Facing Justice

True. Five days after, the EFCC arrested George and NPA’s fsormer Managing Director, Aminu Dabo, over alleged mismanagement of NPA funds. The following day, the commission dragged George to a Lagos High Court, Ikeja Division, presided over by Justice Joseph Oyewole, and slammed him with a 163-count charge that bore on conspiracy, disobedience to lawful order, abuse of office and alleged illegal award of N100 billion contracts when he was NPA Chairman. Also arraigned with George and Dabo were Abdullahi Tafida, Captain O. Abidoye and Alhaji Zanna Maideribe.

Bamanga Bello, an investigative officer with EFCC who represented the commission’s former Chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, on the Special Committee on Review And Verification of Contracts Award by the NPA from 2001 and 2003, brought the charges against George to court. Bello revealed that the Board of NPA, under the chairmanship of George, approved various contracts without due process and in clear violations of extant government rules and regulations, orders and laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The prosecutor’s submission had to do with the Federal Government Treasury Circulars Ref No: F.15775, dated 27 June 2001 and Ref No. TRY A & B4/2002 dated 5 July 2002, issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation respectively. They state clearly for public office holders that all contracts above N50 million should be referred to the Federal Executive Council, while those between N20 million and N50 million are to be referred to Ministerial Tenders Board. The rules, however, allowed contracts worth between N1 million and N20 million to be approved by Board of Directors; N1 million contracts by permanent secretaries and contracts worth N700,000 and below are to be approved by chief executives of parastatals.

All these notwithstanding, Bello informed the court that the NPA Board, under the chairmanship of George, illegally conferred approval limits of N60 million on the Board; N30 million on the executive management; N10 million on the managing directors; N2 million on the executive directors, N700,000.00 on general managers and N500,000 on the ports managers. All these, the prosecutor submitted, contravened government rules and regulations on award of contracts and section 203 of the Criminal Code.

Investigations by the EFCC, as Bello told the court, revealed that the NPA, under George, awarded over 24,252 contracts valued at over N100 billion. Moreover, the George-led board approved various contracts which only the Ministerial Tenders Board or the Federal Executive Council, FEC, had power to approve. With that, George and his collaborators ran foul of Section 61 of the Criminal Code. George and his men, as Bello told the court, developed a subterfuge to beat government ceiling on value of contracts that a certain level could award. Various projects which ordinarily should have been referred to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) or the Ministerial Tenders Board for approval, as the prosecutor revealed, were fraudulently split into many units by the NPA Board under George. This, as Bello argued, was with the intention of circumventing extant government rules and regulations “so that the contract amount will fall within the board’s approval limits for the purpose of gain-making by the Board.” He added that this also was an abuse of office and it is contrary to Section 104 of the Criminal Code.

Worse still, the court was informed that George and his co-pirates inflated contracts with impunity, an act which Bello said was tantamount to conspiracy and stealing, contrary to sections 516 and 390 of the Criminal Code and Section 22(3) of the ICPC Act 2000. As if those were not enough, the old sailor, as EFCC found out, left office with about four vehicles belonging to the NPA which prompted the review committee to write to him. Like a servant whose hand was discovered in a cookie jar, George quickly returned the vehicles to the NPA.

Beyond all these, the retired naval officer occupied two properties belonging to the NPA at Ikoyi, Lagos and Maitama, Abuja, even after he had been removed as the Chairman of its board. A man who popularised the dollar-for-dollar and naira-for-naira political war, George also matched this with contract awards in foreign currencies at what Bello called “highly inflated rates for supply of items (umbrella, ball pens, fire services equipments) that were easily obtainable in Nigerian markets”. Most of the contracts awarded by the NPA under the leadership of George were not budgeted for, contrary to Section 22(4) of Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission Act, ICPC, the prosecutor revealed.

Bello revealed further that George presided over the meetings in which the decision to award the contracts were taken. This revelation knocked shoe off the foot of George, who once told the media that he was not an executive chairman but a part-time chairman “who could not even write a letter on behalf of NPA.” It was observed in the investigation that NPA, as Bello argued, was operating under serious pressure from top government functionaries, legislators and party leaders “for spurious contracts based on patronage rather than need.”

EFCC also made another revelation to the court that George and his men made 100 per cent advance payments on contracts at the NPA office in London. This, as the prosecutor submitted, contravened the provisions of the Federal Government circular No: F.15775 of 27 June 2001, which stipulates a maximum 25 percent for all upfront payments. Specifically, the commission discovered that between August 2002 and August 2003, NPA made 100 per cent advance payments to 23 contractors at its London office and “some of these contracts were yet to be executed as at the time of the investigation.”

George and the other accused persons, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but their bail application could not be heard for lack of time because the hearing started at about 2.45 and their plea ended at 7.15 pm. Consequently, they were remanded in EFCC custody till the following day when the court heard their bail application. On 12 August, the court granted them bail in the sum of N5million each. The surety must, as the court insisted, be Lagos residents, property owners, gainfully employed, and “must swear to affidavits of means to be verified by the court registrar”. Seyi Sowemimo (SAN), counsel to George, urged the court to note the fact that the alleged offences were miscellaneous ones that do not attract more than two years imprisonment. Moreover, he maintained that George voluntarily came back from his trip abroad and surrendered himself when EFCC arrested him. Counsel to Dabo and Maidaribe, Dele Adesina (SAN), said his clients came to Lagos soon after EFCC phoned to invite them. He prayed the court to grant his client bail. Abidoye’s counsel, Gbenga Ojo, reasoned too that his client had earlier been released by the EFCC on self-recognition.

Rotimi Sanni, Tafida’s lawyer, also wanted the court to note that his client walked into the court on his own, without waiting to be arrested. “I’d urge the court to be very liberal,” he pleaded. Rotimi Jacobs, EFCC’s lawyer, however, did not oppose the bail applications. Thus, Justice Oyewole ruled: “I agree with first accused counsel that the offences the accused persons are charged with fall within the classification of miscellaneous. Each of the defendants is hereby granted bail.” George’s supporters and PDP members outside the courtroom went wild. They sang and danced in jubilation at the news of George’s bail. The case was adjourned till 28 October 2008. Trouble started for Bode George when TheNEWS, in its 18 April 2005 edition, came out with a cover story, entitled “Anti Corruption War. N85 billion Scam At The Ports. Bode George’s Board Indicted.” The magazine reported how former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who claimed to make anti-corruption war cornerstone of his government, was angry over the report of a committee on NPA contracts, submitted by one time Minister of Transport, Abiye Sekibo.

While the report indicted the board and the NPA management, it failed to zero in on who did what, when and how. Obasanjo, according to TheNEWS story, therefore set up another review panel on 28 October 2003, headed by Engineer Mustapha Bukar from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation. Other members were Mr. Greg Ogbeifun of Starz Investment Company; Mr. A.A. Lawal of Tata Industries Kano; Chief John Amadi Damshakai of the office of the Plateau State Governor, Barrister (Mrs.) Nella Andem Ewa, a Calabar-based lawyer; Mrs. B.F. Oyelowo of the Auditor-General of the Federation’s office, Abuja and Mrs. G.O. Ezezika of the Ministry of Transport, Abuja. Obasanjo mandated the committee to review all contracts awarded at NPA between 2001 and 2003 and determine “exactly how much was expended, with dates, exactly how much was paid out on each contract, the outstanding amounts and works not executed but for which monies were paid”. Bukar and his men were also asked to find out whether the board followed correct procedures in the award of the projects.

When the committee submitted its report, it unearthed a sepulchre full of bones, worms and other rotten organic matter. Bukar revealed that George’s board awarded 29,586 contracts, valued at N85 billion. Worse still, if the contracts were not split, the committee revealed that they could not be more than 300, all of which were, with abandon, massively inflated by George and his men. As revealed in court by EFCC, Bukar found out that the NPA board split contracts so that each could fall within the limit or value that is permitted for an officer or echelon. TheNEWS reported that the Bukar committee found out that contracts were awarded to companies which, on the surface, belonged to many people but actually belonged to one or few. “About 80 per cent of the nearly 30,000 contracts awarded within the three-year period actually remained within only about 135 companies owned by a handful of people.” An example of a split contract, according to the panel was the one awarded to Hesta Industrial and Marin Engineering on 30 January 2001 for 171,596 and 169,290 Deutschmarks.

The magazine, using the Bukar submission, reported that over 190 contracts were awarded for the supply of 66 items. George and his men purchased N90 million Muntz ingots and N95 million aluminum electrodes, items which NPA did not actually need. In the purchases, George was said to have disregarded official price lists, a practice which led to over-invoicing. “In one case,” as this magazine reported, “a battery that ordinarily sold for N4,000 was awarded to a contractor for N16,000 each. In another, the supply of five drums of lubricant was awarded to Clipper Marine Limited on 26 June 2003 at a whopping cost of 60,752 Euros.” On 29 April 2003, the board awarded a contract for the supply of 628 pairs of safety boots to Messrs Map Telecommunications for $69,708.

In all these, the board exhibited crass disregard for budgetary provisions and budget implementation. There were also cases where maintenance contracts were awarded for non-serviceable plants. An example was a plant being serviced by Flohr & Co and New Ventures. TheNEWS revealed further that many capital projects had been commenced and funded by contractors on lopsided terms “with amortised payments from NPA’s pilotage dues and royalties. No due diligence was said to have been really done before the Authority was plunged into such huge commitments”.

When the report was published by this magazine, George launched a massive fightback, employing propaganda and threatening to go to court. At a news conference he held at NPA Guest House, Ikoyi on 9 May 2005, George accused former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State of sponsoring “the malicious publication”. The board, according to George, was never in a position to authorise expenditure independent of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Executive Council. He added that the board only met quarterly. It had no powers to award huge contracts independently. He argued: “I was a part-time chairman, without executive powers and so, how could I, or my board, have incurred so much billions of naira, except in the wildest imaginations and machination of these detractors and political turncoats?”

Dele Alake, former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, replied that George was a drowning man, driven by panic and fear. The challenge before him, Alake said, was to clear his name over serious allegations of gross irregularities during his tenure as NPA Chairman. “Since he is obviously unable to come up with a credible defence, the Commodore has no alternative but to rehash the same old tissue of lies and character assassination against [Tinubu].” In desperation, George slammed TheNEWS with a N500 million libel suit at an Ikeja High Court. Femi Falana, counsel to TheNEWS, dared the retired Commodore to prove that he has a reputation to protect. In December 2007 when the case came up, Bello, who was cross-examined by Adebambo Adesanya, George’s lawyer, confirmed TheNEWS, report that the NPA board “approved various contracts without due process and in clear violation of government rules.” But George’s propaganda, threat of litigation and braggadocio did not sway Obasanjo, who set up another panel, headed by Ribadu. Other members of the review committee were U.J. Shuwa of the Federal Ministry of Transport; M.A. Bello from the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government; J.O. Omotosho, representing the Ministry of Finance; Buba Gamawa, who works with the Head of the Federal Civil Service and Y.A. Olaleye of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit. Mrs. G.O. Ezekika of the Federal Ministry of Transport was the committee’s secretary.

The Ribadu committee was asked to conduct “an in-depth investigation on all contracts awarded by the NPA from 2001 to 2003, and examine all outstanding bills from its creditors; ascertain whether or not such contracts were awarded in accordance with extant government rules and regulations governing the award of contracts; and identify the culprits and apportion blame as applicable”. The committee visited some of the locations for physical verification, stores to confirm the delivery and physical existence of the items supplied, or evidence of their utilisation.The committee was able to establish appropriate prices for the contracts, including those awarded by “the Board, the Management Committee, Managing Directors and Executive Directors”.

To ascertain how NPA was fleeced in the area of supply contracts, the committee conducted market surveys on the prices of goods and equipment supplied to the NPA during the period. This was in addition to the same exercise conducted earlier for the Bukar committee by J.K. Randle and Co, an accounting firm, a report of which the magazine possesses. It showed goods worth only N200,000 per unit were awarded to contractors for N7 million. Another shock was that a baton was given three different names and awarded severally at high rates.

The rot to be cleared was so much for Ribadu and his men that they begged for an extension of their assignment from six to 11 months. The Ribadu report actually vindicated this magazine In the Introduction to the report, Ribadu stated: “The NPA is regarded as one of the parastatals where irregularities and malpractices have become deeply entrenched.” The Authority, the introduction noted, “is plagued with massive corruption and inefficiency, especially in the award of contracts.” When he finally submitted his findings to Obasanjo on Tuesday 21 February 2006, Ribadu, lamented: “The board and management of NPA, during the period under review, are responsible for the flagrant violation of the extant government rules and regulations on award of contracts.” The submission confirmed the board and management’s “financial recklessness, disregard for Due Process guidelines, gross and massive inflation of contract prices and excessive contract splitting”.

Although George claimed that his position was just ceremonial and did not place him in any situation to award contracts, Ribadu revealed that the NPA board under Bode George and its management “conferred upon themselves various approval limits, in clear violation of the … government rules and regulations guiding the award of contracts”. Others are the Executive Management, Management Director, Executive Directors, General Managers and Port Managers, each with its approval limit. The board alone, as the Ribadu committee maintained, awarded contracts with a total value of N9.3billion, $213.6million, £9.6 million, 204,395 Euros and 56,220.00 Deutschmarks. Gwandu, as Managing Director of the NPA between January 2001 and October 2001, awarded contracts worth N3.095 billion, $2.4 million, £701,702 and 382,226 Deutschmarks. Engr. Akagwu, acting Managing Director of the NPA between November 2001 and April 2002, awarded contracts totaling N1.6 billion, $1.9million, £349,532, 110,556 Euros and 545,607 Deutchmarks. Architect Aminu Dabo, Managing Director of the Authority between May 2002 and October 2003, awarded contracts worth N17 billion, $13.77 million, £4.84million and 569,411 Euros.

Ribadu revealed that prices were so arbitrarily fixed “as if such critical exercise is not governed by any principle whatsoever, but solely the discretion of the approving officers.” In confirmation of the contract-splitting tactic of the NPA board, which this magazine reported, the Ribadu Committee confirmed a particular case where contracts for 11 air taser cartridges were bought by its Security Department, on 10 March 2003, for about N9.8 million each and the cost totalled about N107.8 million. “If proper procedure had been adopted,” the special committee pointed out, “the contract should have gone to the Federal Executive Council.” Another contract of N900 million was, as the committee found out, split into 100 units and awarded to two contractors at 50 contracts each. On 9 August 2003, 12 contracts were, in similar vein, irregularly awarded to 12 different companies for the supply of Mitsubishi Double Cabin Patrol Vans, each at a cost of N8.9 million, the committee revealed.

The contracts awarded by NPA in foreign currencies, which the EFCC stated in court this month, were “deliberately employed in order to siphon the foreign earnings of the Authority as there is no justification whatsoever to award such contracts in foreign currencies as the items are available locally.” Contracts of significant values were, as the committee revealed, entered into without contract agreements, thus ignoring the need to safeguard the integrity of contracts of substantial values. The committee revealed further that contracts were awarded “not on the basis of need but just to create an avenue to siphon money from the system” with a peculiar language “please raise something within the MD’s limit”. The special committee, therefore, recommended that “all contract approving authorities in NPA, including the Board and Management of the NPA, Managing Directors, Executive Directors, General Managers and Ports Managers, other categories of approving authorities, as well as the appraising officers who served during the period under review should be held responsible for deliberate and flagrant violations of extant government rules and regulations governing the award of contracts.” The special committee also declared that “the Board and Management of the NPA and the entire contract approving authorities of the Authority, as well as appraisal officers, during the period under review should be appropriately sanctioned for contract splitting and inflation of contract price in utter disregard of laid down government rules and regulations.”

An Aso Rock source told TheNEWS that Obasanjo collected the 74-page report from Ribadu and handed it over to Ufot Ekaette, then secretary to the Government of the Federation. Unfortunately, nothing happened to Bode George when Obasanjo was in power. The reason, according to observers, was that apart from supervising how the elections in the South-West would be rigged for the PDP, George was an arrowhead in Obasanjo’s sit-tight agenda. George, who had lobbied Iyabo Obasanjo to help influence her father with regard to his (George’s) governorship ambition in Lagos State ran into a brickwall when the former president told him straight: “What do you want to do with the overnorship? Come on, go and carry out the assignment I gave you.”  The assignment bought him protection under Obasanjo.

Nigerians must be wondering why Bode George came back into the country, walking with a swagger. Sources told TheNEWS that George contacted a highly placed federal government official on 7 August 2008. “The official assured George that he should just cooperate, there’s no problem,” the source told this medium. While the admirers of the top official insisted that he was bent on trapping George because of the anti-corruption policy of the Umar Yar’Adua government, critics want Nigerians to perish that thought. This is because, according to the latter, there is more than meets the eyes in EFCC not opposing bail application for George and his other accused persons. They believed that the EFCC authorities are not sincere with the trial, but the court case was choreographed to satisfy the public after which the case will fizzle into oblivion.

From all indications, the court pantomime itself happened because, as critics reasoned, EFCC had been boxed into a corner. This is because from the beginning, the investigations failed to really clasp Bode George in his fat wrist. When Sekibo presented his report, he could not pin down individuals. Apart from political pressures, sensitive documents disappeared, according to an Aso Rock source. “Even Mustapha Bukar who headed the second panel, could not actually indict individuals directly,” another source volunteered. That was why George dragged TheNEWS to court. However, it was that libel case that actually made EFCC to work harder by introducing forensic investigation. Femi Falana, the magazine’s counsel, subpoenaed NPA, Federal Ministry of Transport (the two did not show up) and EFCC. Ribadu, who was out of the country at the time, instructed Mustapha Bello to represent the commission in court. Bello revealed that what TheNEWS wrote on 18 April, 2005, was just the tip of an iceberg. He added that the case file, given the fresh findings, had been sent to the Legal Department of EFCC for prosecution. At that point, George became edgy, while his boys went haywire. On 30 January, this year, Bayo Onanuga, TheNEWS Editor-in-Chief, was attacked by George’s thugs in the Lagos High Court premises.

That day, about 15 thugs surrounded Onanuga and called him a “thief”. He said his car was pelted with sachets of water, sticks and stones. “I got out of the car to ask them why they were doing that, but they immediately rushed at me. One of them got to me and before I knew what was happening, he had slapped me. It was at that moment that securitymen at the gates shouted at me to quickly reverse the car and get into the court premises. I hurriedly got into the car and made a sharp reverse out of the court,” he said. When that harassment failed to intimidate TheNEWS, another source revealed that George approached Ibrahim Lamorde, former EFCC director of operations, asking for clearance from the commission. The retired commodore told the EFCC officials that some foreigners wanted to invest in his company and he needed “a clean bill of health.” But Lamorde, according to the source, demanded that George should bring a letter from the potential foreign investors. When that one failed, he resorted to the assurance given by the top government official.

This is not the first time George has been linked with corruption. As military governor of old Ondo State in the eighties, George, when asked about what he would like to be remebered by, replied that “a Lagos boy passed through here”. In its 11 February 1990 edition the defunct African Concord came out with a cover story, entitled: “Bode George, Governor of Ondo State (1988 – 1990) – Scandals of An Era,” the magazine detailed how George awarded contracts fraudulently in order to milk the state. In October 1988, the magazine reported, the government, headed by George, had an agreement with a company, Trobell International Nigeria Limited, for the purchase of three speedboats for N2 million each. They were to provide transportation at the littoral Igbokoda-Aiyetoro area of the state. The agreement was that the boats were to be of fibre glass tops, steel bodies, double engines of 44 horse power. More important, they were to carry 60 passengers each. But when the boats arrived, their bodyworks were made of plywood. Although the boats were expected to be imported from Taiwan, they were “on arrival”, not accompanied with any document or bill of lading. It was later revealed that the boats were improvisations of flat barges, used by oil companies to transport equipment and were made to look like “boats” when local boat builders added the wooden bodies.

African Concord wrote: “Trobell International Nigeria Limited commenced business in 1987 and Ondo State Government was the first customer it would deliver boats to. Also, no letter was issued in respect of the contract and the deal was not referred to the justice ministry for veting before it was signed… “Also the sum of N6 million was paid before the boats were supplied although the contract reads that money will be paid on execution of contract.” Moreover, George was said to have re-awarded contracts that had earlier been executed or abandoned. He also hurriedly commissioned partly completed and uncompleted projects. Examples were the new office blocks of the Ministry of Land Housing; 130-kilometre road in Akoko South and North and others in Oke Ira, Iroko rural electrification projects etc.

However, when he dragged the African Concord to an Ikeja High Court, that case was struck out by Justice Martins. When the case began, Femi Falana, African Concord counsel, pleaded justification. Chief FRA Williams who represented Bode George asked the magazine to give evidence. But Falana pointed out to Williams that under Nigerian law, one could not give evidence without the plaintiff (Bode George). Since he was shielded from giving evidence by Chief Williams, Falana insisted that African Concord was resting its evidence on Bode George’s submission. In the end, the judge struck out the case. Born on 21 December, 1945, in Epetedo area of Lagos, Bode George attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos; Ijebu-Ode Grammar School and the University of Lagos from where he obtained a degree in Engineering in 1970. In 1972, he joined the Nigerian Navy as a sub-lieutenant.

He was, at various times, engineer at Naval Headquarters, Weapons Engineering officer, NNS Aradu, and Fleet Weapons Engineering Officer, Western Naval Command. From 1984 to 1986, Bode George was Captain, Naval Dockyard Apprentice School. He was appointed Director of Weapons, Nigerian Navy Headquarters, Lagos, a position he held when he was appointed governor.