By Louis Achi
Just 28 months in the saddle as Enugu State chief executive, Dr. Peter Mbah has simply turned the former Eastern region’s political center of gravity into a seething cauldron for innovative development and a crucible with which to forge new hope for its folk that history has curiously gamed to date.
But in externalizing his unique vision of a new Enugu State, challenges litter his path. But as Africa’s venerable sage Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Today, the trending challenge to the Enugu State Government is posed by a seemingly haughty Sijibomi Ogundele, CEO of the Nigerian luxury real estate company Sujimoto Group.
Sujimoto got a mouthwatering, privileged N11,457,930,950.52 construction contract from the Enugu State Government to build 22 smart schools. Sijibomi Ogundele has not delivered the project timeline notwithstanding that he was generously mobilized with fifty percent of the project fund. He is rather delivering dodgy stories with the undertones of a scam.
Sijibomi Ogundele, deservedly in the eye of the storm, claims mentorship of Japanese university professor, Sujimoto Koga. Background checks reveal Prof. Koga significantly influenced Ogundele’s entrepreneurial path, teaching him the value of adding value to others and encouraging him to think outside the box. The adoption of the name SUJIMOTO for his real estate organisation would then appear to have flowed from this significant oriental encounter.
Today, it is debatable whether Sijibomi Ogundele added any value to Enugu State on account of the N11,457,930,950.52 construction contract he got from the state to build 22 smart schools. On the other hand, did he “think out of the box.” It’s about time then that Prof. Koga is updated on the exploits of his suave entrepreneurial disciple in Nigeria, especially Ogundele’s underwhelming caper with the Enugu State Government.
What’s the back story. According to Dr. Malachy Agbo, Enugu State Commissioner for Information and Communication, “On July 2, 2024, the Enugu State Government awarded a contract in the sum of N11,457,930,950.52 to Sujimoto Luxury Construction Ltd for the construction of 22 Smart Schools (buildings only) in six months starting from the date of the acceptance of the award. The state government paid the sum of N5,762,565,475.25, representing 50 per cent of the contract sum, in order to fast-track the projects at all the sites.
“Rather than play to the rules of the contract to deliver quality projects for furnishing and equipping ahead of September 2025 school resumption, in line with the priority placed on the Smart Green Schools initiative by the government, Mr. Ogundele resorted to shoddy jobs and the use of inexperienced workers and quack engineers. None of his sites met the structural integrity of the projects as specified in the structural drawing.
Dr. Agbo continues: “Worse still, he vanished into thin air with the money. All efforts made by the government to get him to a roundtable to discuss the quality and progress of work proved abortive. He equally refused to attend the periodic projects briefing organised by the state government for all contractors or take numerous calls and messages put across to him.
“In fact, he practically abandoned the sites, leaving the Enugu State Government with no other choice than to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the funds paid to him.
“A joint team of officers of the Enugu State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and the EFCC visited the 22 sites to evaluate the progress of work on May 8 and 9, 2025, where it was clearly established that there had been minimal to no significant work done at the said sites one year after the contract award. In some cases, he fraudulently did not do excavation for all the blocks in site.
“It is also on record that he has not shown up at the sites or made himself available to either the state government or the law enforcement agencies even after those site visits. It is also pertinent to state that it was discovered in the course of investigation that whereas he presented a bond from Jaiz Bank, he used Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited’s Zenith Bank account number 1312731196 to receive the said payment and draw down the fund without deploying it to the projects. This clearly shows a premeditated intent to defraud the state ab initio.
“The government has since retaken and handed over the sites to new firms, who has no choice than to start the construction afresh. Tremendous progress has been made to keep the determination of the Mbah Administration to migrate Enugu children to Smart Green Schools by September on track.
“Nigerians should therefore disregard his theatrics and crocodile tears, as Enugu State Government is determined to and will surely recover every penny of Ndi Enugu fraudulently obtained by Mr. Olasijibomi Ogundele (Sujimoto).”
A close look into what really the smart schools project Governor Peter Mbah is pushing fundamentally represents would be germane to this analysis. During the 2025 Children’s Day celebration at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, themed ‘Children: Our Future, Our Responsibility.’ Governor Mbah succinctly captured the essence of his education vision, stressing that the Smart Green Schools were not just school blocks, but a factory for the future workforce, innovators, and leaders.
His words, “That is why, from the very beginning of this administration, we put you at the very heart of our agenda. We are building 260 Smart Green Schools, one in every political ward across our great state.
“These are not just schools; they are the schools of the future – powered by solar energy, equipped with digital smart boards, robotics labs, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ICT centers, multimedia libraries, science labs, and smart farms.
“But even more important than the buildings is that we are moving beyond the old ways of learning. We are giving you the chance to learn by doing, by experimenting, by building, by creating, and by solving real problems. This is called Experiential Learning—and it is how the best schools in the world now teach. That future is no longer far away. It is already here in Enugu State.
“We are also providing you with free uniforms, books, nutritious meals, clean water, healthcare, and even tablets to help you learn better because we believe that education must be inclusive, free, fun, fair, and full of opportunity. We are also transforming our Technical Colleges, Senior Secondary Schools, and Universities to match the speed of the world.
“To make all this possible, we allocated 33 per cent of our entire annual budget to education in 2024 and 2025. This is the highest in Nigeria.”
Against this backdrop, distinguishing between genuine contractual disagreements and criminal behaviour is important. True accountability requires this distinction. What is playing out between Olasijibomi Ogundele who has clearly defaulted in his contractual obligation with the Enugu State Government is suggestive of dishonour. It transcends a run of the mill contractual disagreement.
What took off as a bold initiative to build 22 Smart Green Schools by Sujimoto Group has now spiraled into shocking contract default, messy allegations of a ₦5.7 billion fraud, a wanted CEO. It also raises urgent questions about Nigeria’s contract management culture.
Ogundele’s curious, dodgy responses so far are unhelpful and unfortunately indicative of a personality not truly mentored by a Japanese professor – beings who are usually sternly socialized and who cut their teeth on a strict diet of honour. The Sujimoto CEO has been evasive, slippery, and hard to pin down. He has even tried his hand at Nollywoodisation of a serious matter. There is a video depiction of him crying while trying to explain away his travails with the Enugu State Government. In saner climes, he would be punished for very poor-quality acting.
Ogundele’s paid defenders have come up with laughable, silly pitches. One claimed that, “Construction costs have skyrocketed. Cement, rods, roofing materials, and even labor costs have more than doubled. Yet, the contract remained fixed no allowance for inflation, no room for adjustment.
“Despite this suffocating reality, Sujimoto has not abandoned the sites. He has visited Enugu repeatedly not as a distant CEO issuing directives from a plush Lagos office, but as an engineer, foreman, and supervisor, engaging directly with communities, workers, and stakeholders. The man has been seen on the ground, wearing boots, walking sites, and driving the work himself.”
In the world of contracts, particularly, constructions, there is what is called contract variation which ensures that the vagaries of materials price variations are accommodated if valid delays occasion such. Did the Sujimoto CEO submit variations to the Enugu State Government and they were rejected.
At press time, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared the Sujimoto CEO wanted for alleged diversion of funds and money laundering. The declaration was contained in a notice issued by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, and circulated to the public via its official X account. According to the Commission, Ogundele is wanted in connection with an alleged case of diversion of funds and money laundering being investigated by its Lagos Command.
The EFCC urged members of the public with useful information on his whereabouts to contact its offices across the country. The notice described him as a 44-year-old indigene of Ori-Ade Local Government Area of Osun State. His last known address was listed as G29, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Curiously, immediately the EFCC declared the Sujimoto CEO wanted, he went on his X handle to blame the Enugu State Government for the EFCC action, saying the contract was underpriced and also citing inflation. Bu the state government already clarified the issue, stating clearly that the Sujimoto CEO disappeared after collecting N5.7billion mobilization fee to deliver the 22 smart schools by February 2025.
Significantly, the controversies surrounding Sujimoto CEO is not new. In October 2024, he was under police investigation following allegations of a $325,000 real estate fraud. According to reports, a client had paid the sum for a three-bedroom apartment in the Leonardo Project in Banana Island, Lagos, but neither received the property nor a refund.
The Police Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) had invited Ogundele for questioning, but he initially failed to respond, opting instead to file a fundamental rights suit to restrain the investigation. He later appeared at the FCID headquarters in Abuja after further pressure from investigators and was interrogated before being released on bail.
In clashing with the Enugu State Government, it would appear the Sujimoto CEO has finally met his match because Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State would never allow anybody or force to stand between him and the actualization of the governance vision for his state.
From transportation to health, education, roads, security and more, Governor Mbah has considerably impacted his state and certainly would not brook a dodgy builder who wants to derail his governance trajectory.
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