Lagos-Ibadan Road: Ex-Works Minister, Lawan Fingered In N24.3b Scam

A former Minister of Works, Hassan Lawan has been said to have compromised his ministerial position in the manner the Lagos-Ibadan expressway contract was awarded, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja was told on Tuesday.

Domnic Abishigh, a former Assistant Director in the Ministry of Works, while testifying as a prosecution witness told Justice Adamu Bello.

The director told the court that the execution of the second River Niger Bridge across Brutu and Bagana in Nasarawa and Kogi, was aborted as the result of the compromise in 2009.

According to the witness, the witness ex-minister, Mr. Lawan conveyed the meeting that led to the payments to contractors before the commencement of work.

“I am not in the position right now to confirm whether the payments made were based on mile-stone achieved. Valuation certificates based on mile-stone achieved are expected to be issued before payments could be made.

“In this particular contract, the mile-stone achieved ought to have been given by the consortium to the project, the engineer, who is head of PPP unit in the Ministry of Works. The valuation certificates were prepared by the above persons and sent to the permanent secretary for correction if any and finally forwarded to the minister for approval.

“The entire procedure was not properly carried out hence a loophole was created to siphon the projects funds,” the witness said, noting further that “the contract agreement has room for amendment but this process was also ignored’’.

Mr. Abishigh, also disclosed that almost all the contractors, including Siraj Nig.Ltd and Digital Toll failed to remit their equity stake spelt out in the agreement, adding that all the companies preferred to depending on the public equity to execute the project’’.

He spoke further, “The Federal Government remitted up to 20 per cent out of its 80 per cent equity, while Kogi and Nasarawa remitted 10 per cent each from their agreed 40 per cent equity each.

“The above calculation when put together gave the consultants N5.6 billion as initial funds which was unlawfully dispensed.

“The private partners did not remit any monies as part of their 60 per cent funding equity, but were being paid for job not done”. The matter was adjourned to Oct. 21 and Oct. 24, for continuation.