{"id":8667,"date":"2025-09-13T12:49:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=8667"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:49:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:49:56","slug":"n5-7bn-contract-efcc-secures-court-order-to-detain-sujimoto-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/09\/13\/n5-7bn-contract-efcc-secures-court-order-to-detain-sujimoto-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"N5.7bn contract: EFCC secures court order to detain Sujimoto CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured a court order to detain the Chief Executive Officer of Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited, Sijibomi Ogundele, over an alleged N5.7 billion unexecuted contract.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ogundele is being investigated by the Commission over alleged failure to deliver 22 Smart Green School projects in Enugu State after his company was reportedly paid the sum of N5.7 billion by the state government.<\/p>\n

The Commission is currently quizzing Ogundele, who is in custody, to unravel how he spent the sum without executing the contract, as alleged by Enugu State government.<\/p>\n

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Also, there were indications that the EFCC might seek a court order to seize funds in Ogundele\u2019s personal and the company\u2019s accounts, which had earlier been frozen.<\/p>\n

An EFCC source said the remand order was secured from a Magistrate Court to detain him until the anti-graft agency was able to complete its investigation.<\/p>\n

It would be recalled that Ogundele\u2019s personal accounts and those of Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited had earlier been frozen by the Commission, which also seized his international passport in order to restrict his movement until the completion of investigations into the alleged contract scam.<\/p>\n

The source said there is evidence that the said sum was paid to Ogundele, adding that the EFCC was equally in possession of the terms of the contract and the documents showing his failure to comply with the contractual obligation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is expected to explain how he spent the N5.7 billion or refund the money. His case looks straightforward,\u201d the EFCC source said.<\/p>\n

Explaining further, the source said Ogundele\u2019s accounts were frozen in case the investigation gets to a stage where the Commission would approach the courts for forfeiture of the funds.<\/p>\n

The EFCC source disclosed that, starting next week, the Sujimoto CEO, Ogundele, will meet with top officials of the Enugu State Government as part of the investigations into the case.<\/p>\n

The EFCC had declared Ogundele wanted on the penultimate Friday for alleged money laundering.<\/p>\n

However, Ogundele immediately went on X to blame the Enugu State Government for the EFCC\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

He stated that the contract was underpriced and also cited inflation as a reason for the project’s inability to be completed.<\/p>\n

Responding to Ogundele\u2019s claims, the Enugu State government alleged that the Sujimoto CEO disappeared after collecting N5.7 billion as 50 percent mobilisation fee to deliver 22 Smart Green Schools in six months, in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Parts of the state government\u2019s response read: \u201cThe Enugu State Government paid the sum of N5,762,565,475.25, representing 50 per cent of the contract sum, to fast-track the projects at all the sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than play to the rules of the contract, Mr. Ogundele resorted to shoddy jobs and the use of inexperienced workers and quack engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of his site’s little jobs done on the sites met the structural integrity of the projects as specified in the structural drawing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorse 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, he practically abandoned the sites, leaving the Enugu State Government with no other choice but to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the funds paid to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cA joint team of officers of the Enugu State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and the EFCC visited the 22 sites to evaluate the progress of work on May 8 and 9, 2025, where it was clearly established that there had been minimal to no significant work done at the said sites one year after the contract award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, he fraudulently did not do an excavation for all the blocks in the site. It is also on record that he has not shown up at the sites or made himself available to either the state government or the law enforcement agencies<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has since retaken and handed over the sites to new firms, which have no choice but to start the construction afresh. It is equally noteworthy that there were other firms awarded multiple Smart Green School projects and they are delivering quality jobs on target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pictures that accompanied the Enugu State government\u2019s response showed that the project sites were mostly at the levels of foundation and DPC, with a few at the stage of block work.<\/p>\n

The government also disclosed that many other contractors had completed similar projects.<\/p>\n

One of the contractors involved in the execution of the Smart Green School project, Benneth Nwatu, MD\/CEO of Ever Progressive Integrated Resources Venture, in his testimony, said, \u201cOur company has completed multiple projects here.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, we handled the Smart Green School at Ugwuomu Nike, the one at Queens School, and another one at Inyi in Oji River.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing about the governor is that he is happy when somebody shows capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we completed the project at Queens School within six months, the government graciously awarded us more jobs. The ones we are handling at Ekulu Girls and Iva Valley are also almost completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured a court order to detain the Chief Executive Officer of Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited, Sijibomi Ogundele, over an alleged N5.7 billion unexecuted contract. Ogundele is...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}