Former Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika awarded “questionable” contracts to his family members and a friend during his tenure in office, an investigator told a court in Abuja on Thursday. Christopher Odofin, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) appearing as a prosecution witness in Mr Sirika’s corruption trial, said this while fielding cross-examination questions from defence counsel Kanu Agabi.
He listed the irregularities characterising the contracts to include imposition of contractors on the ministry and a breach of the then-minister’s approval thresholds. Holding a contract document handed to him by Mr Agabi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Odofin described the contract award as questionable and maintained that Mr Sirika approved that the contract be awarded to his associate “beyond his threshold”.
“He also awarded a contract to a company belonging to his daughter,” the 12th prosecution witness said. The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Sirika, alongside his daughter Fatima Sirika, her husband Jalal Hamma, and the couple’s firm, Al Buraq Global Investment, over contracts he allegedly corruptly awarded to the couple and an associate.
One count accused the former minister of “criminal breach of trust by being dishonestly connected with the illegal award of N1.5 billion contract for the apron extension at Katsina Airport for the benefit of his daughter and Al Buraq Global Investment Ltd. Another count alleged that he was “dishonestly connected with the illegal award” of the Katsina airport contract to the benefit of his daughter and son-in-law.
The EFCC similarly accused Mr Sirika in another charge of conferring unfair advantage on his friend Gabriel Tilmann’s Tianaero Nigeria Limited by using his position to award to the firm a consultancy contract for the Nigerian Air start-up to the tune of N1.3 billion.