This report was gathered on a journalistic inquest into alleged sole diversion of over of $28 million funds meant for construction of boreholes within 774 local government areas in Nigeria, by Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu, Managing Director of RIOK Nigeria Limited.
Upon investigation, it was revealed that Ukachukwu received payments without implementing the awarded projects. Recall, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON via an award letter dated December 17, 2013, awarded a contract to RIOK Nigeria Limited for the provision of boreholes and other water reticulating apparatus in all the 774 Local Governments and Area Councils in Nigeria. But upon further investigation, none of these said contracts were executed. It is well on note that the above contract was given to the said company/contractor on the basis that it had the capacity to construct and deliver the contract to meet the needs and specifications of the association; instead of delivering on the agreement entrusted, the said company plotted to receiving payments through promissory notes.
It is no news that sometime in September, 2021, ALGON had filed a suit at the federal high court, Abuja, challenging the federal government’s approval of the sum of $418m, to be paid to consultants and contractors for purported consultancy over the Paris Club refund.
The suit, dated 1st September 2021 and marked M/5474/2021, has the Federal Government, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Minister of Justice, Debt Management Office (DMO), Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Chief Registrar of the High Court as the 1st to 6th defendants.
The Interim Management Committee in Writ of Summon No CV/2185/2021, was asking the court to restrain the defendants from approving promissory notes of payments in the sum of US$142,028,941.95, US$ 1,219,440.45, US$ 215, 195.36, to RIOK Nigeria Ltd, Prince Nwafor Orizu, Barr. Olaitan Bello, respectively.
They had alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari, had approved the payment of the controversial amounts in Paris Club refund-related judgment debts to consultants, without considering the call for a forensic audit into the claims of the creditors, and the Federal Ministry of Finance following such order had also directed the Debt Management Office, DMO, to commence issuance of promissory notes to the creditors, as allegedly approved by the order of the then president.
The Minister of Finance on the orders of the President, was said to have directed the Director-General, Debt Management Office, DMO, to issue Promissory Notes 12th August, 2021 in favour of the said consultants, according to the applicant.
The amounts allegedly claimed by the various consultants are as follow: Ned Nwoko –US$68,658,193.83; Ted Iseghoghi Edwards -$159 million; Riok Nigeria Limited $142,028,941.95, Prince Orji Nwafor Orizu US$1,219,440.45, and Olaitan Bello – US$215,195.36 and Panic Alert System Limited and George Uboh – $47,831,920.
In the suit, IMC-ALGON asked the court to grant an order to dissuade the Hon. Minister of Finance, DMO, AGF, EFCC and the Chief Registrar of the High Court from issuing, handing over or releasing any promissory note or banking instrument of transfer to the consultants and contractors.
The applicant questioned the basis for the approval of payments, demanding that the contractors should provide proofs of the allegedly executed projects, contracts in any of the 774 local government areas to back up their claims to such enormous amount of monies.
May we reiterate that the Interim Management Committee was on the right path with its suit because, the company nominated its Directors, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu and Nicholas Ukachukwu Jnr in 2021, to accept the offer of 8,300,000,000 (Eight Billion, Three Hundred Million Naira Only) out of $14,202,894.00 issued promissory notes. The said amount was made into RIOK Nigeria Limited Zenith Bank Account with Account Number 1222837384. Also in June 2022, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu received another batch N7,911,185,250 (Seven Billion, Nine Hundred and Eleven Million, One Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty Naira Only) out of the second batch via the same account number from Premium Capital and Stockbrokers Ltd the company that discounted the FNG promissory notes.
RIOK NIG LTD, did not carry out the ALGON water supply scheme it was contracted for, infact Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, got the promissory notes through the help of the then Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who claimed to have carried out a “due diligence” on the debts, but was unable to tell Nigerians which projects were carried out by Riok Nigeria Ltd, to justify its claim along with two others for over $143.4 million (about N54.6 billion).
While justifying Riok Nigeria Ltd’s claim in 2018, Mr Malami went as far as giving statistical data on the stages of the “projects” executed for the various local governments in the country by the company, but failed to provide details of what the projects were and where they were located to enable well-meaning Nigerians verify them.
Apart from failing to name the projects handled by Riok Nig Ltd, Mr Malami, also deliberately concealed the identity of the agency which he claimed provided him the details of the stages of the completion of the controversial projects. He claimed in his statement that asides from asking the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, to probe the monetary awards to Riok, he also said that, in his “desire to cover the field and have thorough investigation of the issue” he directed other agencies to also carry out a probe.
But in trying to convince the public that he truly carried out “due diligence” over the matter, he concealed the name of the agency that reported to him that Riok Nigeria Limited executed the contracts awarded to it by ALGON to be entitled to being paid. He merely stated that “an agency wrote to the HAGF” and went ahead to copiously quote the conclusion in the “report” of the unnamed agency.
We wonder why during that time, Malami was silent on the September 2018 reply of ALGON president to his enquiry on Riok Nigeria Ltd’s projects, and chose to believe the report of an unnamed agency. We have it under good report that the then ALGON president, Gambo Kagara, had written to him regarding Riok Nigeria Ltd, that there was no evidence the company executed the contracts it was awarded by ALGON to be entitled to any monetary claim. Mr Kagara also stated that there was no communication from RIOK Nig. Ltd. informing the association of the job execution or completion. In that letter he further reiterated that no job inspection was carried out by ALGON and RIOK had not formally handed over any site of job completion; neither has any certification of job completion been issued to RIOK; consequently, the association categorically denied execution of the work by RIOK thereby invalidating any claims for payment.
Please kindly note that Mr Kagara’s successor Kolade Alabi, also wrote another letter dated October 8, 2019, to Mr Malami, restating the association’s position as contained in Mr Kagara’s September 10, 2018 correspondence.
The then AGF pushed for RIOK, others to be paid because he had his own interest and perhaps a percentage of the said amount. Viral report, has it that he said that an unnamed agency conducted a verification exercise of “the level of completion of the contract awarded to RIOK NIG LTD and its physical existence” throughout the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.
Malami disclosed that the agency “confirmed the existence of the projects” but stated that 107 of the projects were “Non Identified”. He also said that only 182 of them were “Completed”, 91 were “Functional”, 33 were “Abandoned”, while 205 were “Ongoing”, he also added, “Those geographically surveyed” were 178.
Okay without being biased, if truly Mr Malami, was acting in the public interest as he claimed, on what basis did he convince himself to recommend payment for a company that, by his own admission only executed 182 of the total 774 projects translating into mere 23.5 per cent execution of the contracts.
Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu has constantly been fingered in controversies especially ones bothering on financial fraud, infact he isn’t new to it, the public needs to be wary of a man that has chosen to abscond with over 28 million dollars’ funds allocated for the improvement of the wellbeing of common citizens at grassroots level. He gathers these monies for his selfish benefit, from flying business classes to abroad, buying properties or his latest addiction marrying a beauty queen.
On this background, with a journalistic mandate, we are raising our voices for the selfless Nigerians who RIOK Nig Ltd, has through selfish interest deprived access to good water and sustainable development. In same vein we are soliciting and urging the Federal Government under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the anti-graft agencies to swing into investigations on the awarded contracts and immediate recovery of all funds collected by Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, Director RIOK NIG LTD.
We also encourage mainstream media outfits to lend their independent voices too, because if we don’t raise our voices, nothing will happen to the non-compliant, self-imposed contractors who will continue syphoning amounts on jobs they didn’t execute, and this will send a wrong signal to the Nigerian youth, and also encourage a culture of impunity to the detriment of national development.
