“He came that evening, saw me at home with everybody and gave me the bottle of whiskey and left.
“How does a bottle of Blue Label Whiskey tie into an over payment of N200million?The contract awarded to a construction firm, JPros Nigeria Ltd, for the construction of roads in Imo State did not follow due process, Deputy Governor Jude Agbaso said yesterday.
At a briefing in Lagos, Agbaso said he was not in the country when the contract was awarded.
Insisting he did not receive N458million kickback from the firm’s boss, Joseph Dina, Agbaso said anti-graft agencies should trace whose account the money was paid into.
According to him, the contract was negotiated and awarded by Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Besides, there was an over-payment of N200million to the contractor because due process was not followed in the award.
But the government, through the Commissioner for Information, Chinedu Offor, denied Agbaso’s claims, saying he “has a question to answer.”
The state said the deputy governor, who doubled as Commissioner for Works, authorised the letter requesting the governor to approve the payment.
Agbaso said: “The contract that JPros Nigeria Ltd is executing in Imo State was approved by the governor.
“It was really negotiated by Governor Rochas Okorocha. When the approval was sought and given, I wasn’t in the country.
“The principal secretary to the governor conveyed the direct approval of the contract and payments of N1.15billion to the commissioner for finance, who directed the accountant-general to make payments.
“Also, recall that I had stated earlier that the normal process is that when such approvals are made, the money is paid into the coffers of the Ministry of Works where due processes are now applied. Certificates will be raised based on those vouchers.
“Application will then be made for the payments to the contractor, instead of what transpired in February last year when the whole payment and value of the contract were paid out directly to the contractor.
“I am not the commissioner who caused that payment to happen. I am not the accountant-general who made the payment directly to the contractor.
“I only found out that payment had been made to the contractor, four months after the payment had been made.
“Also, recall that ab initio before the payment of N1.15billion was made to JPros Nig. Ltd, that a payment of N200million had been made to the same contractor from the Government House.
“I did not approve the payment of the N200million. The payment of the N200million never came to the Ministry of Works and did not receive my approval.
“My question, my fellow countrymen remains – for a man who has access to the governor, to the commissioner for finance, to the accountant-general who paid him directly – why would he pay me N458million, which represents 46 per cent of the total contract sum?
“When this man was asked why he paid me such amount of money, he said it was because I promised to give him contracts– 15km of road construction in the local governments.
“In Imo State, the local governments’ roads – rural roads – are built at N60million per kilometre.
“But suffice to say that the local government jobs are awarded by either the local government chairman or can be influenced by the commissioner for local government or the governor.
“But in the case of Imo State in particular, it is common knowledge how these contracts were awarded – that I as the deputy governor or as then the Commissioner for Works had no influence, whatsoever, in the awarding of local government jobs.
“I never wrote one contract in the local government and did not influence any.
“How could somebody now give me almost half a billion naira claiming that I would influence the award and payment of a job?
“That person, if he was in Imo State, must clearly understand that I had no such powers, neither do I have such powers now.”
Agbaso admitted he received a Blue Label Whiskey from Dina as a token when the contractor returned from a trip abroad, but that it happened after the contract had been awarded.
“Dina said he was going to come to my house later in the evening (on the day he returned) to give me the whiskey and I said fine, but just go back to the site.
“He came that evening, saw me at home with everybody and gave me the bottle of whiskey and left.
“By the time this happened, he had gotten his contract approval; his money had been paid him by the various authorities.
“How does a bottle of whiskey tie into the N1.15billion that he had been paid then?
“How does a bottle of Blue Label Whiskey tie into an over payment of N200million that I was not party to?
“Who should be answering questions about who received what?
“Fellow Nigerians, is it not important that the people who facilitated this huge payments, this non-adherence to due process, should be answering the questions I’m answering today?” Agbaso said.
The deputy governor insisted that his travails were connected to the 2015 election, and there was a bid to tarnish his name to reduce his chances of winning.
He said the House of Assembly committee which probed him, spread falsehood about him.
His words: “The committee has gone to town to spread these falsehoods that they had judged me, that they had brought me to book, that what is left is for them to jail me.
“They have accused me, sat over my case, passed judgment, based on the hearsay of Joseph Dina, who merely said that he gave me money.
“There was no any iota of truth that I did communicate with him or with him through text messages detailing him to pay amounts of money into these accounts or the companies he mentioned.”
Agbaso reiterated the fact that N458million could not have vanished into thin air.
“If this money was paid by Dina into those accounts, those accounts should be accessed through the banks.
“In establishing those accounts, the owners and the promoters of the companies must have given information to the bank to enable them set up these accounts.
“Photographs of those who set up these accounts are there. Signatories to these accounts would be there. These are pieces of information that various agencies can seek for and access.
“Such options should have been fully exhausted by my accusers and judges.”
Agbaso insisted he was a victim of political intrigues ahead of the 2015 elections.
“The aim of all this is to tarnish the brand of Agbaso and exclude it from the coming election. That is the heart of the matter.
“I will continue to talk to you that I am an innocent man. The appropriate investigation agencies must wade into this matter and my innocence must be proven,” Agbaso said.
But the government said if indeed due process was not followed, then Agbaso was equally culpable being the then Commissioner for Works.
Offor, in a statement, said: “As the Commissioner for Works, what did he do on realising due process was not followed?
“He authorised the letter that requested the governor to approve the payment.
“And so, he has a question to answer as to his duties,” the commissioner said
Source: thenationonlineng
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