Enugu Govt Accuses Sujimoto CEO of N6bn Fraud, Petitions EFCC

The Enugu State Government has accused the Chief Executive Officer of Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited, Mr. Olasijibomi Ogundele, of defrauding the state of nearly N6 billion in a failed contract to build 22 Smart Green Schools.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr. Malachy Agbo, said Ogundele disappeared after collecting the funds, abandoning the project sites and evading all efforts by the state to reach him.

According to the government, Sujimoto was awarded a contract worth N11.4 billion on July 2, 2024, with a six-month completion timeline. To fast-track delivery, the state released 50% of the contract sum (N5.76 billion) as an advance payment.

However, Dr. Agbo said that instead of executing the project to specification, the contractor delivered shoddy work using quack engineers, and none of the sites met the required structural integrity.

“Worse still, he vanished into thin air with the money. All efforts to bring him to the table failed. He neither attended project briefings nor responded to calls and messages. He practically abandoned the sites,” the statement read.

The commissioner further alleged that Ogundele presented a bond from Jaiz Bank to secure the contract but diverted payments through a Zenith Bank account, thereby shielding the guarantor bank from liability.

Following repeated defaults, the government petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). A joint inspection by the EFCC and state officials in May 2025 reportedly confirmed that “little to no meaningful work” had been done across the 22 sites, with evidence of fraud in some cases where excavation was not even carried out.

The government said it has since repossessed the projects and re-awarded them to other firms to ensure completion before the September 2025 school resumption date, in line with Governor Peter Mbah’s Smart Green Schools initiative.

“Nigerians should disregard his theatrics and crocodile tears. The Enugu State Government is determined to recover every kobo of Ndi Enugu’s money fraudulently obtained by Mr. Olasijibomi Ogundele,” Dr. Agbo stated.