{"id":17332,"date":"2017-12-28T15:02:55","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T15:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=17332"},"modified":"2017-12-28T15:02:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T15:02:55","slug":"hon-elumelu-exposes-how-fg-agents-use-efcc-to-prosecute-innocent-nigerians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=17332","title":{"rendered":"HON. ELUMELU EXPOSES HOW FG AGENTS USE EFCC TO PROSECUTE INNOCENT NIGERIANS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Below is interview with Hon Ndudi Elumelu, former member of the House of Representatives, and 2015 governorship aspirant in Delta state, who was one time House committee chairman that probe the power sector<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">How were you able to scale through the Power Probe?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">It is very simple. Coming to the National Assembly, I took a decision, one I will never do a letter of recommendation for anybody to be given contract, two I will not also be a part of it. The only thing I can not swear in my life is about insurance but it is my business. If they had said that they gave me insurance of one place and that was what I did, I will probably find it difficult to say that I did or I didn\u2019t. Probably what I will do is to call my people and say please cross check our books and see if we got that job or that insurance business. So that was the first help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">What happened was that I probed the power sector, in that power sector, I was very critical about Rural Electrification. Rural Electrification if you recall, Liyel Imoke was the minister then, his cousin was made the MD of Rural Electrification Agency. So when I did the probe, I found out that in every state, they were duplicating what the state was doing on paper not in reality. By duplication, I mean if I put this Electric Pole here, I will call it Delta State Rural Electrification Sign Post. Rural Electrification Nigeria will come there, take cognizance of where these poles are, come for appropriation, include in the budget of that same spot, then by the time the budget is past, they award that contract for the same spot, then in a space of one month after doing all the necessary contract ward as speculated by the due process, it will award and say it has been executed and they day auditors will go, auditors will obviously notify them. They will come to that place and paste Rural Electrification Sticker, so when auditors of the Federal Government leaves, they will remove the sticker and leave the state government sticker, so it was a duplication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=15517&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So what I did, in every state I went, I took the Federal Rural Electrification and the State Rural Electrification, I said Commissioner, you will follow me, MD you will follow me and in each pole, we will say show me your own. In the whole federation, we found out that, that was what happened. So first of all, my recommendation was first, remove the MD of the Rural Electrification back to the ministry to give room for further EFCC investigation of our recommendation for possible prosecution. Of course in so doing, there were hands that had benefited, so they didn\u2019t know what to do. They ran to baba in Ota, that this boy has started ooh. My senior brother was approached, he talked to me to step down and I asked him, I am surprised that you will be telling me this, you know how many that have died in the course of kerosene explosion because we have no electricity and he encouraged me and said, why are you now telling me this&#8230; ok, ok\u2026 but I will tell baba that you are the stubborn person in our family and\u2026 I said yes, give me any name but leave it I will do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Now in our constituency project like I told you that I had solar street lights, they were projects I put in the budget that were my on constituency project. So after looking at what to use to catch me, they didn\u2019t see anything, they saw those projects. They said he is the one who made Rural Electrification to award the contract. By the time they calculated the contract for the whole nation for rural electrification, it was N5.6bn. So the MD, they award the job, they called him and begged him to be a witness, claim that he forced you to award those contracts without due process but unfortunately for him, he didn\u2019t know what they were telling him because which means he circumvented the law and the law of Procurement Act has no provision for influence. So he didn\u2019t even read it, so they picked him first. When they picked him, he now wrote a statement that I made them to award those jobs because as the Chairman House Committee on Power and Steel, that even the ones in my community were awarded and upto date they have not been done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So I was in London and when I was doing the probe, the President asked us to give Farida the draft report. Farida started arresting people and started collecting money from them. So when I was in London she called me that she wanted to see me, I told her that I was in London that I will come back. So people started calling me that I was being declared wanted and I said for what? So for me, having done probe, where I revealed people, I felt was untouchable. I came back that morning and walked straight to EFCC, I got there and she asked me, how much did you make? I said how and where, and she said on this\u2026 I said look, there was no money and I didn\u2019t\u2026 she said you are a foolish man. She said Ok, that they should take me so somewhere and I should wait for her. While we were there, of course we stayed a little bit late, once it was closing time, she said ok that they were taking me to somewhere, it was an underground cell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">We were there for two days, apart from, of course food and all those things\u2026 so when the thing started happening, the same Farida told my brother that I collected N5.6bn and went and put it in Zenith Bank. If you read in the media then, you will see we have found the money, we have even accessed the\u2026 meanwhile, when I was filing my asset declaration form in EFCC, I stated there that I have two houses in London and the houses were bought even prior of my thinking of coming to National Assembly but they stated that I used the money buy those assets then my account which I used in training my children, Barclays Account, they said they have traced the money to my Barclays Account. So in the public court, people believed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">The N5.6bn, they didn\u2019t tell Nigerians that there was an advanced payment guarantee, that that contract was backed by\u2026 the due process itself. REA as an agency did a due process. They asked for pre-qualification, they awarded contract, they had a board meeting, they have management meeting, approved everything, awarded, requested for 25% mobilization, asked them to bring advanced payment guarantee to secure the 75% balance. So banks that housed those contractors were like Zenith and co. So the component of the one that Zenith was housing, they claimed it was my money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So they knew that my brother was at loggerhead with other banks due to business competition. Him and Zenith were the major people and fortunately and unfortunately, they are both from Delta but you know\u2026. and they were confusing Nigerians because in their competition, people were arguing you go Zenith, you go to Standard Trust Bank (UBA as known as then) and Nigerians were so foolish that they didn\u2019t know the thing is Delta, but they were focusing on Jim\/Elumelu, so they didn\u2019t know where they are coming. Meanwhile, these two people will go behind and be laughing at Nigerians because the assets of Nigerians were with them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So one day, Prof. Nmonye came to me and for ten minutes he didn\u2019t talk. Then he mutter something, but Ndudi why did you do it? I said do what? Even if you did it, why did you take it to Zenith, that is the most painful. I just managed to come here because Tony has told me that he never step into this place. I said, which bank, which money? He said the N5.6bn. I said can you go and print out the statement? That was how I made sense to him. I said if I took it to Zenith, go and bring the bank statement, account number, everything\u2026 I said, Nmonye I will resign from National Assembly. He looked at me and said wait, I replied him yes. I said the one that they are talking about the house, please let them give you the address. Nmonye, before I joined the house, you were living in Elephant and Castle and I had had my house in Canary Wharf, you come to house. Is it the same house that they said I used stolen money? He said, wait, is it that house, I said yes. I said the second one is in Berthim and they are saying I used that same money. I said Berthim\u2019s own I bought it in year 2000 and they are saying I stole, so did I reverse National Assembly sit from 2007 to 2000? he said, is it, I said check Google you would see it. So he left me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">The following day, see my brother. My brother came and said so you mean\u2026 I said where is the bank statement? He said no called Jim and Jim said there is nothing like Elumelu. I said you can\u2019t stop at Elumelu, ask him to search all the company accounts, those one that have REA he should bring them to you, that they have advance payment guarantee and go and do search, don\u2019t come here again, finish the search in corporate affairs, if there is any name from our village side, don\u2019t come back here. Tony said no, he doesn\u2019t need to do that, that Jim has told him that I don\u2019t have an account, that he is going straight to see the President. So that was how he went to villa, met the president, the president said ah, our brother? He said yes because am surprised, this a guy that I told to do the probe how can he after the beautiful work he has done he will go and now begin to tell them to\u2026 and that I told my brother I said take my report go my house take volume this and page so go and show him that I indicted the MD of REA before they awarded the contract, I said if I wanted to shoot you, the gun didn\u2019t exploded, you took the gun from me and I will tell you I made a mistake, he said what do I mean by that adage? I said because I tried to shoot the REA MD by way of my report that he should be prosecuted then I will go behind and call him and said give me contract, I said do you think I\u2019m foolish, I said my recommendation was that he should be sacked from that office and he is aware and I tongue lashed him when he came for my probe then I will go behind and tell him to give me contract he said you know you are making sense, I said no I\u2019m not making sense but go and take the report go show the president, so he took the report and showed president, the president was shocked so that was how they summoned Farida. Farida said it was the report they gave him, the president said bring the report, in the report, EFCC field officers who went on fact finding even went to Oko and they wrote that in the history of Nigeria that there is no project that has ever being completed but that in this particular case all the projects under his Federal Constituency has been duly completed and handed over to Local Government but Farida did not include it. So the president said there is a continuation of this report that is not here \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So Federal Government now said, you know in prosecution, there is what they call force prosecution, there is what they call voluntary prosecution, the force prosecution is that Federal Government is saying we don\u2019t care, kill him, voluntary is by merit. So that was how they now took us to court because initially they didn\u2019t want to arraign us. They arraigned us to court, EFCC came said that they want to do what they called accelerated hearing and there should not be proof of evidence. So I sued them that if you want to alleged that I stole, you must bring proof. So they said they were not going to avail us with proof of evidence, so we sued them and I won the case and they provided proof of evidence. In the proof of evidence, my name was never mentioned in any of the proofs, I didn\u2019t even write statement in EFCC. The only thing they asked me in EFCC was how do we do budget and I stated how we do budgets. They asked at what point can somebody insert things in the budget, I said there is no point after president has assented that anybody can insert. Whatever that is collective is done prior to the President\u2019s assent and the detail of the budget and the bill of budget are always forwarded by the clerk of National Assembly to the President, and he goes through it before he endorses. They said is it, I said yes, they asked me to sign, so I signed. That was what what included in the proof of evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So that was how my lawyer now took on them and now challenged them on the foundation of the arraignment because to proffer charges on any suspect, you must have reasons to proffer charges and the court ought not to have granted them leave to prefer charges if there are no reasons for that. So, we sued on the wrong foundation for the court to have even abinitio to prefer charges. So they came\u2026 and the only way to allege that you have proof to prefer charges is on proof of evidence. So they could not defend it, all they said was that oh no\u2026 by the time we open the case you will see evidence, we said this is the evidence.. it was then Justice Oniyongi tongue lashed EFCC. He said look, I\u2019m so ashamed of this country, the man did a probe, alleged that they stole $13.8bn and instead of going after those who stole that money, you are talking about N5.6bn\u2026 let us even assume that the man took N5.6bn , you didn\u2019t go after $13.8bn, you are going after N5.6bn. How does it make sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So in the history, that was the first time. It was the same day my lawyer moved the motion, that I was discharged and acquitted.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">250 Bed Hospital in Onicha Uku built by Elumelu<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">I have a 250 bed hospital that has been completed in my village, it is fully furnished with two ambulances. We have two 2000kva generators installed. We have Ten flats for nurses and midwives. We have two bungalows for resident doctors. We have all MRi and all the equipment you can think of in this world are there. We have the Mortuary as well. It is just waiting for commissioning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">There Is One Powerful Hospital Here In Aniocha North, In Fact One Of The Best, Like a Teaching Hospital And You Just Said That What Is Remaining Is Commissioning, Why The Delay?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Well, one is the finishing of one critical infrastructure, water. We have tried three times to drill a borehole there but it has not been possible and you can\u2019t run a hospital without water. So the Ministry said give us water anyhow, we will come and take over it but just last month, FMC Asaba, now said that that place is choked, that need an out station and that there can\u2019t be any better\u2026 that even them they need somewhere outside there they can go and operate and that this hospital here serves the purpose. That I should please, let them write to the federal government and let the know the need, whatever they can do let them come and do. So as at last month, they have done the letter requesting for them to come and rectify the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Secondly, the natural factor of abandonment. Usually, government has a way of abandoning projects. By the time you go to the sub station you will see what they have done. They left it, even the building is not been used. It is the natural behaviour of government especially the federal government to abandon some projects littered everywhere in the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8559949171483482849gmail-MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-17283 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2-300x202.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2-768x518.jpg 768w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2-1024x691.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2-272x182.jpg 272w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2.jpg 1184w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below is interview with Hon Ndudi Elumelu, former member of the House of Representatives, and 2015 governorship aspirant in Delta state, who was one time House committee chairman that probe the power sector How were you able to scale through the Power Probe? It is very simple. Coming to the National Assembly, I took a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1395,61,1953,4420],"class_list":["post-17332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-chief-olusegun-obasanjo","tag-efcc","tag-liyel-imoke","tag-ndudi-elumelu"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Buhari-2.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-4vy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17334,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17332\/revisions\/17334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}