Government officials who served between 2001 and 2008 may be in for more trouble as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is beaming its searchlight on them in a bid to unravel more suspects in the Siemens bribery probe.
The agency said that it believed that apart from former Ministers of Communication, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed and late Chief Haruna Elewi, more government officials were involved in the scam.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the anti-graft agency has already written a letter to Lufthansa requesting the airline to furnish it with details of government officials that travelled on the airline between 2001 and 2008 to Germany.
It is believed that Siemens gave bribes in form of all expenses paid trips to Germany to a number of government officials within the period.
A reliable source within the agency said the travel list would guide the agency to unravel more culprits. She said, ”We are eagerly waiting for Lufthansa to give us the list. This is a very reliable list of knowing other government officials who collected bribes from Siemens because the German company also gave the suspects all expenses paid holiday trips to Germany.”
She added that when the airlines submit the list, the government officials will be invited to provide documents of their trip. SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that anyone that can give evidence that he did not travel on the bill of Siemens will be allowed to go. Otherwise they will become EFCC‘s guest.
Our correspondent gathered that the EFCC has stumbled on fresh facts that further indict Adebayo. It is alleged that apart from collecting 700,000 Euros in cash, Adebayo was also sponsored on medical and holiday trips, with four members of his family, by the company.
Our correspondent gathered that the EFCC also accused the former minister of soliciting funds from Siemens in 2005.
According to the source, Adebayo wrote a letter to the Managing Director of Siemens, Klaus- Peter Gilbert, allegedly asking for donations at his Oke-Onigbindin home, Kwara State.
The MD replied him in a letter dated December 2, 2005 with Ref No SLN/ABJ/MD thus, ”In the light of this, we will give support to the people of Oke-Onigbindin in their project with our donation that will be handed over to you personally by our general manager, sales, Ronald-Albert Klesse who will also be at the occasion with me.”
It was learnt that Adebayo collected the sum of N10m from Klaus but he denied this. According to the EFCC, ‘Adebayo said that he was given only N1m.‘
Already charges will soon be filed against the suspects. The spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed this when he said, ”We have two Siemens cases in court at Abuja. We charged 18 persons to court last week and new charges will be filed against more suspects.”
Our correspondent gathered that Mohammed, will be charged for allegedly receiving 650,000 Euros bribe money while Olanrewaju will be prosecuted for allegedly receiving a medical treatment worth 5,000 Euros from Siemens.
The scandal was uncovered shortly after the German police invaded the Siemens headquarters in Germany over allegations that the company offered bribes to Nigerians, Libyans and Russians to get contracts.
The telecommunications firm had in 2007, admitted that it had uncovered more than N1.3bn in suspicious payments, out of which a huge sum of money was allegedly given as bribe to some Nigerians.
The company had admitted guilt and was fined N201m by a Munich Court on October 4, 2007.
Also named as recipients in the scandal were Senator Jubril Aminu and top officials of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Nigeria Immigrations Service and Ministry of Communications.
Others, who allegedly shared from the illicit fund were the Legal Adviser of NITEL, Mr. Samson Olabiyi; a secretary in the Ministry of Communications, one Dr. Mamza; and NITEL Tenders Board Secretary, Mr. R. Olusanju.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101024415181
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