Kaduna Assembly hires Femi Falana to prosecute el-Rufai for alleged corruption
Story from Uji A. ILIYASU
kaduna State House of Assembly has hired Femi Falana to lead a battery of lawyers to begin unravelling the case of corruption against former governor, Nasir el-Rufai,on Thursday in Kaduna.
Earlier in July, the Assembly reaffirmed its position on the allegations of financial misconduct levelled against Malam el-Rufai.
The Assembly’s findings alleged that el-Rufai’s administration diverted a staggering sum of N423,115,028,072.88 during his tenure.
The Assembly also denounced the attempts made by some political appointees, who recently held a press conference in Abuja, to discredit the House and conceal the alleged fraud committed by the el-Rufai government.
A statement released by the Chairman, Fact-Finding Committee and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Henry Magaji, said: “The attention of the Kaduna State House of Assembly has been drawn to a press conference addressed by some senior political appointees of the immediate past administration of Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
“In the press conference, the former political appointees made strenuous efforts to pick holes in the report of the probe committee.
“They resorted to name calling and wild allegations on the motivation¹ for the House probe.
We wish to state as follows:
“The press conference was just a rehash of the vituperations and innuendoes heaped on us by the former political appointees (of el-Rufai) in their first press briefing. There was nothing new that should warrant our response.
“They failed to address the main issue, which is the systematic and coordinated cornering of the resources of Kaduna State through phoney contracts and outright looting.
“If they genuinely have the interest of Kaduna State and are truly men and women of integrity, they would have applied themselves to developing the state instead of participating in the alleged pilfering of its scarce resources.”
In June, the state House of Assembly demanded the immediate refund of N36bn allegedly paid for illegal contractual transactions by el-Rufai’s government.
This was stated in the recommendations submitted by the House Committee set up to probe el-Rufai’s government.
According to the committee, the government of el-Rufai paid the sum of N36 billion for contracts that were not done.
READ ALSO: Kaduna Assembly proposes legal action against El-Rufai
The committee added that the administration violated the state procurement laws.
“The contractors listed hereunder should refund to the Kaduna State Government a total sum of N36,351,126,811.65 being monies paid for work either not done, overpayment or diversion as follows: Ronchess Global Resources PLC; Chamberlayne Global Concept Ltd; M/S Prestige Integrated Services Ltd; M/S Philco Nig. Ltd; M/S Gulu Engineering & Technical Services Ltd; CCECC Nigeria Ltd; Danjiro Nigeria Ltd and Rafali Nigeria Ltd.
“Others are Sanjo Nigeria Ltd; Konstrand Nigeria Ltd; Spectrum Engineering Ltd; Bindigary Construction Ltd; Gmorli Nigeria Ltd; Shiyuma Nigeria Ltd and Farm Track Nigeria Ltd.”
The total amount involved was put at N36,351,126,811.65.
The committee also said that “unjustified cash withdrawals to the tune of N4,936,916,333.00 made between 2019 and 2022 by the Commissioner of Finance and the Accountant-General of the state should be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for in-depth investigation and necessary action”.
It continued: “That, the unjustified withdrawals of the sum of $1.4 million from the Kaduna State Economic Transformation Account No. 0809009141 for the period of 30/10/2020 – 06/05/2020 be referred to the relevant law enforcement agencies for in-depth investigation and appropriate action.”
“That, the sum of N632,456,000.00 only paid to Tulip Future Associates Ltd without official engagement as Consultants be recovered by the state government,” it added.
Proofreading, editing by Uji A Iliyasu, Editor at Neptune Prime
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