Witnesses dwell on ex-minister Sirika’s daughter, son-in-law in joint contract fraud trial

Two prosecution witnesses, on Thursday, dwelt on the employments of daughter and son-in-law of former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, at the family members’ joint corruption trial at he FCT High Court in Abuja.

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The former minister’s daughter, Fatima Sirika, and her husband, Jalal Hamma, are employees of highly sought-after oil sector organisations – the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), respectively.

The couple got the coveted jobs while Mr Sirika was serving as the aviation minister under then-President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that the couple unduly got aviation ministry contracts worth more than billion naira, while Mr Sirika superintended over the ministry.

EFCC is prosecuting Mr Sirika, alongside Fatima, Mr Hamma, and the couple’s firm, Al Buraq Global Investment, on six counts of contract fraud involving N2.8 billion.

The commission charged Mr Sirika, who served as the aviation minister between 2015 and May 2023, with abuse office for allegedly awarding contracts to a company in which his daughter and her husband had interests.

The charges also accuse Mr Sirika of using his power to confer an unfair advantage on Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, a company linked to his daughter and her husband. This allegedly involved a N1.5 billion contract for the Katsina Airport Apron Extension.

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Also, the anti-graft agency alleged that Fatima and her husband held indirect private interests in the contract with N1.3 billion—allegedly traced to Mr Sirika as proceeds of criminal conduct in the form of gratification. The EFCC said the act violates Section 12 of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act.

All defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Couple’s employment

During Thursday’s proceedings, EFCC’s lawyer, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, tendered through the 10th and 11th prosecution witnesses documents relating to the employments of Fatima and her husband.

While Gabriel Adagba, the 10th prosecution witness, is a former head of Human Resources at the NUPRC, Abidoye Babatunde, who is the 11th prosecution witness, is the Deputy Manager of Policy Compliance and Accountability at NNPC Limited.

The witnesses, who testified from the witness box in turns on Thursday, confirmed they were not privy to the defendants’ private holdings.

Mr Adagba told the court that Mr Hamma was employed as a regulatory officer 1 on 3 February 2023 with NUPRC. He noted that a background check was conducted on his previous employment history.

Under cross-examination by the first and fourth defendant’s lawyer, M.J Numa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Adagba disclosed that he was not privy to the procedure of Mr Hamma’s recruitment or aware if he filled in a Code of Conduct Bureau Form because he was not the head of HR before Mr Hamma’s employment.

The witness also told the court he did not know about the NUPRC awarding contract to Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, the fourth defendant.

The 11th prosecution witness, Mr Babatunde, the NNPC official, later took his turn in the witness box to testify about Fatima Sirika’s employment.

He tendered documents admitted by the court as exhibits, including Fatima’s provisional offer of employment and confirmation of employment, the judge marked it Exhibit 27.

Fielding questions from the defence, Mr Babatunde stated that he did not know about any contract awarded to the fourth defendant.

He also confirmed that Fatima executed her responsibilities appropriately and was not found to have engaged in any improper conduct.

When asked if she breached any Nigerian law, the witness replied, “I don’t know, but for NNPC Limited rules she did not do anything.”

Thereafter, Mr Numa asked the witness to clarify when NNPC Limited transitioned to a private limited company, and when Fatima was confirmed a staff member of the organisation. The witness stated that she was employed in 2020 but confirmed in May 2021. He said the state oil corporation transitioned into NNPC Limited in January 2021.

According to an explanatory manual for the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, a public officer or civil servant is not permitted to bid for or be awarded any contract.

The line of questioning and corresponding answers of the witnesses, focussing on the contract awards and nature of the employments of Fatima and her husband, may be pivotal to the the judge’s eventual decision on the defendants’ culpability or otherwise regarding contract-related offences alleged in the case.

Background

Eleven witnesses have testified so far in the case.

One of the witnesses, a retired director in the Procurement Department of the Ministry of Aviation, Musa Odiniyan, told the court that Mr Sirika awarded a contract for the repairs of Katsina Airport to unqualified companies.

Mr Odiniyan told the court that the company, Al Buraq Global Investment, would not have qualified for the contract if a transparent and competitive bidding process had been conducted.

The EFCC is also prosecuting Mr Sirika alongside his brother and two companies on charges of abuse of office and contract fraud to the sum of N19.4 billion.