The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has secured a conviction against the erstwhile Provost of Isaac Jasper College of Education, Sagbama, Bayelsa State, Professor Saviour Nathan Agoro, who was arraigned in court by the commission for contract fraud amounting to N285 million.
Prof. Agoro was arraigned at the Bayelsa State High Court alongside the former accountant of the institution, Perez Friday Lakemfa, who were both charged under sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 for having an interest in and conferring corrupt advantage on themselves and their relations as a result of contracts that were awarded by the college.
According to one of the charges, Agoro, on November 28, 2014, as Provost and CEO of Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education, Sagbama, knowingly acquired a direct private interest in a contract when he awarded a contract for the furnishing of one-story lecturers’ offices to Neatmosa Integrated Services Limited under the 2013 and 2014 merged Tetfund Normal Intervention programme for N47,115,915.
He was reportedly a director of the company.
In the 12-count charge against the defendants, the presiding judge, Justice D.E. Adekeme, found Prof. Agoro guilty on counts 1 and 5 to 12, while Lakemfa was found guilty on counts 2 to 4 of the charges.
Justice Adekeme thereafter pronounced non-custodian sentences on the two defendants based on the charges. Professor Agoro was given the option of a fine of one million naira, while Lakemfa was given the option of a N100,000 fine.
ICPC’s prosecutors, Mrs Peace Arocha and Dr Agada Akogu, told the court that the commission received a petition in May 2017 alleging that Professor Agoro personalised Tetfund funds by awarding contracts to his company and companies owned by his relatives between the years 2012 and 2014 in flagrant abuse of public procurement rules.
ICPC’s investigation discovered that the contract for the construction of a language laboratory and music studio was awarded to Nancydor Ekperi and Sons Co. Ltd., owned by a friend of the former provost and former accountant, Lakemfa.
Other contracts for construction and supplies were also found to have been awarded to companies owned by family members of the convicts.
