More Trouble For Obaseki And Ighodalo As EFCC Receives Petition Against Alleged Monumental Fraud In Edo State Government

More Trouble For Obaseki And Ighodalo As EFCC Receives Petition Against Alleged Monumental Fraud In Edo State GovernmentThe Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has formally acknowledged the receipt of a petition calling for the investigation of Mr. Asue Ighodalo in his capacity as the head of the law firm Banwo and Ighodalo.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

The petition, submitted by two nongovernmental organizations based in Benin City—the Okpamakhin Community Initiative (OCI) and the National Coalition Against Land Grabbing and Deforestation (CALD)—alleges monumental infrastructural and financial fraud involving the outgoing PDP Edo State government led by Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The petitioners argue that the law firm of Banwo and Ighodalo is “at the centre of all the contractual and financial transactions in Edo State, under the guise of rendering advisory legal services in the execution of contracts awarded by the Edo State Government, including the preparation of Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) on behalf of the Edo State Government for the past seven and a half years of the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki.”

The petition focuses on three major contracts awarded by the Edo State Government: the construction of a shopping mall in Benin City (along Sapele Road), the Edo State Radisson Hotel situated at the Golf Course Road, G.R.A, Benin City, Edo State, and the Edo State Modular Refinery, Ologbo.

The petitioners want the EFCC to determine whether due process and financial prudence were followed in the execution of the contract awarded to A&K Construction Company for the construction of the Benin shopping mall for the sum of N5,004,653,544.82 (Five Billion, Four Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Three Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty-Four Naira, Eighty-Two Kobo) on November 3, 2021, out of which the contractor was paid 70% mobilization in December 2021.

In addition, they want the anti-corruption agency to determine whether due process and financial prudence were followed in the payment of the sum of N10,750,000.00 (Ten Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) for legal and advisory services to the law firm of Banwo & Ighodalo. They claim this contract became suspicious when it was reviewed to the sum of N6,149,398,870.44, with an additional N330,987,574.95 (Three Hundred and Thirty Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty-Seven Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy-Four Naira, Ninety-Five Kobo) on May 23, 2023. They question why the contract for the mall “more or less” became an open shop, with the Edo State Government spending such a colossal amount in the process.

The second item the petitioners want the EFCC to investigate is the contract awarded for the construction of the proposed Edo State Radisson Hotel situated at the Golf Course Road, G.R.A, Benin City, Edo State. They claim that on August 30, 2023, Governor Godwin Obaseki announced the award of the contract for the renovation/redesign of the Radisson Hotel in Benin City for the total sum of N19,600,000,000.00 (Nineteen Billion, Six Hundred Million Naira). The governor then awarded the same contract to Pallonji Nigeria Limited with an address at No. 73 Floor Eleganza Biro Plaza, Plot 634, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, for the sum of N15,397,368,002.49 (Fifteen Billion, Three Hundred and Ninety-Seven Million, Three Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand, Two Naira and Forty-Nine Kobo).

They allege that this same contract was suddenly varied above the sum of N23,000,000,000.00 (Twenty-Three Billion Naira Only), even though the hotel is yet to be completed. They question why the Edo State Government would go on to further award the same contract for the same hotel to other companies, thereby undermining the essence of the contract already awarded to Pallonji Nigeria Limited in respect of the same project. The companies that received the subdivided contracts for the same hotel project are Mar & Movintegrated Services.