By Idibia Gabriel, Kaduna
A Nigerian contractor has raised the alarm, alleging that N57 billion worth of contract purportedly awarded him by Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has been siphoned by aides of a former Minister fronting for their principal.
He said the contract was awarded to him through the facilitation of a then-serving powerful Minister in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2022.
The contractor, Mr. Emmanuel Otokpa, who raised the alarm, told journalists at a press conference in Kaduna, that the alleged final fate of the contract had left him and his family facing starvation as he was compelled to sell off all his properties to settle issues pertaining to pursuit of the contract payment.
According to him, a contracts award team in the Ministry had conducted what he described as “in-house bidding” which came from the Minister’s Office, adding that costings were done while all other requirements necessary for the award were met and approved, but regretted that the money was later allegedly siphoned and has not been paid to him to date.
The contract, he revealed, pertained to provision of vital infrastructure for schools including Kebbi State College of Medicine, Argungu; Kaduna State University; and others.
According to Otokpa, the contracts could not be executed by him due to the alleged contract diversion and siphoning of the money.
The contractor said the contract sum was,in 2024, reviewed downwards to N25 billion under the current NPA Managing Director (MD), Dr Abubakar Dansofo, based on advice by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after a petition was written against the NPA over extensive delay in releasing the contract award letter for the job.
He said, however, that the contract was later increased to almost N30 billion after costings and payment of bill of quantity.
The contractor alleged that the saga began when two personal aides of the Minister called him, requesting that he floats a construction firm so as to benefit from an impending hefty contract in NPA.
“And I told them ‘how sure are you?’ They said that it’s 100% sure, and that the MD of NPA is from their state, in Kebbi.”
According to him, based on the assurance, he swung into action and then moved to meet “some ethical requirements that must be met, like tax compliance, before you can be given contracts. So I had to go and select the best companies that have the highest requirements, that have the bigger share capitals.”
Otokpa added: “And I brought the companies; they checked, verified and okayed them. And they said before we begin to move to NPA, I am going to do a contract bidding –a procedure that must be done.
“And they told me that this one is in-house bidding because the contract belongs to the Minister; and I said ‘that’s okay’.
“That I am going to bring N5 million as cost of the bidding process and others and I said okay to it, but asked them to reduce it because I cannot go and tell the sub-contracting companies to bring money because in Nigeria today, if you tell anyone ‘go and bring money before anything comes on board’, they’ll begin to look at you somehow because a lot of companies have been bidding for jobs and have not been getting them.
“So I said, ‘for that reason, bring it down so that I can be able to do on behalf of the other companies first; by the time they (companies) begin to see the reality, they will begin to support in any of the assistance in the process’.
“And I was then asked to bring N1 million. That means you’re the one that’s going to sponsor everything, they asked; and I said ‘okay, let me give N1million. But I am giving you N500,000 first; when we go there (to NPA Lagos) because I will pay the flight ticket’… They said that I am the one that is going to take responsibility for everything.
“They said that I’ll also be giving them money during the bidding process for doing everything, and I said ‘okay, no problem’.”
Continuing, Mr Otokpa recounted that before they arrived Lagos, he called one of the companies informing the participants that “you have to pay the flight.’
“And I booked for a spice hotel on the Island, where we lodged. That was in July 25th, and then the following day, the other contractors flew in from Port Harcourt and some of the states.”
According him, before the flight to Lagos, the former Minister gave them recommendations, ostensibly to add a veneer of credibility and validity to the set-up.
Brandishing a sheaf of documents, Otokpa said: “You can see his signature here. It was signed. And then we landed in Lagos.
“When we landed in Lagos, the following day some of the other contractors came and we met and then I introduced them to the NPA.
“And then when we were at the NPA, they were happy that something is about coming to their table because they have been doing bidding.
“We submitted acknowledgement to all the companies; you can see the original, the day we submitted these original acknowledgements for the recommendation that the company took to Lagos. You can see it’s stamped, we acknowledged it.
“I told the companies ‘I am not ready for this before but as you say I continue, I have no option than to begin to dip into my accounts and begin to go into it.”
The contractor’s lawyers, who also spoke at the press conference, the firm of Bola Aidi (SAN) & co, said they had earlier written a petition against the delay in release of the contract award letter in addition to two reminders, but regretted that the award letter was still not released to their client, Mr. Otokpa, to date.
According to Aidi, all relevant government agencies, including EFCC, were copied the petition but were yet to resolve the mystery of the contract award letter.
He said they began to suspect manipulation when one of the companies called and informed Otokpa that NPA had started releasing award letters.
“You know some of the sub-contractors have some people as insiders that gives them information,” Otokpa resumed the narration.
Based on the information on release of contract letters, he said he called the Minister’s two aides to find out what was going on.
He said one of the aides subsequently called NPA for confirmation and on getting a positive response, allegedly requested him (Otokpa) to book flights to Lagos for the next morning -which he did –for the collection of the much-sought letter.
“And I told him if he gets to Lagos,
the moment he collects the award letter, he should let me know. He should send me a copy of the award letter so that I can be able to tell the companies, because at that time
the outgoing government was close (to exiting power).
“So when he got to Lagos, when he collected the award letter, I never knew that the SA (Special Assistant) told the PA (Personal Assistant) not to tell me yet”, he lamented.
Continuing, the contractor said: “I was in Abuja at that time when he came to Abuja, then he went back to Zaria. From Zaria, they now asked him to bring the award letter to Kano. When he got to Kano, he now called me that he needed money.
“I said ‘have you collected the award letter?’ That was then he now said to me yes.”
Otokpa quoted him as revealing, at that point, that his colleague-aide had requested him to bring the award letter to Kano instead.
The contractor said when the Minister’s wife learned of these goings-on, she was livid and ordered the aides to return the award letter to Otokpa, but was cautioned by an unidentified family member to steer clear of the matter.
Mr Otokpa has, therefore, called on the Presidency and other relevant authorities to intervene in the matter to ensure the award letter is released and given to him to execute the contracts for the benefit of Nigerians whom the projects were meant for.
