Date Published: 10/30/09

Bode George to remain in Kirikiri

...Bail Application Hearing fixed for Nov. 9

Bode George

Convicted former Board Chairman of  the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Chief Olabode George and five other persons will remain in Kikiri Prisons till 9 November this year when their bail appliction will come up for hearing.

Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court, this morning fixed 9 November for hearing on the bail application filed by George’s counsel.

George and five co-convicts filed the bail application before the court urging the judge to grant them bail, pending the hearing of their appeal now before the Court of Appeal.

Part of the grounds cited  by George for the bail application are that: he is hypertensive, has arthritis, and that his appeal, which might take more than two and a half years, might be prejudiced.

The other five convicts are also asking for bail on several circumstances bordering mostly on their health.

The six convicts were not however in court. Only Bode George’s wife, Roli, and few family members were present.

The court adjourned till 9 November for hearing, to enable all parties in the matter exchange court processes.

George and five other persons accused along with him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over allegation of N85 billion fraud at the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, were sentenced to two-and-half years imprisonment without an option of fine last Monday.

He was convicted by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court.

George was specifically convicted on 35 out of the 68-count charge which border on contract splitting, inflation, abuse of office and disobedience to lawful order.

Justice Oyewole sentenced all the six accused persons to two years each on seven counts of abuse of office and another six months for 28 charges bordering on disobedience of lawful order.

The judge held that all the accused persons were guilty of splitting numerous contracts as members of NPA board from 2001 to 2003.

According to the judge, there were incontrovertible evidence that all the six accused persons intentionally and knowingly condoned the splitting of contracts.

Also, Justice Oyewole held that George and his co-accused disregarded lawful order passed to them by the Ministry of Transport stipulating a new approval limit of contracts in all government parastatals including the NPA.

According to the judge, all the accused persons in their evidence acknowledged receiving the said order from the Ministry of Transport but chose by their own volition to disregard the order.

He, however, held them not liable for contract inflation.

During the trial which lasted for 15 months, one of the major prosecution witnesses, Engr. Mustapha Bukar, a director in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, who chaired the 7-man administrative panel instituted by the Federal Government to probe the activities of the NPA, said his panel discovered that about 29,526 contracts were awarded by the management of the NPA between year 2001 and 2003.

In his evidence, the witness said that some of the contracts were split and inflated before they were awarded to different contractors by the NPA management. However, the witness, admitted under cross-examination by counsel to the defendants that there was no evidence indicating that the contracts awarded were given out or signed by the Board of the NPA led by Bode George.