Contractor Still Fighting For ₦36M Payment After Delivering Wheel Loaders To Obi

Contractor Still Fighting for N36m Payment After Delivering Wheel Loaders to Obi’s Govt in 2008

By Opeyemi Lawal

In October 2006, the Peter Obi-led Anambra State Government approved the procuring and supplying of two new Shandong Engineering Machinery (SEM) wheel loaders.

The state government awarded this contract to Chris Okeke’s Auto Alternative Ltd. through the Anambra State Ministry of Environment, Mineral Resources, Science and Technology. The wheel loaders were priced at N18 million each.

Speaking with FIJ on October 22, Okeke said the wheel loaders were delivered in 2008, nearly two years after it was approved.

“After the delivery, we filed an invoice for payment and that was where the issue began,” one of the numerous letters written to the government by Okeke’s solicitors, dated June 24, 2015, reads.

“According to the letter from the ministry dated October 20, 2006, the contract sum for the item is N106 million, short of N13.25 million deducted as Tax/VAT payment.

“After the contract was accepted and signed, our client delivered with complete tools and accessories two brand new CAT SEM wheel loaders in good condition to the Ministry of Environment, Mineral Resources, Science and Technology.

“In furtherance to the above, the ministry through her letter on August 7, 2007, to the Managing Director of Spring Bank Plc, approved her intention to domicile the payment of N36 million in Spring Bank representing payment of two Nos SEM Caterpillars wheel loaders and same was never made till date.”

The contract award.
The managing director also told FIJ that his company would frequently visit the ministry, present their invoice, and remind the government that they were still owed, but nothing came of it. The people in government kept saying, “Don’t worry, we will sort it out.”

Okeke said things continued that way and his company kept going to remind the state government until sometime between 2013 and 2014, about six years after the project was delivered, when he visited the ministry’s office again and someone asked him why he wouldn’t stop coming after they had paid him.

“One person we met at the time said, ‘Why do you keep coming here and asking for payment? We have paid you; we paid you. I know we paid that money; N36 million.’ But I said, ‘No’,” Okeke told FIJ.

“Then I called one of the clerks and asked, ‘Can you please help?’ That was when I realised what had happened. The person they paid was working as a personal assistant to Obi at the time.”

Invoice presented to the government in 2008.

The government asked the ministry to pay N36 million to Auto Alternatives once the contract had been completed.

Okeke said he was stunned and decided to dig further into the payment made by the state government. He said he then discovered that the government had paid Benjamin Uba of Benflo Limited.

“We discovered that they paid him in cash. They claimed he was the one who delivered the wheel loaders we took a loan for,” Okeke’s lawyers said.

“In the course of the matter before Justice Iguh of the State High Court, one Benjamin Uba (representing Benflo Ltd) emerged out of the blue and alleged that he was the one who supplied the two 2007 CAT SEM wheel loaders and not our client.

“Later we joined issues with Uba whom our client has never had any business relationship in the past.

“Our client informed us that Uba was an errand boy to the then Governor and was merely used as a surrogate to settle personal scores between our client and the then Executive Governor.

“It was the said Uba who petitioned the governor that our client owed him the sum of N36 million and not that Uba supplied the items to the State Government.”

The contractor said this was the beginning of a long legal battle and the loss of his company’s Auto Alternative workshop to service the loan he took from the now-defunct Spring Bank.

But this was not the only fee the state government failed to pay Okeke to date. Okeke explained that before delivering the wheel loaders, they had executed a contract for the same government where they were asked to supply 10 waste disposal vehicles and two wheel loaders.

He said while the government was paying for these, they deducted N13.25 million in error.

“We complained about this and the commissioner wrote to the governor, informing him that there was a mistake. The governor approved the payment, but it was never paid to us,” Okeke told FIJ.

“It was after this they then requested that we deliver two more wheel loaders which they never paid for. I sold my company’s workshop five years ago to repay the mounting interest on the loan.

“The thing is, if you look at the value of that money at the time we made the payment, the dollar was N120/$1, that was $300,000 in terms of actual value at the time. Now, the money is worth about $20,000.

“I have lost so much because of this deal.”

Okeke said after Obi’s regime, every time they went to the government to request payment, the current government would say they knew nothing about it.

“The sitting government would often tell us that they do not know about it because they did not approve the contract,” Okeke said.

“But this is not true because the seat of government is the same, and we deal with the government not individuals.”

Okeke said he took the case to court where the government promised to settle all the debts if they withdrew the case, and he also petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The anti-graft commission investigated the case but suddenly stopped communicating with him.

“The EFCC investigated the case in 2021 but abruptly stopped communicating. I petitioned their chairman, Ola Olukoyede, again. He personally received my petition in Abuja and forwarded it to their Enugu zonal office last year. Since then, I haven’t heard anything from them,” Okeke told FIJ.

“Also, when we went to court the first time in 2011, the government promised to settle all the debts if we withdrew the court case. We did in 2012, but the state government reneged on their promise.”

FIJ emailed the Anambra State Government and its Ministry of Environment on October 23, but there was no response at press time. FIJ sent another email on October 28, copying both parties, but there was no response.

FIJ went further by contacting Christian Aburime, the chief press secretary to Charles Soludo, the current Anambra governor, on November 6.

Aburime said that no one in the current government was aware of the contract and could help Okeke.

“My dear friend, if you want to go to the press, you can go. This is a different government, and I am not aware of what you’re saying, nobody is. This government under Soludo came into office in 2022. Start calculating from there, so nobody can verify what this person is talking about,” Aburime told FIJ.

“You’re addressing a government that came into office in 2022. How do you reconcile that? The guy is going to media houses; I’m a journalist myself. What are the media houses going to do? Was it this government that awarded the contract? No. So let him go and meet the people who awarded him the contract. I’m sure they are still around and still alive.

“Call me on Tuesday, and I will direct you to someone you can talk to.”

When FIJ called the chief press secretary on Tuesday and Wednesday, he didn’t answer. He had not responded to WhatsApp and text messages at press time.

Source:- Fiji