An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday told a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja that former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika neither initiated nor signed procurement documents linked to a contract at the centre of his ongoing trial.

The investigator, Christopher Udofia, who appeared as the prosecution’s 12th witness, testified under cross-examination that the procurement documents for the contract awarded to Tianaero Nigeria Limited were signed by the former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Abel Enitan.

Responding to questions from Sirika’s counsel, Chief Godwin Agabi (SAN), Udofia also acknowledged that official correspondence exchanged between the ministry and the Bureau of Public Procurement contained no indication that Sirika directed or persuaded the Permanent Secretary to seek the bureau’s approval for the procurement process.

The court was told that the documents, admitted earlier as exhibits, included a letter from Enitan requesting approval to adopt selective tendering for the contract and the bureau’s response. According to the witness, neither document suggested that the former minister influenced the request.

Udofia further testified that the Permanent Secretary, as the ministry’s accounting officer at the time, was responsible for implementing the procurement process and acting on the bureau’s approval.

Despite those admissions, the EFCC investigator maintained that the commission considered the award of the contract to Tianaero Nigeria Limited inappropriate because the company had been incorporated only about a year before securing the deal.

When asked why the former Permanent Secretary was not charged if investigators believed the procurement process was flawed, Udofia said decisions on who to prosecute were outside his responsibilities as an investigator.

Earlier during the proceedings, the prosecution tendered a flash drive containing an audio recording it alleged captured a conversation between Sirika and the former Permanent Secretary concerning a contract linked to the Nigeria Air project.

According to the prosecution, the recording featured a voice alleged to be Sirika’s instructing the Permanent Secretary to oversee the contract while ensuring the contractor was paid appropriately. The prosecution also claimed the speaker described the contractor as experienced in the aviation sector.

The court admitted the flash drive as Exhibit 37B, while the defence reserved its objection to the admissibility of the evidence until the final address.

The EFCC is prosecuting Sirika and three others on an amended six-count charge bordering on alleged contract-related offences involving Al-Buraq Global Investment Limited, a company the commission alleges is connected to the former minister’s daughter. The anti-graft agency also accused Sirika of using his office to give Tianaero Nigeria Limited an unfair advantage in relation to the Nigeria Air project.

Sirika and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The defence argues that the Nigeria Air project was conceived before Sirika became aviation minister and was executed under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement with oversight from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, the Bureau of Public Procurement and other statutory agencies.

Justice Sylvanus Chinedu Oriji adjourned the matter until July 9 for the continuation of the cross-examination of the prosecution’s 12th witness.