EFCC confirms that it has begun investigating contract scam involving presidential aide Abba Kyari

ECONOMIC and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) officials have revealed that they have begun work on a petition filed against President Muhammadu Buhari's chief of staff Alhaji Abba Kyari over allegations that he was involved in a contract scam.

Last week, a gentleman known as Bako Waziri Kyari, who claimed to be a nephew to the chief of staff, said that Alhaji Kyari and one Sani Ado, who worked with the Bureau of Public Procurement, collected N29.9m from him in order to facilitate the award of a contract. So far, he has not been paid for the contract and subsequently wrote a petition to the EFCC but the commission refused to address it, insisting that it could not investigate the president’s aide.

However, since the case went public, it appears that the EFCC has been embarrassed into acting, with its spokesman Wilson Uwujaren, saying that the case was being looked into. According to Mr Uwujaren, the agency is following due process and will act once it has studied the details of the petition.

Mr Uwujaren said: “The petition by Bako Waziri is being investigated by the commission. Any serious investigation takes time and it is presumptuous to conclude that the EFCC is non-committal simply because you did not receive instant results."

Bako, who is from Bama in Borno State, told radio show Berekete Family that when he lost his father, Alhaji Kyari came to commiserate with the family and then promised him the contract. He said on getting to Abuja, he met with Alhaji Kyari at Caledonia Hotel, Maitama, four times where he was asked him to pay Mr Ado some money to facilitate the award of the contract.

He said he approached a friend who lent him some money, adding that he also sold his properties in order to raise N29.9m which he used in facilitating the contract. Speaking through an interpreter, he said Abba Kyari asked if he had a company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and when he told him he did, the met at Caledonia Hotel on Gana Street, Maitama, which should be recorded on CCTV.

“Abba Kyari collected the documents of my company and said I would supply 15 Toyota Hilux vehicles to the presidential villa. He gave me an agreement to sign and I signed two documents, he then collected two letterheads from me, 12 passport photos and introduced me to Sani Ado and Alhaji Ibrahim.

“He said anytime they needed money, he would let me know so that I could give the money to Sani Ado who began collecting money from me to process the contract. Before depositing money into Ado’s account, I always alerted Abba Kyari and he would tell me to go ahead.

“All the money I transferred to Ado summed up to N29, 950,000, while the total contract was worth N300,725,000. They promised me 30% profit of the total contract which is about N94m,” Bako said.

He added, however, said he never received the funds as Mr Ado continued to give him flimsy excuses and when he got frustrated, he wrote a petition to the EFCC. He added that he met an official petitioner at Block C in the EFCC who is very close to the acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu and this officer asked him to bring the petition to him but by the time he got there, he had called Alhaji Kyari to inform him of his presence.