George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Former Principal Secretary to ex-Governor Rochas Okorocha and member representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency, Dr. Paschal Obi, has told the Judicial Commission of Inquiry on Contracts sitting in Owerri that a contractor who was awarded a $100 million (about N39.6 billion) ‘Sundry capital project’ at Area K World Bank bolted away with the money after being paid without executing the project.
The Commission of Inquiry is investigating contracts awarded between 2007-2019 under ex-governor, Okorocha.
The former Principal Secretary to Okorocha was alleged to have signed contract award letters without the contractor signing the agreement.
Obi, however, told the jury that most contracts awarded by Okorocha’s administration were done without agreements signed by the contractors. He disclosed that women of Owerri community had stopped the project from being executed adding that the contractor had taken government to court over the project. The commission discovered that most of the major contracts awarded under Okorocha administration did not have contract agreements executed by the state government and the contractors, even when contract sums were fully paid.
The commission also discovered that some of the contracts did not have case files despite their value running into billions of naira and the contractors fully paid.
However, answering questions from the witness box, Dr. Obi, who personally signed the contracts as Chairman of the Government House Task Force Projects Committee, expressed surprise that the contractors did not sign contract agreements but still received payments from his office.
He disclosed that the Task Force committee headed by him was used to replace the State Tenders Board.
He said as the man in charge of the award of contracts, he signed his own column of the contact agreements and sent same to the office of the secretary of the task force to ensure every contractor signed theirs before being paid mobilisation fees.
Responding to a question on why N650 million was paid for the construction of the new ministries of Transport and Lands offices without the contract being awarded and that building could not be found anywhere in the state, Obi said he was not in a position to know the projects executed, because he was not in charge of project inspection.
He disclosed that ex-governor Okorocha was in charge of project inspection and should be held responsible for any substandard projects or the ones paid for, but not executed.
On why some of the contracts, like the internal roads in Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area and a project designated as Sunrise Park were not listed in any files as contracts awarded despite billions of naira paid for them, Obi also expressed the surprise about the projects saying he was not aware of their locations.
The commission also discovered that in January 2013, a contract was awarded for the construction of Egbeada-Afor Umuaka Road at the cost of N2.4 billion at the recommendation of the committee led by the then Secretary to the Government of Imo State, but was curiously cancelled and re-awarded to another contractor at the cost of N3.6 billion two weeks later by Dr. Obi.
He, however, stated that there was a new bill of quantity from another contractor that jerked up the price.
He was also asked to clarify why the contract for the new state High Court Complex was awarded in three different titles — Justice Oputa High Court Complex; Imo State Judiciary Headquarters and Imo State Judiciary Complex– with monies paid for each of them in billions.