{"id":66877,"date":"2019-05-23T17:15:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=66877"},"modified":"2019-05-23T17:15:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:15:58","slug":"n500million-grass-cutting-scandal-efcc-presents-first-witness-against-babachir-lawal-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/n500million-grass-cutting-scandal-efcc-presents-first-witness-against-babachir-lawal-others\/","title":{"rendered":"N500million Grass Cutting Scandal: EFCC Presents First Witness Against\u00a0 Babachir Lawal, Others"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, May<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
23, 2019, presented its first witness, Hamza Adamu Buwai, as the
\nCommission opened its case in the ongoing trial against the former
\nSecretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, and
\nthree others, before Justice Jude Okeke of a Federal Capital Territory,
\nFCT, High Court, Maitama Abuja.<\/p>\n

Lawal along with his younger brother, Hamidu David Lawal; Suleiman
\nAbubakar; Apeh John Monday and two companies: Rholavision Engineering
\nLtd., and Josmon Technologies Ltd, were re-arraigned on an amended
\n10-count charge bordering on fraud, diversion of funds and criminal
\nconspiracy to the tune of over N500 Million (Five Hundred Million Naira)
\nonly.<\/p>\n

At the resumed hearing, the witness, a civil servant with the Federal
\nMinistry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Buwai, who was the Head of
\nFinance, Presidential Initiative For North East, PINE, attached to the
\nOffice of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, told
\nthe court that he was responsible for all payments made by PINE to
\ncontractors, consultants and staff payments.<\/p>\n

According to him, Rholavision Engineering Ltd was the consultant for the
\nremoval of invasive plant species irrigation programme and construction
\nof water gates along the River Kamadugu Yobe River, which is about 250km
\nbut awarded the contract to Josmon Technologies for the alleged
\nclearance of the invasive plant species and the irrigation programme.<\/p>\n

The witness further narrated to the court how he knew the companies
\nadding that after the approval of the procurement process to the
\ncompanies, that the Consultant, Rholavision took the contractors, Josmon
\nTechnologies Ltd; to the site of the project, were they commenced work.<\/p>\n

Buwai stated that when the project was almost completed, Rholavision
\nissued Coalition Certificate to the government demanding for payment for
\nthe 95% of the job done, which was submitted to him, as the Accountant
\nfor payment.<\/p>\n

He explained that the documents in the official file for payment,
\nincludes Certificate of Corporation, Tax Clearance of the Companies,
\nRegistration of the companies with Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP,
\nPENCOM Certificate, Industrial Training Fund Registration and letter for
\nthe award of contract.<\/p>\n

According to him, after verifying the documents, he requested that
\npayment be made to company after the approval by the Permanent
\nSecretary, Special Services, in the office of the National Security
\nAdviser, NSA, which is under the office of the Secretary to the
\nGovernment of the Federation.<\/p>\n

The witness further told the court that the contract was valued at about
\nN272, 500,000 (Two Hundred and Seventy Two Million, Five Hundred
\nThousand Naira), only adding that it was based on the 95 per cent
\nconclusion agreement that the companies were paid the sum of N258,
\n000,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Eight Million Naira) but based on the
\npaucity of funds at the that time, they were paid N225, 000,000 (Two
\nHundred and Twenty Five Million Naira) only.<\/p>\n

Explaining further, Buwai told the court the different processes that
\nthe payment vouchers go through before payment are made adding that the
\npayment went to the bank account of Josmon Technolgies Ltd., stressing
\nthat payment of the consultants was based on the performance of the
\ncontactors.<\/p>\n

He said after the evaluation of the performance of the contractors, the
\nconsultant, Rholavision Engineering Ltd, was paid 50 percent of their
\nfees, which was around N3.5 million (Three Million, Five Hundred
\nThousand Naira), only for consultancy fee which he claimed was at 2.5
\npercent of the total money and that the payment voucher was raised for
\nthe payment, which also went through the due process of the government.<\/p>\n

However, the Prosecution counsel, Offem Uket, prayed the court to tender
\nthe payment vouchers raised in the name of Rholavisio Engineering Ltd
\nand Josmon Technologies Ltd with the attached documents.<\/p>\n

But counsel to the fifth defendant, Joseph Uzor, opposed the
\nadmissibility of the document, alleging that some of the documents were
\nnot the original copies, adding that they are public documents and
\nrequired to fulfil section 104 of the Evidence Act.<\/p>\n

The prosecution counsel, however, told the court that the documents are
\noriginal adding that the documents being referred to; are attached to
\nthe payment vouchers, which is also the original, explaining that the
\nsaid section 104, does not apply to this, as it is a single document in
\nits whole form.<\/p>\n

Justice Okeke after listening to the arguments said he is minded to give
\na considered ruling as similar objections may arise and adjourned the
\ncase for a considered ruling to June 17 and 18, 2019, for ruling and
\ncontinuation of trial.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, May 23, 2019, presented its first witness, Hamza Adamu Buwai, as the Commission opened its case in the ongoing trial against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\nN500million Grass Cutting Scandal: EFCC Presents First Witness Against\u00a0 Babachir Lawal, Others - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/n500million-grass-cutting-scandal-efcc-presents-first-witness-against-babachir-lawal-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N500million Grass Cutting Scandal: EFCC Presents First Witness Against\u00a0 Babachir Lawal, Others - 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