Ogbulafor: Court postpones N107mn contract scam judgement
Justice Ishaq Bello of FCT High Court on Wednesday reserved judgment till July 24 in a case filed by ICPC against former PDP Chairman Vincent Ogbulafor and two others.
Ogbulafor, a former Minister of Special Duties, along with Emeka Ebilah and Jude Nwokoro, are facing a 17-count charge of conspiracy and award of fictitious contracts worth N107 million.
ICPC alleged that in 2001, he connived with the others to float three fictitious companies with which they allegedly perpetrated the fraud.
The trio were alleged to have used Henrichiko Nig. Ltd, DHL Consultants and Chekwas Industries, to siphon N82.6 million; N11.5 million and N6.2 million, respectively, in 2001.
The former minister is specifically alleged to have used his position as head of National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) set up to verify debts owed local contractors, to okay as genuine, several forged documents.
He was said to have relied on the forged documents to certify his said three fake companies successfully executed jobs worth N104 and collected kickbacks of N2 million and N28 million from Ebilah.
The offences levelled against the accused persons are said to have contravened Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Ogbulafor had admitted recommending the second accused to former President Olusegun Obasanjo for membership of the NEIC in July 2010, but denied appointing Ebilah as the secretary of the committee after its reconstitution.
He also told the court that he was directed to reconstitute NEIC by Obasanjo in July 2010.