By Emmanuel Aziken & Ise-Oluwa Ige
Posted to the Web: Thursday, May 05, 2005

The ICPC itself said yesterday that Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Damian Dodo, who was arraigned last Thursday with three others for allegedly offering a N21 million bribe to a woman and her son was advised by two of his partners against doing so.

Dr. Bode Olowoporoku and Alhaji Haruna Garba, chairman and vice chairman respectively of the Senate Committee at a press conference in Abuja also vowed to pursue their allegation against Minister Bello at the presidency through the new Senate President.
There were suggestions that an earlier letter dispatched through the former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, did not reach the President.

Besides, they claimed that a N1 billion allocation was given to the ministry for fertilizer procurement in the 2005 fiscal year despite the refusal of the committee to approve the request made by the ministry.
The committee officials spoke in response to allegations made by Alhaji Bello that his problems with the committee stemmed from his refusal to honour a request from Senator Olowoporoku for a contract from which he (Olowoporoku) expected to make at least N200 million.

Denying ever soliciting for a contract from the minister, Senator Olowoporoku said Alhaji Bello was forced to make his allegations against the committee officials following pressures from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) during the last May Day celebration.
Senator Olowoporoku said the minister “is a drowning man who has now gone hysterical because of the discovery of N3.557 billion fertilizer contract fraud discovered against him during the budget public hearing in October 2004.”

The minister was alleged to have single handedly awarded the bulk of the 2004 season fertilizer procurement contracts to two companies owned by an Indian national at an inflated cost of N3.557 billion.
The committee showed documents purported to be of the pro forma invoices and other documents to back its claims at the press conference.

"We stand by our discovery which was exhibited with documents in open glare with the minister present. The minister had no defence and could not dispute it, hence all the news media of country carried the information to Nigerians at home and abroad that the minister in collaboration with Indians ripped off Nigerians of N3.557 billion.
“Since the fraud broke out seven months ago, the minister has not for once disputed our figures and computation which were supported with authentic documents which we here display again. Mallam Adamu Bello has remained silent since then, thinking that the fraud would be forgotten by Nigerians but the issue refuses to die.” Answering a question on efforts by the committee to bring the alleged fraud to the attention of the President, Senator Olowoporoku said a letter was dispatched through the former Senate President, but he could not confirm if the letter was ever dispatched to the President.

“The then Senate President received it and his office received it. Senator Wabara is still around, you can ask him, it is between him and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Senator Olowoporoku said.

Ikwueto, Oyetibo warned Dodo not to offer bribebut…—ICPC

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and leader of KDIO consortium who arraigned last Thursday alongside three others for offering a N21 million bribe to a woman and her son was advised by two of his partners against offering the bribe but he refused, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) revealed yesterday.

The commission fingered two of Dodo’s partners, Messrs Patrick Ikwueto and Tayo Oyetibo, as those that frowned at offering gratification to the mother and son who demanded the bribe.

A former commissioner with INEC, Mrs Mary Obegolu (mother), and her son, Emeka, both legal practitioners, were those that allegedly sought and received the gratification. The alleged bribe was to assist in engaging the individual lawyers for the plum job of drafting the contract agreement for INEC.

The commission said the petition which formed the basis of the bribery charges against Dodo and three other lawyers emanated from the Office of the President. According to ICPC, both Ikwueto (SAN) and Oyetibo (SAN) who allegedly advised Dodo (SAN) against giving the bribe also alleged that the deal (bribe offering) was done without their consent.
Ikwueto, Oyetibo, Dodo and Prince Adetokunbo Kayode were the four legal practitioners engaged by INEC to draft for it contract agreement about three years ago. The quartet were engaged individually by INEC but they later formed themselves into a consortium tagged KDIO for the purpose of executing the job given them.

KDIO is an acronym coined from the names of the four lawyers. K stands for Kayode, D for Dodo, I for Ikwueto and O for Oyetibo.
The controversial N21 million bribe was allegedly offered in appreciation of engaging the lawyers to do the job. But when the lid on the scam broke open, two of the four lawyers involved in the drafting of the contract agreement, Messrs Ikwueto and Oyetibo, disowned Dodo in their statements to ICPC on the matter.

They said though Dodo informed them of the demand for a N42 million bribe by the former commissioner with INEC, they not only frowned at it but Dodo offered half of the money in cheque without their consent.
The commission (ICPC) has, however, listed the duo of Ikwueto and Oyetibo with 11 others including the Chairman of INEC, Dr Abel Guobadia as prosecution witnesses to prove its charge of bribery against Dodo and the three others.

Others listed as proposed witnesses for the case are Olajide Kolawole (CSP), A M Malunfashi (SP), Umar Baba Audu (SP), Dr Abel Guobadia, Janet Omotola Ajayi, Elizabeth Ivase, Mrs Fati Muazu, Prof Sheu Galadanchi, Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Tunde Ogunsakin (ACP) and F Popoola.
ICPC has already approached the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to nullify the verdict of the Abuja High Court and order that the matter be heard de novo by another high court judge of the Federal Capital Territory.