SAN FRANCISCO, August 05, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has filed a five-count charge of corruption, perjury, and diversion of about N2bn meant for the dualisation of Section IV of the East-West Road against Godsday Orubebe, former Minister of Niger Delta affairs.
THEWILL recalls that Orubebe is already being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false declaration of assets in a trial that commenced in April 2016.
The FG, through the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), filed the new charges against Orubebe alongside Oludare Lawrence Alaba, Ephraim Towelde Zaki and Gitto Construction Limited at a federal capital territory (FCT) high court, Abuja.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you, Elder Godsday Peter Orubebe, sometime in September 2015 or thereabout at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Abuja, within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did make false statement to officers of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICIP), Messrs Eric Anona, Isiona Okolo and Bukar Galadima in the course of their official duty, when you informed them in writing respecting the contract for the dualisation of Eket Urban Road that the decision to rehabilitate instead of dualisation was taken when you had left office as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which information you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 25 (1)(a) and punishable under Section 25 (1) (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.”
Count two reads: “That you, Elder Godsday Peter Orubebe, sometime between 2010 and 2014 or thereabout, while being a Hon. Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, deployed to the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Court, used your position as minister to confer an unfair advantage upon Gitto Costruzioni Generali (Nig.) Ltd by circumventing the approval of the Federal Executive Council respecting the contract for the dualization of the Eket-Oron Road when you took a decision to rehabilitate the road contrary to the award letter reference No. WR14522/Vol. 1/55 dated 28/09/2006 as approved by the Federal Executive Council and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under the section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and other related offences Act, 2000.”
Approval was first given for the award of the construction of Section IV of the 50 kilometre East-West Road from Eket to Oron by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on September 13, 2006, and the contract was awarded on September 28, 2006, for N26 billion, with a 42-month completion date.
However, FEC, in June 2011, approved a variation in the cost of the contract to N37 billion with 26 months extension date granted while an additional N2.3 billion was approved for compensation to residents whose houses would be affected by the dualisation project.
It was gathered that Orubebe, in November 2011, orchestrated a stakeholders meeting where it was decided that the road would not be dualised but merely rehabilitated, contrary to the FEC approval and the contract agreement.
The contractor was told to only rehabilitate the single lane road, for which it had already received over N30 billion to dualise, disobeying the FEC approval and the letters of the contract while no cost variations were done and the contractor was not asked to return any money.
In addition, the N2.3 billion approved for compensation for affected residents and released to the contractor for disbursement was not paid to them as only N75,303,147.70 was paid as compensation to some of the affected residents.
