Monday 28 January 2013

Failed Prosecution of Ndudi Elumelu: How President Goodluck Jonathan Sabotages Corruption Cases


President Goodluck Jonathan and Ndudi Elumelu in Delta state during one of his visits
By SaharaReporters, New York
An investigation by SaharaReporters has uncovered a carefully orchestrated scheme by President Goodluck Jonathan and other top members of his administration to sabotage or bungle corruption cases against numerous political figures in the country. Ndudi Elumelu, a former member of the House of Representatives, is the latest beneficiary of the president’s plan to undermine the prosecution of corruption cases.
In recent weeks, several corruption cases filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have faltered. Our investigation, in which sources within the EFCC and the Presidency spoke to us, reveal that more corruption cases have been programmed to collapse in the days, weeks and months to come – in keeping with a strategic plot that has received the blessing of Mr. Jonathan. “There’s a clear design to discharge several politicians, allies and cronies [of President Jonathan] from corruption cases,” one of our sources said.
The plot involves an intricate and complex web of maneuvers secretively designed by Nigeria's Attorney General and Justice Minister Mohammed Bello Adoke. Also enlisted in the scheme are some rogue judges and some corrupt, high priced lawyers hired by the EFCC to prosecute its cases. As part of the elaborate plan, some of the lawyers, Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), were hired to “prosecute” their former clients in glaring instances of conflict of interest.
The first beneficiary of the current scheme to gut and undermine corruption cases is former House Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, who was freed from prosecution over a case in which he used his offices to siphon billions of naira for his personal benefit. In February, 2012, an Abuja High Court judge, Justice Suleiman Belgore, dismissed the charges brought against the former speaker and his deputy, Usman Nafada. The judge claimed that the EFCC had failed to establish any fraud case against the accused.
A few days later, Justice Sadiq Umar, also an Abuja High Court judge, dismissed a lawsuit filed against officials accused of receiving bribes in the famous Halliburton case. US courts had convicted top officials of Halliburton, an American-based energy company once headed by former US Vice President Dick Cheney, for bribing numerous Nigerian officials with close to $200 million in order to obtain billion dollar contracts in Nigeria. Justice Umar struck out the Halliburton bribery case, accusing EFCC prosecutors of failure to diligently prosecute the case.
The latest case to be compromised by the Jonathan administration involves the N5.2 billion rural electrification contract fraud. Yesterday, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja struck out the fraud charges against Mr. Elumelu, a former chairperson of the House of Reps’ committee on power. Filed by the EFCC, the lawsuit had accused the lawmaker and his co-accused of stealing some N5.2 billion budgeted for rural electrification. In dismissing the case yesterday, Justice Garba Umar claimed that Mr. Elumelu knew nothing about the daylight robbery and then ruled, “He has no case to answer.”
“The judge’s ruling could be mistaken as an informed pronouncement based on the evidence in the case, but that’s far from being the case. The whole thing was arranged, and President Jonathan, his chief of staff, Mike Ogiadhome and [Attorney General] Adoke Bello were in the thick of this blatant miscarriage of justice,” said a highly connected source.
SaharaReporters has exclusively obtained a letter written by Ndudi Elumelu and addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan. Dated October 11, 2011 the document provides a glimpse into the high level conspiracy that has gone into the collapse of the corruption cases under President Jonathan’s watch.
In the letter, Mr. Elumelu painted a picture of harassment by the late President Umaru Yar'adua. Mr. Elumelu claimed that the former ruler had been misadvised by some people to target him with a lawsuit. In the letter, the former chairman of the House committee on power even went as far as citing the case of Dominique Strauss, the French-born former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to buttress the point about the futility of his trial. Mr. Strauss Kahn was accused of raping a woman from Guinea employed as a cleaner in a hotel where the former IMF head resided. US prosecutors ultimately decided not to prosecute the French bureaucrat and politician, citing inconsistencies in the victim’s account.
In his letter to Mr. Jonathan, Elumelu asked the president to intervene directly to stop his prosecution. “That’s a red flag,” said an Abuja-based lawyer, adding, “the doctrine of separation of powers means that the executive ought not to intrude on or meddle in judicial cases.”
Mr. Elumelu’s four-page letter claimed that the EFCC was spending too much money to prosecute the case against him. Asserting that the anti-corruption agency had expended N100 million to prosecute him, the former lawmaker wondered why the money was not spent to provide rural dwellers with electricity.
In 2009, the EFCC had slammed Godwin Ndudi Elumelu, then House of Representatives chairman of the committee on power, his deputy, Jibo Mohammed, Senator Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane, and seven senior management officials of the Rural Electrification Agency with a 156-count charge before a Federal Capital Territory High Court.
The EFCC accused the suspects of stealing over N5.2 billion. The indictment portrayed Mr. Elumelu as the arrowhead of the illicit contract bonanza through which the funds were stolen. An EFCC source familiar with the investigation told Saharareporters that Mr. Elumelu alone could have pocketed up to N3 billion from the rural electrification scam. The stolen funds were reportedly routed through different dubious accounts at the United Bank of Africa (UBA), owned at the time of the scam by Tony Elumelu, the legislator’s brother. EFCC operatives charged that Mr. Elumelu was assisted by two women who then fled Nigeria. The women, described as secretaries to Mr. Ndudi Elumelu, are Angela Oselukwe and Uduak Akpan Israel. Ms. Oselukwe is from Elumelu's hometown, Oselukwu in Anioma Local Government Area in Delta State.
Former House Speaker Dimeji Bankole, his father as well as a brother of his, were also involved in the scam. Two EFCC sources disclosed that the former speaker and his relatives were paid over N900 million from the diverted rural electrification funds, but they were never charged by the EFCC.
The programmed collapse of Nigeria’s anti-corruption cases have become troubling for Nigerians as well as foreign countries that had believed Jonathan’s pledge that he would strengthen the fight against corruption. “This government’s record in the fight against corruption has turned out to be the worst in Nigeria's recent history,” said a civil society activist based in Abuja.
A diplomatic source from the EU told SaharaReporters: “I do not believe we have seen any evidence that the government is backing up its pledge to commit more resources to address corruption.”
Mr. Elumelu’s letter to President Jonathan is reproduced below:
Excellency,
Dr Goodluck Jonathan,
The  President & Commander in Chief,
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
State House, Abuja.
  Dated: October 11,2011

Dear Sir,
RE: UNNECESSARY PROSECUTIONS OF HON NDIDI ELUMELU & 8 OTHERS
AND WASTE OF OVER N100m PUBLIC FUNDS BY EFCC.

First and foremost, we want to appreciate your Excellency’s efforts in steering the ship of this country in the right direction. Our prayer is that the good Lord will continue to assist your Excellency in solving the myriads of problems confronting our great country.

Your Excellency, our attention has been drawn to the continued prosecution of Hon Ndudi Elumelu and 8 others in Gudu High Court, Abuja (CHARGE NO: CR/39/2009) and Federal High Court, Abuja CHARGE NO: FHC/ABJ/CR/87/2009).

Sir, we are not oblivious of the disposition of your Excellency to preserve and uphold the rule of law and allow same to prevail at all times. However, we strongly believe that when a wrong step is taken by one’s predecessor in Office who was wrongly misled by self serving advisers, it is proper for His Excellency, being a sitting President to give necessary directives to right the wrong.

Your Excellency, in November 2008, the late President Yar Adua gave his assent to the Amended Year 2008 Budget. There were rural electrification projects in the said Amended Budget which were to be executed by Rural Electrification Agency (REA). The projects have two components namely solar projects and Grid extension projects to be executed all over the Federation.

Sir, REA received Ministerial directives to execute the projects and the projects were awarded to deserving contractors in December 2008. The solar projects were to be completed within sixty (60) days which means by February 2009, the solar projects would have been completed while the Grid extension projects were to be completed within ninety (90) days which means that by March 2009, the grid extension projects would have been completed.

Sir, REA paid the initial 15% mobilization fees to the contractors and the payments were secured by Advance Payment Guarantee Certificates (APGS). Furthermore, since the projects have short completion period, the 85% contract balance were released to the Bankers of the contractors and same were secured with Advance Payment Guarantee Certificates (APGS). A copy of the 15% APG and 85% APG for one of the contractors is attached and marked Exhibits A and B for ease of reference.

Your Excellency, REA also wrote a letter to the Bankers prohibiting the Banks from releasing any part of the 85% contract balance until the projects are completed and the Banks received written instructions from REA to pay the said money. A copy of the said letter is attached and marked Exhibit C.

Your Excellency, in the history of rural electrification in this country, the success recorded by REA in executing the projects have not been surpassed by any MDA. The contractors were happy and concentrated on the projects with vigour having received assurances of payments after completion.

Regrettably sir, the late President Yar Adua was misinformed that officers of REA colluded with Honourable Ndudi Elumelu and other Members of the National Assembly to siphon the said 85% contract balance. The late President was not given any proper briefing before he sanctioned the prosecution of the accused persons by EFCC in May 2009.

Your Excellency, it is a matter of great concern that as at May 2009 when the accused persons were arraigned in court, out of forty (40) solar projects, eighteen (18) projects had been completed while sixty (60) projects had been completed out of one hundred and thirteen (113) grid extension projects awarded by REA.

Your Excellency, three months after the accused persons were arraigned in court, the EFCC Chairman, Madam Waziri confirmed in her letter dated August 18, 2009 and stated inter alia some of the projects were inspected by operatives of this commission and they observed that in certain cases the projects have been completed while some are ongoing. A copy of the said letter is attached as Exhibit D.

Your Excellency, in April 2011, the Federal Ministry of Power wrote two letters concerning the projects. The first letter was to each contractor in form of Job Completion Certificate while the second letter was an instruction to the Banks to pay the 85% contract balance in its custody to the contractors. Copies of the two letters are hereby attached and marked Exhibits E and F respectively.

Your Excellency, please permit us to ask this question. If Hon Ndidi Elumelu and other accused persons siphoned the 85% contract balance as alleged by EFCC, where did the Federal Ministry of Power get the money to be paid to the contractors?

Your Excellency, the EFCC letter dated August 18, 2009 (Exhibit D) and the two letters from Federal Ministry of Power dated April 18, 2011 (Exhibits E and F) are enough to show that there are no justifiable legal or moral reasons to allow this prosecution to continue when no money was actually lost or stolen or missing, the projects already completed and benefitting communities enjoying the power projects. In fact, in other countries, the Prosecution would take the shame and summon courage to inform the Honourable court that in view of the contents of the said EFCC letter (Exhibit D) and the two letters from the Federal Ministry of Power (Exhibits E and F), the Prosecution is no longer interested in continuing with the case. This event occurred recently in the United States when the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York Prosecutors applied to drop the charges against the former IMF Managing Director Mr. Strauss Khan (DSK) upon discovering contradictions in the evidence of the alleged rape victim.

Your Excellency, it is our humble appeal that the continued prosecution of this case is eaten deep into the meager resources of this country. We learnt on good authority that the private prosecutor engaged by EFCC is being paid the sum of N100m (one hundred million naira) apart from other expenses. This huge sum of money can provide solar projects in some communities living in darkness or meet the health needs of numerous communities and villages.

 Sir, the question bothering our mind is very simple. Why do we need to waste hard earned tax payers money to prosecute a case which is very obvious that EFCC cannot secure a conviction in view of their (EFCC) own letter (Exhibit D) and the two letters from Federal Ministry of Power (Exhibits E and F)? There are other questions but we must save the valuable time of your Excellency.

In view of the foregoing, we hereby urge your Excellency to note:
(a)   That the two cases pending against Hon Ndudi Elumelu and 8 others in Gudu High Court (Abuja) and Federal High Court (Abuja) concerning the rural electrification projects awarded by Rural Electrification Agency (REA) as provided under the Amended Year 2008 Budget of which said projects had been executed by contractors and benefitting communities already enjoying the projects [are] without merit and constitute a waste of public funds.

And humbly pray as follows:
(a)   That the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice be directed to withdraw the charges against all the accused persons in the said two cases at Gudu High Court, Abuja (CHARGE NO: CR/39/2009 & CR/39A/2011) and Federal High Court, Abuja CHARGE NO: FHC/ABJ/CR/87/2009) on ground of Public interest pursuant to Section 174 (1) (c) of the 1999 Constitution

We are grateful for your Excellency’s prompt intervention in this matter.
Yours faithfully,

Hon.Ndudi Elumelu
On Behalf Of Others


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