Bode George testifies

Olabode George countered a 68-count charge levelled against him and five others at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on Tuesday, as he testified that contracts were not split or inflated, nor was the approval level of the Nigeria Ports Authority board exceeded.

Mr. George was led in evidence by Bambo Adesanya, who represented the defendant’s lead counsel, Olatunji Ayanlaja.

According to the witness, on his assumption of office as chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the secretary and legal representative of the board, R. A. Fregene, gave them three documents which were to be used as guidelines for the operation of the board at NPA.

“She gave us the Act that establishes NPA, operating procedure of the board and the financial operating levels as approved by the government,” Mr. George said.

He told the court that the 11-count charge of alleged splitting of contracts, 8-count charge of inflation of contracts, 49-count charge of disobedience to lawful order, and the one-count charge of conspiracy, levelled against the board were false.

“Emphatically no, we never split any contracts. We never, never inflated any contracts brought before the board. Contracts were awarded following the guidelines in the ‘NPA Act’ and the 1999 financial operating level circular which was signed by Mrs. B. O. Williams for the Ministry of Transport.”

Mr. George also said that the Ministry of Transport is the sole authority that the board reports to as far as NPA is concerned, hence there is no basis for the board to rely on a circular from the Ministry of Finance for approval limits.

Referring to the circular that should supposedly have been followed in the approval of contracts, Mr. George said, “The NPA is completely a commercial venture; we do not get money from the government treasury, so we cannot rely on an administrative circular from the Ministry of Finance for our operation.

“When Mr. Kurawa [the representative of the Ministry of Transport on the NPA board] branded the circular from the Ministry of Finance to us, the board agreed that there should be a letter from the Ministry of Transport asking the board to implement the said circular, subsequently a letter was written to the Ministry of Transport and till the board was dissolved there was no reply from the ministry as regards the circular.”

During cross examination by the counsel to the second defendant, Dele Adesina, the witness said that the said approved circular was a photocopy of a circular from the Ministry of Finance to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

“The stamp on the document is that of the Federal Ministry of Water [Resources] and it was not directed to the Ministry of Transport.”

Referring to the circular used by the board, the witness said, “I know as a matter of fact that up till last year, same approval limit that we used is still operating at the NPA.”

The trial was adjourned to June 23 and 24 for continuation of cross examination.

History

The six defendants, Olabode George, Aminu Dabo, O. Abidoye, Abdullahi Aminu Tafida, Zanna Maidaribe, and Sule Aliyu, who were members of the Board of Directors of NPA, from 2001 to 2003, are in court on a 68-count-charge of splitting and inflating contracts in 2003.

They are also being tried for not following the rules and regulations guiding the award of contracts, by exceeding the approval limit allowed for members of the board.

The 1999 circular signed by B.O Williams allows the board to approve contracts up to ₦50 million while the other circular allows a maximum of ₦700,000.