The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has arraigned Chika Abazu, an aide to Onyeka Onwenu, the Director General of the National Centre for Women Development for demanding and collecting kickbacks from a contractor.
Abazu, a Personal Assistant to Onwenu, was alleged to have demanded and collected kickbacks from a contractor employed to carry out renovation works at the NCWD.
He claimed in his statement that he acted on the instruction of Onwenu.
The arraignment followed investigations on accusation levelled by one Joseph Nwakama, an architect with Solidmark Associates Limited, the company employed to carry out the renovation of the Centre’s guest house.
Although it was established by investigators from the ICPC that Abazu allegedly demanded and received N17 million bribe from the contractor, no direct evidence has so far linked Onwenu to the offence.
Abazu, who was on July 10, 2015 arraigned before Justice Chukwu Ndukwe of the Federal Capital Territory High Court on a six count charge of bribery and gratification, pleaded not guilty to the charges, but was denied bail and ordered remanded in the Federal Prisons, Kuje, until the case is dispensed with.
The presiding judge, Justice Ndukwe, adjourned the case till September 28 for trial to commence.
Although investigators could not directly link Onwenu to bribe taking, the petitioner’s statement revealed so many wrongdoings by the Centre’s management, including funding the Solidmark contract with money taken from a Women Empowerment Programme in Zamfara State and spending more than was budgeted for the project.
That was apart from paying the contractor even before he was officially awarded the contract.
It was also gathered that Nwakama, the petitioner, told investigators from the ICPC that he was called by Abazu, a Deputy Director at the NCWD and Personal Assistant to Onwenu, early in April 2014 and asked to submit a bid for the renovation of rooms at the Centre’s guest house.
Two days after submitting the bid, he was awarded the contract and asked to immediately move to site despite the non-issuance of an award letter.
“After two days he called me and told me that the Centre would like me to do the job because my bill was the lowest, and that I should come and see the DG,” Nwakama said in his statement.
“When I came, the DG asked me to start work, that I should work day and night (and) that they would give me award letter, agreement and advance latter,” the contractor stated.
The contract, according to the letter, was awarded on April 28, 2014 at the sum of N33 million for 25 rooms.
According to bank records, by April 28 when the contract was supposedly awarded, a total of N28,619, 047.62 had been paid into Solidmark’s Zenith Bank account (April 11, N22, 619, 047.62; April 14, N4 million; and April 24, N2 million).
The first payment was said to have been made through a transfer by the Centre, while the other two were through a First City Monument Bank account belonging to a company, Transtell Ventures Nigeria Limited.
It was discovered that the Managing Director and sole signatory to Transtell account is Abazu, Onwenu’s Personal Assistant and Deputy Director at the Centre.
Nwakama claimed that immediately the first payment was made, he was called by Abazu to his office, where he was told that Onwenu needed N23 million as gratification from the total money he would be paid to renovate 55 rooms, though the contract letter stated 25 rooms.
Nwakama said: “He told me that the DG wanted me to give them N23million out of the money for the 55 rooms. I told him that it was too much (but) he told me that if I was not going to give them, the DG would ask me to pay back the money (N22, 619, 047.62) and the other contractor would do the job.”
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