Ex-Aviation Minister Sirika Didn’t Sign Contract Documents – EFCC Witness

A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Christopher Odofin, has told a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, that former Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, neither initiated nor signed procurement documents relating to the N2billion contract awarded to Tianaero Nigeria Limited (TNL).

Odofin, the 12th prosecution witness (PW12), in the matter said the contract documents forwarded to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) were signed by the then Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Abel Enitan.

He said nothing in the documents indicated the Permanent Secretary was induced by the former minister to seek the bureau’s approval.

Under cross-examination by Chief Godwin Agabi (SAN), counsel to the former minister, the witness said Exhibits 9 and 11 which are official correspondence exchanged between the Permanent Secretary and the BPP, showed no direct involvement of Sirika, the first defendant, on their face.

Exhibit 9 is a letter from Enitan to the BPP seeking a waiver to award the contracts through selective tendering. Exhibit 11 is the bureau’s response.
Asked whether either document indicated that Sirika had induced the Permanent Secretary to make the request, Odofin replied: “There is nothing suggesting such.”

The witness said Enitan, as the ministry’s accounting officer, was the one expected to act on the bureau’s response, and that in doing so he had carried out the expected action on the ministry’s behalf.

Odofin maintained, however, that the contract should not have been awarded to TNL in the first place, since the company had been registered barely a year before receiving it.

The defence pressed the witness on why Enitan was not charged alongside Sirika if investigators believed the procurement process was flawed.

Odofin said deciding who should be prosecuted was outside his responsibilities as an investigator, adding that charging suspects was “not my duty.”

Earlier, prosecution counsel Rotimi Jacob tendered a flash drive through the witness, containing a voice recording purportedly of Sirika directing the Permanent Secretary on the award of a contract linked to Nigeria Air.

In the recording, the minister is heard telling Enitan that he could handle the matter and directing him to ensure the contractor was not overpriced or shortchanged.

The voice on the recording also describes the contractor as experienced, with a background establishing seven airlines globally and serving as a trainee captain and chief pilot.

The flash drive was admitted in evidence and marked Exhibit 37B, with the defence reserving objections to its admissibility until final addresses.

The EFCC is prosecuting the defendants on an amended six-count charge bordering on contract fraud involving Al-Buraq Global Investment Limited, a company allegedly linked to Sirika’s daughter. The agency alleges the contracts in question were worth N2.8 billion, and accuses Sirika of using his office to confer an unfair advantage on TNL for the Nigeria Air project. All defendants have denied the allegations, while consistently maintaining that the national carrier initiative predated Sirika’s appointment as Aviation Minister, arguing it originated from a presidential committee set up by former President Muhammadu Buhari before ministers were appointed.

The defence also contends the project was subsequently run under Nigeria’s Public-Private Partnership framework, with procurement supervised by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and other statutory agencies rather than the minister.

Justice Sylvanus Chinedu Oriji adjourned the case to July 9 for continuation of cross-examination of the 12th prosecution witness.