An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness on Monday told an Abuja High Court that a petition written by a coalition of aviation employees led to the investigation of the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and others.

The EFCC charged Sirika alongside his daughter, son-in-law and a company, Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, with contract fraud and abuse of office.

The former minister, according to the EFCC, abused his office as minister by conferring unfair advantage upon Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, whose alter ego are said to be his daughter and son-in-law, by using his position to influence the award to them, the contract for the apron extension at Katsina Airport for the sum of N1,498,300,750.

This, the prosecution said, is contrary to Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and Section 17 (b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, as well as Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Acts of the Federal Capital Territory and punishable under the same sections.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

At the resumed hearing in the case before Justice Sylvanus Oriji, the 12th prosecution witness (PW12), Adekunle Odofin, told the court that EFCC received a petition in 2021.

“A coalition of aviation employees, under the aegis of Coalition of Aviation Sector Employees for Transparency and Good Governance, wrote a petition against the management of the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

“In the petition, the coalition alleged that the ministry received N14.7 billion for the rehabilitation and remodelling of airports across the country and that the money was siphoned by some greedy individuals in the ministry.

“The petition was assigned to the Chairman of the Monitoring Team II for investigation,” he said.

Odofin said that one Mark Adebayo was invited by the anti-corruption commission to shed more light on the content of the petition, which he (Adebayo) wrote.

He told the court that in January 2024, the EFCC set up a committee made up of himself as chairman and four others to review and investigate the allegations contained in the petition.

The investigating team, according to him, wrote letters to Zenith Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Jaiz Bank and Access Bank,.

Letters, he said, were also sent to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Ministry of Aviation, Bureau of Public Procurement, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

According to him, the Ministry of Aviation was requested to furnish the team with details of all contracts awarded by it to Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, as well as all payments made to the company by the ministry in respect of contracts awarded to it.

“We also wrote the BPP requesting for details made to the Bureau by the Federal Ministry of Aviation on no objection for the selective tendering method of appropriation in respect of 2021 remaining projects, 2020 appropriation and 2018 appropriation respectively.

“We also requested BPP to furnish EFCC with details of responses to the aforementioned requests from the Federal Ministry of Aviation,” the PW12 told the court.

Odofin informed the court that responses from the organisations were received and analysed by his team, as a result, the former minister was invited by EFCC on April 23, 2024.

“Consequent upon the analysis, the first defendant (Sirika) was invited on April 23, 2024 where he was shown a copy of the petition. He read it and understood the same. He then volunteered to make a statement in the presence of his lawyers,” the witness told the court.

He said that Sirika’s daughter, Fatima, had earlier been invited by the team on February 26, 2024, while her husband, Hamman Jalal Sule, was invited the following day, February 27, 2024.

According to the PW12, both defendants were shown the petition, which they read, understood and later volunteered their respective statements in company with their lawyers.

“Invitation was also extended to the top management of the Federal Ministry of Aviation. On February 22., 2024, one Musa Odiniya was invited to the commission.

“He was the Director, Procurement, Federal Ministry of Aviation during the period under review while the first defendant (Sirika) was the minister,” he said.

On January 31, 2024, he said Azubuike Okorie, the special assistant to the first defendant on projects in the ministry, was invited.

“He served and retired as Deputy Director, Procurement in the ministry. After his retirement, he was appointed SA to the first defendant on projects,” the witness said.

He further told the court that the investigating team executed a search note on Okorie’s Prado Jeep when he visited the EFCC office, adding that a particular document with the caption “remaining 2021 projects” was recovered from the jeep.

The witness added that: “In serial number 13 of this document contained a particular contract, terminal building and apron expansion at Katsina airport.

“On this same number 13, a red pen handwriting dividing the one contract into two, terminal building for Enginos Nigeria Limited and apron expansion to the fourth defendant, Al Buraq Global Investment Limited.

“This handwriting on the document was believed to have been written by the first defendant. This same handwriting was shown to the first defendant. He denied knowledge of it and also declined that the handwriting was his.”

Consequent to the denial, Odofin told the court that handwriting specimens were taken from the former minister, while the team went to the Ministry of Aviation to receive documents reflecting Sirika’s handwriting.

These, he said, were forwarded to a forensic expert together with the disputed handwriting and the original copies of the extrajudicial statements made to EFCC by the former minister.

He informed the court that on May 14, 2024, the team received the report of the forensic expert analysis in which it was established that both the disputed handwriting and the specimen’s handwriting “were made by no other person but the first defendant in this case”.

“The position of the forensic report further corroborated the position of Azubuike in whose custody the disputed document was recovered,” Odofin told the court.

He added that one Sabo Yahaya, who was the MD/CEO, Tramak Engineering Services Limited, was invited in the course of investigation by his team and made two statements in respect if the N500 million transferred to his company account with Zenith Bank from the total contract sum paid to Al Buraq Global Investment.

He also disclosed that the mother of Sirika’s son-in-law, Saratu Chinade, was also invited to make her statement, adding that the mother was signatory to the account of Al Buraq with Zenith Bank.

Justice Oriji adjourned the case until July 1 for continuation of evidence of the PW12. (NAN)