A principal prosecution witness in the on -going trial of a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayo Fayose, on Monday, December 2 , 2013 told a Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, that Fayose lied on his asset declaration.
The witness, Mr. Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, told the court that the former governor lied in his asset declarations in 1998 when he claimed that he had two buildings in Iyaganku area of Ibadan, Oyo State. “We wrote a letter to the Code of Conduct Bureau, and in its reply, it was stated that in the asset declaration form that Fayose filled, that he claimed he built a house in the year 2004 to 2006. This is not true because in the course of investigation, it was discovered that what he earlier declared in 1998 that he had a two storey building was a lie, as he did not own a plot of land as at then”, he said.
In addition, Madaki told the court that Fayose also claimed in his asset declaration that he had N100million (One hundred Million naira) in an account with the former Bank PHB (now keystone bank). “When we conducted our investigation, it was discovered that the said account belong to People’s Democratic Party and the balance in the account was less than N50, 000 (Fifty thousand Naira) as against the claimed N100 million”.
Madaki further told the court that among issues raised in the petitions received by the EFCC against Fayose was the construction of a poultry project in Ekiti State. The 16 local government councils of the state contributed about N400 million (Four Hundred Million Naira) for the poultry project and about N400 million (Four Hundred Million Naira) came from the state government for the four designated centres for the project. Madaki said that N300 million (Three Hundred Million Naira) was released for the construction of the Poultry Farm headquarters in Afao, Ekiti State. The project was contracted to Biological Concept Limited. Chairman of the company, Mr Gbenga James was invited and questioned on why only four out of the alleged 20 poultry projects were successfully completed. Further investigations as well as documents recovered from the house of one Mr. Wale, a friend of James revealed what the chunk of the money was expended on.
According to Madaki, among the documents recovered from Wale’s house was a cheque book. “From the cheque book, we discovered that about N9.5million was used to construct Fayose’s building in Ibadan; a particular amount was used to purchase a brand new Mercedes Benz for the accused mother in Ibadan. Also, there was an acknowledgement of $50,000 that Fayose instructed James to give to Mrs Olujimi, a former deputy governor of the state. Also, some amount was paid into Feyi Fayose and Moji Fayose accounts respectively. Wale explained that he got hold of the document from his friend, James who kept it in his custody”.
Madaki further told the court that N150 million (One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) was used by James to purchase a battery cage for Evians Specialist, a company belonging to James. “When he was questioned why he used such an amount to buy the cage, he claimed that it was an agreement between him and Fayose”.
Madaki also told the court that of N300 million allocated for the construction of the poultry headquarters in Afao Local government area in Ekiti State, only N73million was released to the architect that constructed the building. “Mr Lawal Adeyinka, Chairman of the company that built the poultry farm, claimed that he was given N73million for the project. Again, it was discovered that 46 percent of the shares of the poultry investment belonged to James, in spite of the fact that he collected 15% of the N73million released for the project as his own consultancy fee. When asked why he had to collect such huge amount and why he had to hold 46 percent stake in the investment, he claimed it was an agreement between him and Fayose”.
Prosecution counsel Adebisi Adeniyi presented all the documents in court and were admitted as exhibit A1 to k. He informed the court that he would present more documents the next day.
Further hearing in the matter was adjourned till December 3, 2013.
Fayose was re-arraigned on November 22, 2012 on a 27-count amended charge that borders on misappropriation of state funds totalling N416 million.
