Paul Odili, the executive assistant to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State on international partnerships, has been caught in daylight contract fraud and the illegal substitution of a company on a World Bank-backed project.
The Delta State Government was a beneficiary of World Bank for Nigerian Women, a special intervention to train women and enhance their socio-economic productivity. In 2024, the government planned to execute the project through its Ministry of Economic Planning.
Through Odili’s involvement, Peritum Pro, a consulting firm founded by Theodora Ogharanduku, expressed its interest in the project.
The company reviewed information about the project, which had several components. It then expressed interest in the capacity-building component, an aspect that aligned with its objectives.
Based on its interest, the company conceptualised and developed a proposal that intended to organise capacity-building training for members of the Delta State Social Protection Technical Working Group (SPTWG).
The facts of this story were extracted from a February 20 letter sent to Odili and an interview the company’s founder granted FIJ on Monday.
“The proposal was comprehensive from end to end: to review the state’s social protection policy; to build staff capacity on an ongoing basis; to cure lapses and corruption; strengthen their data collection, and to facilitate increased access to grants and development financing,” Ogharanduku said.
While Odili was at the centre of the discussion about the training, Economic Planning Commissioner Sunny Ekadeyan, Director of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) Martina Amromanoh and some other government officials reviewed the company’s capabilities and okayed the proposal.
“The proposal was guided through to completion by Odili and Amromanoh. Upon completion, it was moved to the secretary to the government who passed it over to the governor for consideration,” the company’s founder added.
Oborevwori then greenlighted the proposal in early December and the company started preliminary work while awaiting official mobilisation. Week after week, there was no communication from the government asking the company to kick off the project. This prompted the founder to liaise with the commissioner.
This is where it gets interesting. The approval granted by the governor had been compromised as Odili and Amromanoh had substituted Peritum Pro with a company reportedly owned by Odili.
“Driven by greed and malice, you replaced our client with your preferred contractor — an act that constitutes a clear violation of public procurement laws and certainly qualifies for ICPC and EFCC attention.
“This fraudulent and malicious act of yours deprived our client of the rightful fruits of many months of relentless labour, a missed opportunity to strengthen our client’s project portfolio and experience base (which was required to pursue international development sector partnerships) and millions of naira in operating expenses incurred in developing the subject project.
“Without batting an eyelid, you wrought this subterfuge against a project which you helped push to approval stage. Our client is convinced that your heinous scheme, all along, was to ‘use’ Peritum Pro and its concept as expendables, towards the furtherance of your own interests and with no benefit whatsoever to our client. You stole and misappropriated our client’s idea, intellectual property, the fruit of its hard work, its project and its contract!”
Amromanoh revealed these details to the commissioner. She told the commissioner that Odili instructed her to switch the company’s name for another one.
“I wonder why he did that because his company did not know anything about the project and could not have been able to implement it,” Ogharanduku said.
As a condition not to initiate a court action, the company asked for a restitution of N30 million and a written apology.
“KINDLY BE ADVISED, that unless our client shall have received WITHIN SEVEN DAYS HENCE (inclusive), the following: (i) the sum of N30,000,000 (Thirty Million Naira) being our client’s projected profit from the project you so maliciously sabotaged, plus a portion of its expenses in pursuance of the approval thereof, and (ii) a written apology acknowledging the impropriety of your conduct,” the company’s lawyer wrote.
Odili responded to the letter. As indicated by his response, he made a failed attempt to deny culpability in the fraud.
“Our client, sometime in 2024, out of the magnanimity of his heart, introduced your Client’s PROPOSAL to the Ministry and sought to facilitate an approach between your client’s Company and the Ministry leveraging on his goodwill,” A.J. Atarhieyere, Odili’s lawyer, responded to Peritum Pro in a February 24 letter.
“The stated project is the project of the ministry and not our client’s, and as such, the ministry reserved the right to award it to any company of their choice. The project was already captured within the ministry’s budget even before our client introduced your client’s proposals to the ministry.
“Our client was informed after several attempts to assist your client’s company in getting the project that your client’s company lacked the requisite criteria and wherewithal needed to execute the said project.
“Our client is NOT an employee of the ministry, nor is he seized with the authority to award contract(s) on behalf of the ministry to any prospective contractor.
“Our client is therefore presently unsure of which provision(s) of the Procurement Laws he has contravened by trying to leverage on his goodwill to assist your client’s company.”
A series of backend conversations took place to prevent the matter from becoming public information. Key government officials and the lawyers on both sides were involved.
In a twist, Odili capitulated on April 8 when he paid N10 million in restitution to the company’s account through his lawyer. Even though it was below its demand, Peritum Pro accepted it and insisted an apology letter had to be tendered for record purposes and its integrity.
Odili refused to send an apology to Peritum Pro. “He said writing an apology letter would be indicting, but I said the restitution was enough indictment. They had earlier negotiated to pay N5 million but we insisted that our losses far exceeded that amount. Eventually, they agreed to pay N10 million. But they have refused to apologise formally,” said Ogharanduku.
“We told them that failure to apologise would compel us to petition the governor and even sue them. This information got to the commissioner and someone started threatening me. I won’t mention the person’s name now but I told them that we do know that the training did not happen and that the money was illicitly shared among some ministry’s staff.
“Another person also called me saying that Frank Isume, a permanent secretary at the ministry who retired on March 14, had asked them to implore us not to petition the governor and that they would compensate us for the apology letter. They said a formal apology was indicting. But I insisted that they write the letter and assured them that we would put the matter behind us if that was done.
“Unknown to us, they used that period of proxy calls to delay us to enable them to ‘clean the house’. Now, what cleaning the house means, we don’t know. All we know is that they employed those tactics to delay us for about two weeks.”
The retired permanent secretary Isume failed to respond to questions sent to him by FIJ on WhatsApp on Friday. “Wow,” was Isume’s only response.
Efforts to reach Odili for comments on this report were unsuccessful. Phone calls placed to his known line on Wednesday and Thursday rang out while a text, WhatsApp message and email sent on Thursday received no response.
Okolo Hessington, Odili’s lawyer who paid the restitution, said he couldn’t hear FIJ’s words on the phone on Thursday. So, a text and WhatsApp message were sent instead. Hessington responded to none.
Amromanoh, the overseas development assistance director, confirmed that the substitution occurred but denied colluding with Odili.
“Odili was the person the ministry knew. We did all the due diligence needed to be done and after the proposal was approved, he came back to say that he didn’t want to use this particular company [Peritum Pro] anymore. I think they used to be business partners but what the issues were, I don’t know,” Amromanoh told FIJ on Wednesday.
“I think the commissioner was able to know what the problem was and he advised Odili to settle with the company. I think it’s about negotiation. Odili knew he had a problem with the ministry. If there was a problem, it was between him and the company. But there were no procurement law violations in all of this.”
Commissioner Ekadeyan told FIJ he was not in the state when FIJ spoke with him on Friday. He did not respond to all the questions posed to him. He only denied trying to suppress the matter and finally asked this medium to speak with Odili because he was at the centre of the issue.
“I am happy a third party is coming to look at this case dispassionately. But you have to call Odili to hear his own side because he was at the centre of it and your story will not be complete if you don’t reach him. You may not even need to call me if you call all the people involved,” Ekadeyan said.
When asked about whether the project was implemented, the commissioner said, “We have over 400 staff. There is a permanent secretary. It is a full organisation,” suggesting that he could not have known whether it was done or not.
“You have to call everybody, including Mr Isume, to get their perspectives so that we can get a closure to it,” he added.
Peritum Pro’s lawyer sent a petition, dated May 3, to the governor. According to Ogharanduku, some ministry staff had boasted that they had killed the petition and that the governor would not see it.
It is worth mentioning that the governor’s cabinet is no stranger to official stealing or abuse of office. In February 2024, the governor suspended former Agriculture and Natural Resources Commissioner Omoun Perekebena Perez over alleged financial underhand dealings reported at the ministry.
Other ministry staff fingered in the financial misconduct and suspension were Bennett Ezon-Abode Agamah, then permanent secretary at the ministry; Oki Preowei Yintareke, an assistant director of Agricultural Engineering; and Gabriel Idiatacheko who was the chief accountant at the same ministry. The governor also ordered three senior officials to embark on mandatory leave until further notice over the matter.
In January, the governor suspended Favour Obakoro, his senior special assistant on morals and diaspora, over allegations that she used her position to fraudulently obtain money from an unnamed individual.
