By yodele Oni
“It is business gone awry” – Ogundele
Enugu State Government has revealed that the CEO of Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited, Olasijibomi Ogundele, just declared wanted by the Economic, Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), defrauded the state of nearly N6bn, insisting that his recent theatrics amounted to nothing more than crocodile tears.
Ogundele had been declared wanted by the anti graft agency for alleged diversion of funds and money laundering.
The EFCC alleged that Ogundele diverted funds and laundered money, specifically in relation to a contract with the Enugu State Government and a $325,000 real estate deal.
Reacting to the allegations, Ogundele maintained that the issue involved is a business deal gone wrong, due to currency depreciation and increased construction costs.
According to him, Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited is a prominent real estate firm in Nigeria, known for luxury residential and commercial projects.
But, the state government, in a statement, stated that Ogundele deliberately orchestrated a premeditated fraud, disappearing after pocketing the sum meant for the construction of 22 Smart Green Schools across different parts of the state.
These clarifications were contained in a statement issued on Friday by the Enugu State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr. Malachy Agbo.The government further alleged that although Ogundele presented a bond issued by Jaiz Bank to secure the contract, he cleverly diverted the funds into a Zenith Bank account registered with the state’s Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, thereby frustrating the possibility of holding Jaiz Bank accountable.
“For the avoidance of doubt, on July 2, 2024, the Enugu State Government awarded a contract in the sum of N11,457,930,950.52 to Sujimoto Luxury Construction Ltd for the construction of 22 Smart Schools (buildings only) in six months starting from the date of the acceptance of the award.
“The Enugu State Government paid the sum of N5,762,565,475.25, representing 50 per cent of the contract sum, in order to fast-track the projects at all the sites.
“Rather than play to the rules of the contract to deliver quality projects for furnishing and equipping ahead of September 2025 school resumption, in line with the priority placed on the Smart Green Schools initiative by the government, Mr. Ogundele resorted to shoddy jobs and the use of inexperienced workers and quack engineers.
“None of his sites met the structural integrity of the projects as specified in the structural drawing.
“Worse still, he vanished into thin air with the money. All efforts made by the government to get him to a roundtable to discuss the quality and progress of work proved abortive.
“He equally refused to attend the periodic projects briefing organised by the state government for all contractors or take numerous calls and messages put across to him.
“In fact, he practically abandoned the sites, leaving the Enugu State Government with no other choice than to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the funds paid to him.”
The government confirmed that the abandoned sites had been re-awarded to new firms who had to restart the projects from scratch.
“It stressed that “tremendous progress” was now being made to ensure Governor Peter Mbah’s vision of migrating Enugu children to Smart Green Schools by September remained on track.
“Nigerians should therefore disregard his theatrics and crocodile tears, as Enugu State Government is determined to and will surely recover every penny of Ndi Enugu fraudulently obtained by Mr. Olasijibomi Ogundele (Sujimoto),” the statement concluded.
The government also released pictures of the abandoned project sites taken during the joint inspection with the EFCC on May 8 and 9.
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