A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered a former Commander of the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Uko Ebong, to prove his claim that he was orally awarded N731million contracts by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) without any documentation.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave the order while ruling on an application by Ebong and an organisation associated with him, Elionai International College Ltd.
Ebong and Elionai had, by the application, challenged an interim forfeiture order granted on May 11, 2020 in favour of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in respect of the N510m with a new generation bank, which the EFCC claimed was proceed of unlawful activities.
The EFCC had, while applying for the interim forfeiture, claimed that Ebong, while serving as the Commander PAF between 2013 and July 2015, and being a public officer managed and used private companies to carry out financial transactions while concealing his identity.
It identified the companies to include Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd, Tripple Kay Company Nigeria Ltd and Elionai International College Ltd.
“Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd is a company registered with the CAC. Though directors of the company on paper are Mrs. Ebong Mercy Uko (the wife of AVM Ebong) and Ekpo Ubong Asuquo (AVM’s in-law i.e brother to AVM’s wife); AVM Ebong controlled the financial dealings of the company.
“Without any contractual agreement, a total sum of N731,000, 000.00 was paid to Magnificent 5 Ventures Limited between May 2014 and October 2014 by the ONSA under the guise of payment for renovation of PAF barracks, PAF staff quarters.
“There is no proof of any work carried out by Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd based on which the above payments were made to it.
“The payments were made into the Sterling Bank Plc Account No. 0026142493 operated by Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd. Mrs. Ebong Mercy Uko and her brother Ekpo Ubong Asuquo are also the signatories to the said Bank account of Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd,” the EFCC said.
It added the N510m held in the bank formed part of the N731million allegedly paid to Ebong, through a company linked to him, Magnificent 5 Ventures Limited, from ONSA).
In their application challenging the order of interim forfeiture, Ebong and Elionai claimed that the money was dully earned from ONSA for the contract for renovation of PAF barracks, PAF staff quarters.
They admitted that there was no documentation for the contracts and that it was awarded orally to them by ONSA, because the contracts were security related that needed to be awarded to trustworthy companies and individuals.
They added that the contracts were awarded orally without agreement paper, procurement analysis, certificate of completion, request for payment and issuance of invoice, because it was against security tradition and procedure for security reasons.
In the ruling on August 19, Justice Mohammed noted that Ebong and Elionai agreed with the EFCC that the necessary documents to support the contracts were unavailable.
The judge held that all parties in the case, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/228/2016 admitted that necessary documents were unavailable, but disagreed on whether or not there is actually a tradition or practice in PAF office to award contracts without documentation.
Justice Mohammed held that since it was Ebong and Elionai who made the claim of a supposed practice by public institution like the PAF or ONSA to award contracts orally and without documentation, the onus is on them to establish such claim by calling oral evidence.
The judge wondered how public institutions should imbibe a tradition of awarding contracts orally and without documentation.
Justice Mohammed then adjourned till November 17 to enable Ebong and Elionai call their witnesses.