By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
A Federal High Court in sitting in Abuja has adjourned the trial of a former Minister of Interior, Abba Patrick Moro, till February 23 – 25 for cross examination/continuation of trial.
Moro is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over money laundering, abuse of office, procurement fraud and fraud against Nigerian applicants to the tune of N675, 675,000.
He opened his defence on counts 2, 4, 5 and 11out of the 11-count charge brought against him and other co-defendants by the EFCC after the court had dismissed his “no case submission.”
Testifying as first defence witness (DW1) before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, the former minister of interior, told the court how the ill-fated NIS recruitment exercise in which many job applicants died due to stampede, was marred with controversies, nepotism, job racketeering and lopsidedness, saying that the exercise was derailed before he became a minister.
“The recruitment was marred with controversies, accusations, nepotism, job racketeering and lopsidedness. The controversies had derailed recruitment exercise even before I became the Minister of Interior”, he said.
While being led in evidence by his counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), Moro told the court that the Ministry of Interior, sometime in December 2012 received a waiver from the Office of the Head of Service for the recruitment of 4,556 officers, which he directed be to recruited accordingly.
He said he had to cancel the initial exercise with assurance to Nigerians that he was going to enthrone a cost effective and modern method of recruitment, adding that he saw a proposal from a technology company for an e-recruitment platform.
According to Moro, the e-recruitment platform was adopted and forwarded to the procurement department for vetting and approval. The Ministerial Tenders Board approved Drexel Technological Ltd for the project for a period of five years and forwarded to his office for his endorsement.
Moro told the court he was not a member of the Ministerial Tenders’ Board and did not influence the award to Drexel Ltd. He also denied inviting any company for the bidding exercise and therefore wondered why he was standing trial for procurement fraud, when he was not part of his ministry’s procurement department.
“I am not a member of the procurement department and I could not have influenced anybody and therefore did not commit any fraud”, he said.
Moro also told the court that he could not have caused the stampede that claimed the lives of applicants in the recruitment exercise, because the recruitment process started in 2012 and was eventually carried out in 2014.
Abba Moro is standing trial alongside a former permanent secretary in the ministry, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; a deputy director in the ministry, F.O Alayebami; Mahmood Ahmadu, currently at large, and Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited, a firm involved in the ill-fated recruitment exercise, for money laundering, abuse of office, procurement fraud and fraud against Nigerian applicants to the tune of N675, 675,000.
