion for a Solar Project.

According to the source, sensing that the project with its huge financial allocation would require the approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, members of the Senate and House committees on Power decided to split the contract in bits and awarded the N3.5 Billion Grid Extension to 113 Contractors and the N1.4 Billion Solar Project to 45 Contractors and connived with officials of the Ministry of Power to award the electrification project.

Pointblank news.com gathered that one Chief Emeka Ohaegbena who was arrested alongside Senator Ugbane had 21 contracts awarded to nine companies registered in his name. He is alleged to be fronting for some unnamed officials.

A Source had told pointblanknews.com that contracts for over 100 projects for rural electrification totaling about N2 billion and which process was under the watch of the Minister of State for Power were awarded and payments completely made to the contractors in a manner that smacks of fraud as it was done to beat the Federal Government contract award deadline in December 2008.

Senator Ugbane, Dr. Abdullahi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Chief Ohaegbena and the five arrested Directors of the Universal Basic Education, UBE, have been scheduled for prosecution on Monday on the orders of the EFCC’s Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri.