Benue to recover money over Okupe’s contract, others

Lawyer admits deal, says no crime by Okupe

ACN, PDP continue war of words

CORRUPTION, real and alleged, remains the most topical issue in Nigeria.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) brought this to the fore again yesterday as they traded verbal darts over the former’s call for the resignation of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, over alleged corruption.

The altercation between the parties may have indeed forced the Benue State government to start looking into its present and past transactions with various contractors with a view to recovering monies from those who collected mobilisation fees but allegedly failed to deliver.

Although the Gabriel Suswam administration claims it is not ready to probe its predecessor, it is however prepared to recover monies allegedly collected by various contractors, who did not perform, to augment its financial fortunes.

On the heels of the controversy over Okupe, Benue Government House sources told The Guardian that one of such companies, Messrs Value Trust Investments Ltd, reportedly owned by Okupe, was awarded a contract on April 24, 2004 to construct 230 kilometres of rural roads in the state at the cost of N2.3 billion, using loamy soil stabilisation.

The sources claimed that 30 per cent mobilisation fee was paid to the company to execute the contract in 18 months but it failed to do so.

The Benue officials added that after collecting the sum N886.8 million on July 17, 2006, the firm abandoned the projects.

According to them, the state government pressured the firm to complete the projects but it failed until the contract duration elapsed, adding that the company is still indebted to the state government to the tune of N635.7 million after about N55.2 million was recovered from it.

The Guardian also discovered that among the 230 kilometres of rural road contract were the University of Agriculture-Gbajimba, Sankera-Ayati-Sai and Aliede-Obariketo roads.

Yesterday, lawyers to Okupe confirmed that the Benue State government actually “awarded a rural road contract to Messrs Value Trust Investments Ltd, one of the companies in which Okupe served as chairman.”