The former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
has owned up and taken responsibility over the approval of N2.5bn
released to Pinnacle Communications Ltd by the National Broadcasting
Commission under the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project of the Federal
Government.
Mohammed made this known in his statement dated June 13, 2019 and made
available to defence counsel in the alleged fraud case brought against
the NBC Director General Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and executives of Pinnacle
Communications Limited.
In the statement, Mohammed disclosed that he approved the payment “on
the strength of” particular reference to section 11.2 (c) of the White
Paper governing Implementation of the DSO in Nigeria by the NBC DG in
recommending the payment to him for approval.
Lai Mohammed said section 11.2(c) of the White Paper “directed the NBC
to put in place necessary conditions and ensure that close to a level
playing field is achieved in reference to the significant advantage
over new entrants enjoyed in the DSO ecosystem by the Government
Signal Distributor, in this case the ITS that came out of the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA), which already had 157 transmission sites
spread across Nigeria.”
The former minister added that the recommendation letter from NBC also
recalled that ITS had already been paid N1.7billion for DSO rollout in
three states and therefore noted that the payment of N2.5 billion to
Pinnacle Communications Limited would represent close to a level
playing field that the White Paper called for.
He explained further that by virtue of their position as chief
executives of various parastatals under his ministry, he frequently
relied on their expert professsional advice when they sought his
approval for projects.
” I wish to state categorically that there was no meeting in London
between me and Pinnacle Communications Limited or its representatives
regarding any form of payment to Pinnacle Communications Limited or
its representatives,” Lai Mohammed declared in his hand written
statement to ICPC.
He further stated that he did not need to seek approval of the Federal
Executive Council for the payment to Pinnacle Communications Limited
since he already had a presidential directive that the money released,
about N10 billion was to be used under his supervision for the Digital
Switch Over (DSO).
A prosecution witnesss Olugbemi Abraham, had earlier told the court
that “During investigation, we could not interview the then minister
of Information because he said he needed clearance from the Secretary
to Government of the Federation”.
Abraham however revealed that they later took statement from Lai
Mohammed during the pendency of this case, admitting that “Really, we
did not bother to get in touch with the SGF to enable him allow the
Information Minister to make statement.
