- Alleged N2.7b fraud and how Hadi Sirika split aviation contracts among family members
Following the conviction of Equatorial Guinea’s President’s son for illegally selling off an aircraft belonging to the national airline, public affairs analysts have questioned the possibility of a child of a serving senior political office holder getting jailed in Nigeria.
On Tuesday, a judge in Equatorial Guinea ruled that Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, must serve six years in jail unless he compensates the state for the missing aircraft, Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo told reporters in a WhatsApp message.
The court convicted Obiang Nsue, 50, a former director of national carrier Ceiba Intercontinental, of selling the ATR 72-500 plane to a Spanish company and pocketing the cash.
He was placed under house arrest in 2023 on the order of his half-brother, the country’s vice-president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, also a son of the president.
Mitogo said the court ruled that Obiang Nsue could avoid jail if he paid around $255,000 to the airline, along with damages and a fine to the state.
The court acquitted him on separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
Obiang Nsue has also served as secretary of state for sports and youth in the oil-rich central African state, ruled for the past 46 years by his father, 83.
In a separate case targeting his half-brother, a French court handed Obiang Mangue a suspended jail sentence and a $35-million fine in July 2021 after convicting him of embezzling public funds.
Last month, Christopher Adekunle Odofin, the twelfth Prosecution Witness in the trial of the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, told a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Maitama, Abuja, presided over by Justice S.C Oriji, that the defendant used his position as a sitting minister from November 11, 2016, to May 29, 2023, to split federal government aviation contracts among his family members.
Hadi Sirika, being the first defendant, is standing trial alongside his daughter Fatima Hadi Sirika, son-in-law, Hamma Jalal Sule and Al Buraq Global Investment Limited on an amended six-count charge, bordering on abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N2.7 billion.
Led by prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, the witness, who is an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, disclosed that the contract for the Terminal Building and Apron Expansion was a single contract as designated in Serial No 13 in the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP’s response to the Federal Ministry of Aviation in a letter dated June 6, 2022.
However, the first defendant, he disclosed, used his influence to split the contract into two and awarded a part to Enginos Nigeria Limited at N1.3 billion and the other part to Al Buraq Global Investment Ltd at N1.4 billion. By awarding the split contract at N1.3 billion and N1.4 billion, respectively, he was said to have avoided reverting to the BPP and Federal Executive Council, FEC for their approvals because both contract figures fall within the threshold of the contract sums he can approve as minister.
Further investigations, the witness said, showed that Enginos Nigeria Ltd, which the defendant awarded the Terminal Building, is owned by his younger brother, Hamad Sirika, while Al Buraq Global Investment Ltd, the fourth defendant, he awarded the Apron Expansion, is owned by his daughter and son-in-law. Both contracts were awarded on the same day, August 18, 2022.
Further in his testimony, the witness revealed that the second defendant, Fatima Hadi Sirika, upon the incorporation of Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, the fourth defendant, on June 7, 2021, became the company’s secretary till February 2024, when she stepped aside following the commencement of criminal investigations by the EFCC.
Also, the second defendant at the point of incorporation of the fourth defendant, the witness said, owned 500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand) out of the 1,000,000 (One Million) shares of the company, until February 2024 and remains a person of significant control of the fourth defendant as signatory to its account, domiciled in Guaranty Trust Bank. In all of these, the second defendant, he said, remained a public servant to date, working in Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, owned solely by the federal government, having been engaged in 2020.
The witness also disclosed that Hamma Jalal Sule, the third defendant at the point of incorporation of the fourth defendant on June 17, 202, owned 500,000 shares of the company, till February 2024, with the commencement of the criminal investigation by the EFCC and remains a person of significant control as signatory to its account, domiciled in Zenith Bank. The second and third defendants, he said, got married on December 25, 2020, in Katsina State, and the third defendant started his public service career in 2021 in Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), but resigned in 2023 and switched over to the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in the same year and has been working in NUPRC to date. “While the two are public servants, they incorporated, owned the fourth defendant and also used the fourth defendant to get government contracts in the Federal Ministry of Aviation, where the second defendant’s father and the third defendant’s father-in-law was the Minister,” the witness said.
Testifying further, the witness said that upon the award of the Apron Expansion contract to Al Buraq Global Investment Limited on November 14, 2022, the Ministry of Aviation under Hadi Sirika, paid N1.3billion with some fractions after tax to the Zenith Bank account of the company, representing 100 percent payment of the contract sum. He also disclosed that upon the receipt of payment, a cumulative sum of N182 million was transferred on different dates to the personal account of the third defendant, with N110 million transferred to a fixed deposit account belonging to the third defendant. The witness further explained that the payment of 100 percent contract sum was solely based on the approval of the first defendant as a sitting Minister of Aviation.
He added that “furthermore, upon payment of N1.3 billion, the sum of N7.4million was transferred to the personal account of the second defendant in Jaiz Bank; N8.2 million was transferred to the salary account of the third defendant in Access Bank Plc, and N500 million was transferred to Trimak Engineering Services Ltd and was never utilized for the contract,” but was expended on another contract awarded to Trimak Engineering Services Ltd from other agencies of the government.
According to the witness, out of the total contract sum of N1.3 billion paid, the sum of over N549 million is still in the company’s account, which has an interim injunction placed on it. The witness further revealed that there were other transfers to individuals and companies unconnected to the execution of the Apron Expansion contract.
Asked about the status of the contract, the witness said, “nothing has been done.”
The extra-judicial statements of the second and third defendants to the EFCC, the witness disclosed, were taken in the presence of their lawyer, Suleiman Usman Kuku, a lawyer in the office of the second defendant.
Objections from counsel to second and third defendant, M.A. Magaji, SAN and Sanusi Musa, SAN, respectively failed to stop the admission of the extra-judicial statements of the defendants in court, for which they had to claim that the statements were not given voluntarily in accordance with Sections 15(4) and 17(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA.
The judge had to rule for a trial-within-trial to determine if the statements were taken voluntarily and in compliance with Sections 15(4) and 17(2) of ACJA or not, and adjourned the matter till October 27, 28 and 29, 2025, for commencement of trial within trial.
Credit: AFP/EFCC news website
