A group known as Northern Frontiers for Good Governance has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged corrupt award of a N1 billion contract by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to Creed Vision Nigeria Limited for the phase one renovation and rehabilitation of the Ojude Oba Pavilion in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
The petition dated December 20, 2024, was received and acknowledged by EFCC in a letter dated December 23, 2024, numbered EFCC/PET/HQR/4401/2024.
The group expressed worry that the ministry was busy awarding contracts outside its purview; at a time, farmers in the country were in serious need of assistance in terms of farm implements and fertiliser, while others could not access their farms due to the activities of bandits and terrorists.
In the petition signed by Mallam Abdullah Tanko, the national coordinator, the group asked the EFCC to investigate the circumstances surrounding the contract award, determine the actual cost of the project, compare it with the awarded contract sum, and determine the motive behind it.
The group also urged the anti-graft agency to find out how the project passed through legislative scrutiny of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, which Ogun State indigene heads, recover any misappropriated funds, if any, and prosecute those found culpable.
“We received credible information that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security recently awarded a contract worth N1 billion for the renovation and rehabilitation of Phase 1 of the Ojude Oba Pavilion, Ijebu Ogun State.
“It is disturbing that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s budget, which is supposed to be for seedlings, tractors and help for farmers, has become a financial input to the emergency renovation and rehabilitation of the Ojude Oba Pavilion.
“The prompt action of the EFCC would prevent further misappropriation of public funds and ensure that those found culpable are brought to justice,” the petition read in parts.