Sani Abacha stadium renovation: N37m lands gov’t official in trouble

Police from the Zonal Command in the state during the week arrested and quizzed, Alhaji Ahmed Gara-Gombe, the Special Adviser to the governor of Kano State on sports to explain his role in the scandal following the arrest of the main contractor handling the job.Trouble was said to have started following petitions by the sub […]

Police from the Zonal Command in the state during the week arrested and quizzed, Alhaji Ahmed Gara-Gombe, the Special Adviser to the governor of Kano State on sports to explain his role in the scandal following the arrest of the main contractor handling the job.
Trouble was said to have started following petitions by the sub contractors to the police over the failure of the company, Sisa International Investment, owned by football coach, Peters Oche to pay their money for materials supplied to him.
Investigations have revealed that Gara-Gombe who was instrumental to the award of the contract was quizzed on Tuesday and Wednesday by the police following revelations by the contractor that the said official has questions to answer in order resolve the impasse.
The sub contractors were said to have written to the police to help them recover their money from the contractor after they learnt on good authority that the sum of N37million had been released to him by government.
According to our reporter’s investigation, the contractor opened the can of worms when he informed the police that though he was paid the sum of N37million by the government, he could not pay the sub contractors because of the way the money was disbursed on his behalf.
A dependable police source told SHOT! that after listening to the contractor, it necessary to invite the SA to come and say his own side of the story.
“We invited the Special Adviser to the governor on sports on Tuesday after we arrested the contractor the previous day and he was also with us on Wednesday. The Special Adviser told us how he disbursed the money but when he was asked to put the disbursement in writing, he came up with contradicting figures.
“ We also did on the spot assessment of the level of job done and came to the understanding that the contractor has done a good job but the government official is the one responsible for all the problem, we expected him to use his office to do the right thing but surprisingly
what we found out was a shame,” the police source said. The contractor who was given eight weeks to complete the job was said to have mobilized his staff to site despite the non payment of mobilization fee by the government.
However, it was gathered that when he ran out of funds, the Special Adviser stood in for him as a guarantor for him to collect the sum of N20m from a creditor with an interest of N7.5m for a period of 30days.
According to sources, the said N20m was deposited into the account of the Special Adviser who did the disbursement of the fund and in the end, gave N1m to the contractor.
However, on the receipt of the N37million from the government after the evaluation of the job done at the stadium, the contractor was made to pay back the sum of N27.5million into the account of the Special Adviser and another N6m to a close ally of the governor’s aide who supplied fridges and air conditioners which our source said is not worth more than N2m.
It is said after much drilling by the police, the Special Adviser was said to have issued a new generation bank cheque for N7.5m on Tuesday and another post dated cheque for N7.5m to the police after he was told that his actions were fraudulent.
“Somewhere along the line since the contractor was not mobilized for the job, he had to look for somewhere to source for money. This was facilitated by the governor’s aide who linked him up with a creditor. The aide is also the same person that brought the sub-contractors who are his cronies. The contractor co-operated to avoid squabbles.
“Eventually sometimes last week the government gave the contractor for the first time the sum of N37m out of the N119million contract sum and as expected the sub contractors learnt of it but they got worried when the contractor did not pay them,” our sources revealed.
One of the sub contractors, Alhaji Kabiru Baita on his part said the way the whole thing was going, they had to report the matter to the police, because they were not sure that they would be paid.
 Baita said they initiated the arrest of the contractor and it was only after he was arrested and interrogated that the dirty deals came to the open.
When Contacted, the Special Adviser, Alhaji Ahmed Shauibu Gara -Gombe who confirmed he was invited by the police following the arrest of the contractor to clear himself, agreed that he issued the said cheques to the police to stop further problem relating to the contract.
According to him, everything he did was for the interest of sports in the state as he said he will always ensure any project awarded through his office is adequately monitored.
He also said as a guarantor of the contractor for the said loan, there was no way he would allow him to go with the money without paying it, adding that all the sub contractors were given the jobs as his own way of helping them.
His words “The contractor at some points did not have money to do the job and we did not want to fail. He brought somebody that had agreed to lend him money to complete the job. The man said he cannot give him the money but will only release the money to me as the guarantor because I brought the contractor to Kano. I accepted and the man released the money to me and they agreed on how the money will be paid back.
“The N7.5million cheque that I issued I did because the contractor could not pay the sub contractors. I brought the contractor as well as the sub contractors to do the job. I am at the middle of the matter so in order not to allow the matter to degenerate further I did what I did,”.
When contacted, the State commissioner for Information,Youth,Culture and Sports, Alhaji Damburan Abubakar Nuhu said the government is not aware of the scandal but all he can say is that the contractor handling the project has done well and the first instalment of the contract sum has been paid to him and issues arising the payment is not in the know of the government.
“We are yet to be officially communicated on what is happening concerning the renovation work. Government is satisfied with the performance of the contractor and part payment of the contract sum has been made to him.
“Government’s concern is for the contract to be executed and to specification. Government cannot tell the contractor how he handles money that has been released to him,” he said.
Although the renovation work was to be completed in eight weeks, work is moving at a snail pace, forcing Pillars to switch to their stadium in Sabon Gari for their home matches.