ICPC begins trial of Abia gov’s Chief of Staff Thursday

Trial of the Chief of Staff (CoS) to Abia State Governor, Cosmos Ndukwe, over alleged contract in­flation and gratification, which had suffered several adjournments, would begin in earnest in Umuahia on Thursday.
The new date was fixed on July 3 by an Abia High Court sitting in Umuahia following the absence of the defence counsel in a corrup­tion case instituted against Ndukwe by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commis­sion (ICPC).

According to the eight-count charge preferred by the ICPC, Ndukwe was al­leged to have, between No­vember and December 2008, while serving as the general manager of Abia State Envi­ronmental Protection Agen­cy (ASEPA), inflated the contract awarded to a firm for the provision of environ­mental services to the state.
Also, it was alleged that between January to Decem­ber, 2009, in the same capac­ity as ASEPA general man­ager, the CoS received N42, 750, 000 being the total sum of N4 million he received from the same company on a monthly basis, using a proxy and depositing the sum in the account of Conk Productions Limited, where he was the sole signatory.
Ndukwe was also charged with gratification when he was accused by ICPC of corruptly receiving some money purported to be loan, for himself out of a monthly payment of N13 million made to the company. Ac­cording to the commission, the offence is punishable under Section 8(1) (b) of the ICPC Offences Act 2000.