Kakatar Construction and Engineering Ltd and its Managing Director, Azibaola Robert, are not part of any scam involving alleged diversion of monies allegedly meant to settle insurance premium of sacked PHCN workers, the company’s spokesman Mr. Austin Ekeinde, has said.

Ekheinde made the clarification against allegation that Kakatar CE Ltd was part of an alleged diversion of insurance premium payments of PHCN workers.



Robert is a cousin of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in an affidavit alleged that his company, Kakatar CE, was involved in illegal payments of premium of PHCN workers which the company disputes.

Speaking with THISDAY on the telephone, Ekeinde said: “An affidavit deposed to by an officer of the EFCC for a forfeiture order clearly misrepresented the facts.”

According to him, Kakatar CE took a N2.5 billion facility from Bestworth Insurance Brokers Limited to fund a federal government contract it won to provide infrastructure for Kyami District, Abuja.”

Eplaining further, he said: “On December 12, 2014, Kakatar CE got an award letter for a contract to provide engineering infrastructure for Kyami District which we were required to move to site to commence work immediately.

“As we were unable to secure a favourable credit facility from any commercial bank, Bestworth Insurance offered to provide us a project execution facility with mutually agreed terms upon which we moved to site immediately.

“Unfortunately the federal government has been unable to pay its statutory mobilization sum of over N7.5 billion due to Kakatar CE.

“However, sometime last year, EFCC invited us that it was investigating Bestworth for alleged diversion of insurance premiums of PHCN workers. That was how our N2.5 billion facility became an issue.

“There is no law which says a corporate organisation cannot take a facility from another corporate organisation.
“On the basis of documentary evidence the EFCC requested that the facility be repaid to it to enable it recoup the payment to Bestworth. It was on that basis that we commenced repayment through the EFCC to Besthworth. This has nothing clearly to do with any scam or fraud in that matter.

“As a good corporate citizen, our company adhered to the terms of the agreement reached with EFCC even though the federal government has failed to pay to us its obligations on the Kyami project for which we took the loan,” he added.

He said that Kakatar CE had no knowledge of Bestworth Insurance source of funds and had no need of probing its legality as it is a legally registered insurance company.

“It was purely a business transaction to help us execute a contract to open up Kyami district,” Ekeinde stated.
He said it was wrong and misleading to link Kakatar CE, a most patriotic indigenous engineering construction company, and its managing director to allegation of fraud with regard to the insurance premiums of PHCN workers.

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/01/04/jonathans-cousin-not-involved-in-n27bn-phcn-scam/

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