AN emotional former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Mr. Raymond Omatseye, has told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that the N1.5 billion contract scam charge was lodged against him because he refused to do the bidding of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mr Mohammed Adoke, SAN. Omatseye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
He is facing an amended 27-count charge of contract splitting and bid rigging to the tune of N1.5
He is facing an amended 27-count charge of contract splitting and bid rigging to the tune of N1.5
billion.
Omatseye, who opened his defence, told the court that he believed the AGF was persecuting him for failing to withdraw a case NIMASA filed against the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG.
Trial judge in the matter is Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia.
Led in evidence by his counsel, Mr E. Onyeke, the former NIMASA DG alleged that his trial came shortly after he declined a request by Adoke to discontinue a case that NIMASA filed against the NLNG.
The former NIMASA DG, in his testimony, first craved the indulgence of the judge to allow him state the background of his claim, which would help the court appreciate his evidence.
His request was granted by the judge.
He said: “In December of 2010, I was approached by a gentleman, who at that time was the Executive Director of the Cabotage Service of NIMASA, Mr Ibrahim Zailani. Zailani told me that he had been at a meeting with the AGF and that the AGF had directed him to tell me to withdraw a case between NIMASA and NLNG.
“I told him I could not do so because it was the decision of the board to take NLNG to court. Exactly on November 14, 2010, between noon and 1p.m., in my office, I received a call from a gentleman called Tunde Ayeni. He said ‘hello, hold on for your caller’ and then handed the phone to a man who said he was Adoke.
“The man said, `I sent Zailani to you to withdraw the NLNG case and you refused.`
“He said: ‘Mr President has called me twice on this matter to instruct you to withdraw this case. I responded to him, “My AGF sir, it is either you please send me a memo to that effect or please send a message through my minister, the Ministry of Transport, to direct me accordingly. I am not in a position to unilaterally withdraw the case.
“He said: ‘I am the chief law officer of the Federal Republic` and I replied, ‘Sir, please help me to do as I have requested’. He asked if I was aware that there was a directive from his office that no government institution can sue another government institution without his permission.
“There and then, I told him that NLNG is majorly owned by foreigners and therefore, cannot be said to be a governmental agency. At this moment, my Lord, he said that since I refused to obey his instruction on the NLNG case, that it will be my waterloo,” the former DG of NIMASA, who broke down and cried profusely, stated.
Omatseye added that 10 days after the telephone conversation with Adoke, he was in his office on 4, Burma Road, Apapa, when his secretary informed him that three men from the EFCC, were waiting to see him.
“I invited them in after my meeting with some investors, and the EFCC operatives made up of one Ibrahim Ahmed (PWI), Folu and the third a Northerner, who was their leader, showed me a letter headed paper of the crimes commission logo and a handwritten shopping list, requesting for some documents. I then invited M.K. Shehu, the Director of Procurement and Bulama, Director, Finance, to provide the list of documents required by the EFCC. These were provided within three hours.
“Thinking everything was over, they then said I should escort them to their office in company of the directors. We followed them to their Awolowo Road office, Lagos, where they made us to write statements and subsequently detained us.”
Not knowing the charge he was being held for, Omatseye said he put a call through to Yusuf Sulaiman, then Minister of Transport, who asked him if he had a problem with the AGF.
“I told him the story and the minister said nothing. At the Abuja office of the EFCC, I was given another sheet to write my statement. This time, I refused insisting that I must know the reason I am being held by the commission,” he said.
He said the petition was what formed the basis of his trial.
Omatseye said that the contract approval threshold for NIMASA was N2.5 million for supply and N5 million for goods and services.
He said that the thresholds were not yet stipulated as at the time he approved the contracts over which he was being prosecuted.
According to him, while the charges captured contracts awarded between December 2009 and February 2010, the contract award threshold for NIMASA was only put in place by the Bureau of Public Procurement in November 2011.
EFCC Prosecutor, Chief Godwin Obla, SAN, at this juncture, raised an objection to that line of testimony which the judge overruled.
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