One of Nigeria’s foremost celebrities, Onyeka Onwenu, has been accused of demanding and collecting kickbacks through her personal assistant, Chika Abazu, from a contractor employed to carry out renovation works at the National Centre for Women Development [NCWD], where she is director general.
The accusation was levelled by Joseph Nwakama, an architect with Solidmark Associates Limited, the company employed by the Centre to carry out the renovation of its guest house.
However, although it was established by investigators from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, that Mr. Abazu indeed demanded and received a total of N17 million bribe from the contractor, no direct evidence has so far linked Ms. Onwenu to the offence.
So, it was Mr. Abazu who was on July 10 arraigned before a Federal Capital Territory High Court on a six-count charge of bribery and gratification.
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges but was denied bail and ordered remanded in the Federal Prisons, Kuje, until the case is dispensed with.
The presiding judge, Justice Chukwu Ndukwe, adjourned the case till September 28 for trial to commence.
Although investigators could not directly link Ms. Onwenu to bribetaking, documents obtained by the icirnigeria.org revealed so many wrongdoings by the Centre’s management under her watch, including funding the Solidmark contract with money taken from a Women Empowerment Programme in Zamfara State and spending more than was budgeted for the project. That is apart from paying the contractor even before he was officially awarded the contract.
Court papers obtained by this website indicate that Mr. Nwakama told investigators from the ICPC that he was called by Mr. Abazu, a deputy director at the NCWD and personal assistant toMs. Onwenu, early in April 2014 and asked to submit a bid for the renovation of rooms at the Centre’s guest house.
Two days after submitting the bid, he was awarded the contract and asked to immediately move to site, despite the non-issuance of an award letter.
“After two days he called me and told me that the Centre would like me to do the job because my bill was the lowest, and that I should come and see the DG,” Mr. Nwakama said in his statement.
“When I came, the DG asked me to start work, that I should work day and night (and) that they would give me award letter, agreement and advance latter,” the contractor stated.
The contract, according to the letter, was awarded on April 28, 2014 at the sum of N33 million for 25 rooms, but our investigation confirmed that Solidmark started work earlier that month, long before the formal award letter was issued.
According to bank records, by April 28, when the contract was supposedly awarded, a total of N28, 619, 047.62 had been paid into Solidmark’s Zenith Bank account (April 11, N22, 619, 047.62; April 14, N4 million, and; April 24, N2 million).
The first payment was made through a transfer by the Centre while the other two were through a First City Monument Bank, FCMB, account belonging to a company Transtell Ventures Nigeria Limited. It was discovered that the managing director and sole signatory to Transtell account is Mr. Abazu, Ms. Onwenu’s personal assistant and deputy director at the Centre.
Mr. Nwakama claimed that immediately the first payment was made, he was called by Mr. Abazu to his office, where he was told that Ms. Onwenu needed N23 million as gratification from the total money he would be paid to renovate 55 rooms, even though the contract letter stated 25 rooms.
“He told me that the DG wanted me to give them N23 million out of the money for the 55 rooms. I told him that it was too much (but) he told me that if I was not going to give them, the DG would ask me to pay back the money (N22, 619, 047.62) and the other contractor would do the job,” Mr. Nwakama explained, adding that he told the PA that he had done much work already.
“I had to accept, he then asked me to pay N10 million into his company account, Transtell Ventures Nigeria Limited, with FCMB and I did. He told me that why the DG needed the N10 million was so she could give the First Lady (former First Lady Patience Jonathan),” the contractor said in his statement.
Investigations show that on April 15, 2014, four days after Solidmark received the first payment, the sum of N10 million was debited from its account and paid into Transtell’s FCMB account – 0418352015.




Curiously, however, after paying out all that money, the contract was summarily terminated without notice, without the contractor completing the job.
Mr. Abazu’s statement to the ICPC, part of the proof of evidence in the court documents, was fraught with inconsistencies.




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In eight years since the account was opened, N133, 113, 854.55 has passed through it, including at least one payment from the Centre not connected to Solidmark’s renovation contract.
Mr. Abazu, whose salary is N404, 129.64 as deputy director, medical services, at the Centre, was described by a member of staff as cunning and greedy person who was bound to run into trouble.
Our reporter visited the NCWD twice in the last two weeks to speak with Ms. Onwenu, but was told she was not in office. The reporter called her on phone but she declined to comment on the matter. Having introduced himself and why he was calling, she told him to go to the Centre and talk to them and hurriedly hung up.
Mr. Abazu could also not be reached for comments as he had not come to work for a while, apparently engrossed with the case that has now landed him in prison custody.
One of the arguments put forward by the ICPC lawyer in opposing his bail application, which swayed the judge in taking the decision to remand him in prison, was that he attempted to bribe the investigative officer who handled his case.
According to a lawyer familiar with the case, Mr. Abazu tried to bribe the investigating officer and was actually led on to pay the money into the ICPC’s corporate account, itself an offence that would be used against him in court.

Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/187228-n17-million-bribe-lands-onyeka-onwenus-aide-in-jail.html

Truly with d succesful registration of BVN, any govt sincere about fighting corruption has this task made easy. Just click d BVN attached to dat particular name and all d accounts he has in all d banks will be on display .

Kk

K

Onyeka Onwenu? What a disgrace!
Chai!

There's need to expand our jail to accommodate more.

That woman can't stoop this low. It can only be her Aide not her.

The love of money is the root of all.........

Ujk

This is rubbing one's name in the mud.
Eventhough,onyeka hasn't been implicated in anyway,with her trusted aide so implicated, doubts would surely start to swell to her innocence.

Justice is justice anywhere in the world. If he is found guilty let him be charged. Nigerians have a way of making noise about issues and then forgetting to do something about it.

If corruption is to be fought truthfully in Nigeria, then don't be surprised to see your most trusted public figure indicted. Even most of us expressing shock on this thread are capable of doing worse

It is well with her!!

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The contractor must have agreed with them that he would pay them that sum, which was why they hurriedly awarded the contract to them. But when it got paid, it now felt that what Onwuenu and Co asked for was too high, hence this revelation, otherwise, no body would have heard of it. These are the corrupt practices going on in all government agencies and even all the civil service departments.

[quote author=Beremx post=36255491]Onyeka Onwenu? What a disgrace! She has allowed politics and longer throat job given to her Patience Jonathan to dent and destroy the reputation she built over the years as self made celebrity and artist.

pat077:
There's need to expand our jail to accommodate more.

What do you mean? You can only trust your self. After a built reputation, she has allowed a 'come and chop' job given to her by Patience Jonathan to dent it.

[quote author=nickxtra post=36259780][/quote]
]Onyeka Onwenu? What a disgrace! She has allowed politics and longer throat job given to her Patience Jonathan to dent and destroy the reputation she built over the years as self made celebrity and artist.

You may say she's disgraced, but her bank account is not disgraced

And people say change has not started. Those who are saying that are not being sincere for whatever reason they Have, scams like this would not have been busted during GEJ's reign .