Bankole Committee Approved Contracts To Fictitious Firms – Witness

A Federal High Court, Abuja, was on Wednesday
told that contracts allegedly awarded to
fictitious companies by the House of
Representatives under the leadership of
former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, were
approved by a committee chaired by Bankole.
The court was also told that part of the contract
sum was paid into an account in the Kaduna
branch of Zenith Bank, operated by Multigate
Resources Services Limited, a company whose
address could not be traced by investigators.
The revelations emerged when the Clerk of the
House of Representatives, Mohammed Omololu,
and an investigator with the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Ahmed,
testified at the continuation of Bankole's trial over
an alleged contract fraud before Justice Elvis
Chukwu.
The fourth prosecution witness, Omololu, told the
court that the controversial contracts, over which
Bankole is facing trial, were approved by the Body
of Principal Officers of the House of
Representatives, which was headed by Bankole.
Omololu said other members of the body
included the Deputy Speaker, House Leader,
Deputy House Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief
Whip, Minority Leader, Minority Whip, Deputy
Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Leader.
Led in evidence by prosecution lawyer, Festus
Keyamo, the clerk noted that Bankole was the
Speaker of the House of Representatives when the
contracts were awarded.
He said, "In this particular case, it was a contract
that can only be taken by the Body of Principal
Officers of the House of Representatives.
"For the purpose of approval of contracts, the
Body of Principal Officers of the House of
Representatives under the chairmanship of the
Speaker makes the approval."
Earlier, the third prosecution witness, Ahmed, had
told the court that the House under Bankole's
leadership, awarded contracts to some companies
with unverifiable addresses.
He said investigation revealed further that money
for the contracts were paid into a Kaduna Zenith
Bank account of Multigate Limited, one of the
companies that were awarded contracts.
Ahmed added that investigators were not able to
trace the company's address.
He further explained that, when the addresses of
the concerned companies could not be verified,
EFCC officers called at the National Assembly to
find out how the contractors were paid and it was
discovered that they were paid through cheques.
He said, "We wrote to the banks and requested for
the statements of the accounts.
"We analysed them and discovered that the
cheque were cleared with one account called
Multigate Resources Limited with Zenith Bank,
domiciled in Kaduna.
"We also collected the account opening packages
and we doscovered that it had the same address
with the company we could not locate.
"We discovered some telephone numbers on the
contracts quotation letters submitted by the
companies.
"We called the numbers, but no one answered."
Ahmed added that efforts made by the
investigating team to unmask those behind the
companies and accounts proved futile.