Fayose diverted N860m poultry fund, EFCC tells court

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on
Monday presented some documents to Justice
Adamu Hobon of Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, to
prove that a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo
Fayose, diverted N860m meant for the Ekiti State
poultry projects during his tenure.
The commission in its submission before the court
gave an account of how Fayose allegedly diverted
N860m meant for the state poultry projects on
Monday.
An official of EFCC, Mr. Abubakar Madaki, while
giving evidence before the court, alleged that Feyi,
wife of the former governor; his mother; and a
former deputy governor of the state, Mrs. Abiodun
Olujimi, were beneficiaries of the funds.
Madaki, who led the team that investigated the graft,
said he discovered during investigation that only
four out of the 20 poultry farms were actually ready
to start business at the time.
He said, "Some of the farms were seen with either
three or four pens instead of five or six pens as
indicated in the document by the state government
and the Biological Concepts Nigeria Limited, which
handled the contract."
The EFCC official noted that the agreement was to
construct a poultry farm each at four designated
areas with headquarters in Afao, Fayose's
hometown.
Madaki also alleged that there were neither power
generating sets nor boreholes at the poultry sites as
claimed.
He said following the findings by the EFCC team and a
team from the Federal Ministry of Works, some
people including the Chairman, Biological Concepts
Nigeria Limited, Mr. Gbenga James, and some
government officials were invited for questioning.
Madaki added that further investigation showed that
the money was diverted by the accused person, his
aides and family members.
The witness, who tendered several documents
through the counsel for the commission, Mr. Adebisi
Adeniyi, alleged that part of the funds meant for the
project was diverted for the construction of Fayose's
house in Iyaganku, Ibadan.
He said, "There was also falsification of figure in one
of the documents that was used to purchase a car
for the accused person's mother.
"Among the document was the acknowledgement of
$50,000 by a former deputy governor of the state,
Mrs. Olujimi.
"The chairman of Biological Concepts confirmed that
some funds were used to build the house of the
accused person at Iyaganku Ibadan.
"He also confirmed transferring N156m of the fund for
the purchase of battery cage for his (Biological
Concepts chairman) own farm."
He added that a document showed how several
millions of naira was used as "PR" in the transaction,
adding that another sum of N300m was released for
the construction of the poultry project at Afao.
He said, "The architect, who designed the Afao
project, confirmed that he was given only N73m for
the project."
Documents presented to the court included a
voluntary statement of the accused person written
in his own hand-writing, petitions and documents
containing the names of the alleged beneficiaries of
money for the public relations.
Others are cheque stubs, reports from the Federal
Ministry of Works and acknowledgment letter
confirming receipt of $50,000 by Olujimi.
Also included is a building plan designed by Grid
Associates for the private home of the accused
person in Ibadan and a copy of the agreement dated
September 24 between Ekiti State Government and
Biological Concept Limited.
All the documents were admitted as exhibits by
Hobon. The judge adjourned the case till December 3
(today) for further hearing, to enable the
prosecution to present more documents in evidence
to support the case.
PUNCH