By Akinwale Akintunde 

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has sued the Benue State Government over allegations of fraud made against him and his company, Value Trust Investment Limited by the government.

Okupe in the suit filed by his lawyer, Festus Keyamo at the Benue State High Court, Makurdi is seeking an order of the court, compelling the defendants to pay him N358, 762, 934.90, "being amount for work already completed pursuant to the contract entered between them."

The presidential adviser also wants the court to order the payment of interest on the sum at the rate of 21 per cent per annum from 18th of June, 2007 (when the amount became due to the Plaintiff) "till judgement is entered and subsequently at the rate of 10 per cent per annum till the sum is finally liquidated."

The SSA averred that the Benue State Government under the leadership of former governor, George Akume, in 2004 awarded a contract to Value Trust Investment Limited, for the construction of rural roads using a product known as Romix Soil Stabilizer.

He stated that the contract was duly executed in favour of his company on April 21, 2004.

Amongst other prayers, he also wants the court to declare that "the plaintiff is entitled to a review of the contract agreement dated 21st of April, 2004 (with all its subsequent amendments) from N2, 303, 561, 032.50 to N6, 634,  033, 255.50.

He also wants payment made for damages "in the sum of N5, 000, 000, 000.00 against the defendants and in favour of the plaintiff for breach of contract."

According to the suit, "The plaintiff avers that it applied to the defendant for approval to enable the plaintiff appoint additional sub-contractors."

On the 16th of December, 2006, "the plaintiff again applied to the defendant, for its approval to disengage the sub-contractors appointed by the defendants because the sub-contractors failed to meet the terms of the agreement, thereby causing delay in the execution of the contract."

The plaintiff further said that the defendants refused to approve the application as contained in the letter dated 16th December, 2006 "even though the main reason behind the plaintiff’s application was due to the delay and poor performance of work by the sub-contractors appointed for the plaintiff by the defendants."

The plaintiff said the refusal of the defendants was contained in a letter dated 9th January 2007.

It would be recalled that the Benue State Government had last month accused Okupe and his firm of not executing the road contract after collecting mobilisation fees.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/okupe-sues-benue-over-alleged-contract-scam/124392/

very goood move DR.Okupe extend it to ACN and liar mohammed

Prove the mad dogs on NairaLand and elsewhere wrong sir.

Ah ah,very funny,d man is now fighting 4 not just his daily bread but his soul knowing dat if dis mudsling continues,GEJ will av no choice dan to fire him,leaving him without neither bread nor d soul 2 face both his adversaries nor his colleagues again.This is real stone age blackmail 2 hoodwink only d half-witted dat he shd not only return funds given to him for unexecuted contracts,but shd b spending some years in jail for same.
The attack lion now has more dan enuf 2 occupy his jaws& mind,he hasn't bn attacking of late

Keep deceiving yourself. After he was taken to the cleaners for collecting money without doing the job, he want to save face. Pdp posters keep doing the dirty job online. We Yorubas have already rejected pindeepeee in our region. Walahi wet weed is dangerous.

Festus keyamo don fall my hand! How could he be the lawyer representing this thief? Kai!

berem: Festus keyamo don fall my hand! How could he be the lawyer representing this thief? Kai!

..apart from the money,its all about the name..getting him out of dat case and also slam dunkin benue state govt in court wuld further show him as a force to reckon wif in the legal biz...

Keenly watching

Nna meeehn! See figures!

Fetus no send. I just love this guy, calling the big shots and eating it big. Eat it, win or lose. IBB, Obj, Aliko and all the multi trillionaires will soon give you a call.

Good move. i just hope nairalanders will allow the court do its job.

now ACN should go put their house in order.

berem: Festus keyamo don fall my hand! How could he be the lawyer representing this thief? Kai!

In the legal world,there is a huge gulf between legality and morality,while it is legally right for Keyamo to defend anyone,from the perspective of the public,we feel that only a mercenary without conscience would go ahead to defend a man like Okupe,we all know an icon like Gani (RIP) would never take up such case,cos he would not like to go against public opinion and sentiments.

In a nutshell,Keyamo is legally right,but is he morally right?.I can't say,cos the court of public might have proclaimed Okupe guilty,either by virtue of group effect (the PDP factor) or by participation.

:DNa waoh! Who de lie now?

The sight of this Okupe man alone repulse me. He looks ridiculous .

We are watching.

Spp

Abeg make una free keyamo jare....dat's what he does for a living...he's a lawyer....if bin laden were alive today and the price is right.....keyamo will represent him....lol

AlutaGarria: [size=18pt]We shall never lay down our arms - #GarriGang[/size]

arms? Where? Na u go tire.

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Dr okupe has d right to go to court and clear his name, whether he is guilty or innocent let the court decide. And as for Festus keyamo, those criticising are nothing but layabout who has nothing to do, somebody doing his work he went to school for and ur here calling him name's, did u remember Gani collected 10million from former speaker Ghali na abba to represent him in a case of corruption that was levelled against him, even though the case was latter withdrawn from court and when he told Gani to return d money and Gani refused that it is his legal fee. So u Acn, supporter's shld stop making frivolous allegation's against people and concentrate on building ur party that is a one man party to be a national party.

Gud 4 him

I see why Okupe would go to court. From what I can put together on this piece and others that I have read, the contract failed because Benue State Government failed to ensure the performance of the sub-contractors it appointed for the project. If that is the case, it is wrong to blame the failure of the project on Okupe's firm. George Akume didn't say this much in his accusations making it look like Okupe just cleared with the project funds. I also think George Akume was being malicious about the whole thing. He sounded like the state where he used to be don was helpless in the matter. State governments have a way of dealing with erring contractors. Why has Benue State Government reported to EFCC If Okupe absconded with funds and truly abandoned the project?

Okupe has responded well by going to court.

Okupe wan dey use strong face scatter matter

Wat is Bingo yapping about again


Bloody thief

Okupe will win this case, any bet?

who is fooling who in all of these, the incubent gov said he collected mobilisation and did not do the job,while he is saying he did the job but has not been fully paid. na wa ohhh!

The shameless PDP blood sucking thief. Bloody crook!

This is very interesting; I live in Benue and, incidentally, in the area where some of the rural roads were "constructed" by Okupe's Consultancy Firm-cum-Constructions Company, but I haven't seen any of the "constructed" rural roads. The Uni Agric-Gbajumba road which is one of the "Okupe roads' remains as it was before George Akume became the state governor. The only rural roads that have actually been constructed are those embarked upon by Gov Gabriel Suswam in parts of the state. Maybe God wants to use the "Okupe drama" to expose the massive and horrible fraud committed by the George Akume administration which have remained curiously shielded from publicity and from the EFCC.

We are waiting to see who is going to testify, or has certified, that Okupe actually constructed the said roads.