Governor of Enugu state, Peter Mbah has assured that all funds linked to the controversial Sujimoto smart school contract will be recovered by the state, following an ongoing probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Speaking on the status of the Sujimoto contract while addressing the press on Tuesday, Mbah confirmed that recovery efforts were already underway, with some funds beginning to return to the state’s coffers.
“I know some funds have started coming in. And I have no doubt, the way the case has been managed by the EFCC, that the state will fully recover all the funds that is due to the states,” he assured.
Mbah dismissed allegations of cronyism in the award of contracts for the smart school projects and maintained that the process was transparent and objective.
He said the claims made by Chief Nnaji that some Enugu citizens were sidelined in favour of outside contractors were inaccurate.
“I understand the concern of Chief Nnaji and perhaps you may also have, maybe few people will feel that way… I don’t think it’s an accurate characterization of what we do here,” Mbah stated.
The governor explained that the majority of contractors engaged in the smart school projects were from Enugu State, adding that their selection followed a rigorous process based on merit and capacity to deliver within tight deadlines.
“In fact, if anything, if you look at the stats, if you look at the number of contractors we have executing the smart school projects, they are over 80% Enugu citizens, people from the state or people who live here. So we were quite objective in terms of our selection process,” he said.
According to him, the urgency of the project required contractors who possessed the necessary resources and expertise to deliver under pressure.
“We knew we had a very tight deadline in terms of project execution and we were thinking about those contractors that would be able to deliver on fast track, because you have to have the skills, you have to have the resources in order for you to deliver on fast track projects. It’s not like your conventional delivery. And so we identified maybe one, two, three contractors that we felt would be able, and through a very competitive bidding process, emerged. And then we engaged them,” Mbah explained.
He further emphasised that the state maintained a high level of diligence throughout the process, and challenged anyone in doubt to verify the facts.
“If you look at the large percent, and I’m talking about over 80%, and I challenge anyone who is interested to probe further and get facts. And we can also make that fact public. We can publish the list of contractors we have for smart schools. You’ll find that over 80% of them are people from the states, people who are here,” he said.
Mbah admitted that despite the thorough vetting process, issues could still arise in projects of such magnitude, but stressed that mechanisms were in place to recover any state funds involved.
“But a project of this scale, there’s no doubt that sometimes no matter how diligent you are, no matter the level of due diligence you may have carried out, something may still go wrong. But what is important is that we’ve also the institutions that is able to help us ensure that none of the state funds is gone without being recovered,” the governor said.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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