Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (AGF), Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN), may soon become the subject of a huge scandal if the Federal Government accepts calls to investigate allegations of favouritism and sleaze in the award of contracts for prison decongestion which the official allegedly handled before his reassignment.
The former AGF was last week reassigned to the Special Duties ministry following his uncompromising stand on the appointment of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as acting president, while ailing President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua still recuperates in Saudi Arabia.
Aondoakaa was alleged to have favoured people who have little or no idea of the legal profession with mouth-watering contracts for the renovation of prisons and construction of new ones to facilitate decongestion of the correction centres.
Many of the contracts were purportedly abandoned even after the beneficiaries allegedly collected upfront advance payments for the jobs which were later abandoned.
Aondoakaa, ran into problems for refusing to accept legal and political points advanced in the direction of appointing Jonathan as acting president even though it was the most credible option to save the nation from a major political crises, ostensibly because as one of the influential kitchen cabinet members in Yar'Adua's government he was afraid of losing out in a Jonathan administration.
It was, therefore, not surprising to political observers especially villa watchers when fully-armed policemen stormed Aondoakaa's office at the Federal Secretariat and conducted a thorough search after which he was reassigned soon after the National Assembly resolved to review the controversial interview that Yar'Adua granted the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), last year on his state of health, as well as the decision of the Executive Council of the Federation (FEC) to upgrade Jonathan to the status of acting president.
Among the documents allegedly recovered from Aondoakaa's office were several letters of contract award said to have been issued to relations of the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (AGF), who had posed as lawyers to gain the opportunity to participate in the prison decongestion project.
Sources in the ministry said that ever since Aondoakaa assumed office as AGF, there have been allegations of fraud involving the prison decongestion project and it has almost jeopardized the reform programme of the current administration aimed at improving the prisons and criminal justice system.
It was noted that rather than award such contracts to qualified contractors, Aondoakaa simply assisted several Tiv businessmen although the names of proxies especially lawyers were used to conceal the contract scam.
Lawyers, who protested and petitioned against Aondoakaa's handling of such jobs, were asked to provide 60 per cent of the contract sum as indemnity, failing which the contracts would not be awarded. The development was said to have piqued several lawyers who have petitioned the disciplinary committee of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to investigate the scam, but it could not be ascertained if the NBA complied with the request.
With Aondoakaa's removal last week, many lawyers who spoke to our reporters on condition of anonymity called on Prince Adetokumbo Kayode (SAN) to probe the allegations with the view to correcting any perceived anomaly especially the outstanding debts from the contracts.
It was gathered that many outstanding payments for similar jobs done in the past are yet to be settled, while recent prison decongestion jobs and other contracts involving contractors from the same state like Aondoakaa were promptly paid without questions.
Contacted on telephone, President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Chief Akeredolu [Bashorun] (SAN), confirmed that the NBA has received several petitions against Aondoakaa but would not provide details, neither would he confirm if the NBA disciplinary committee commenced action.
Our correspondents gathered that the contract scam and other improper appointments especially in parastatals and agencies supervised by the justice ministry would soon be revealed and the disclosure may put on line the jobs of many chief executive officers.
