The Nation Newspaper

Tag: corruption allegation

  • DPO recalled over corruption allegation

    The Divisional Police Officer in charge of Pen Cinema Police Division, Lagos State, Harrison Nwabuisi, has been recalled to the state Police Command headquarters following  corruption allegation leveled against him.

    According to a statement signed by the Spokesman of the command, CSP Chike Oti, Nwabuisi was recalled by the Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, following a media report of the allegation.

    “The attention of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Edgal Imohimi, has been drawn to a Newspaper publication on Aug. 24, 2018, captioned ” Power-drunk Lagos DPO leads team to mosque, raid adherents, others.”

    “The reporter mentioned that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Pen Cinema Police Division, Lagos State, Harrison Nwabuisi, has been conducting raids during which he allegedly arrested innocent residents and extorted money from them.

    “He further reported that the police operation took place on Wednesday, being the last day of the Sallah holiday, at Alimi Ogunyemi Street, in the Ifako Ijaiye area and mentioned one Sheriff Aranjure as a prime witness to the alleged extortion by the DPO.

    “Sequel to the allegation, the Commissioner of Police directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yetunde Longe, to investigate the officer and other ranks against whom the allegation was made.

    “He equally directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, DCP Elkanah Ayuba, to recall the DPO to the command headquarters to allow for unbiased investigation into the matter.

    “The command is therefore appealing to Mr Sheriff Anjure, said to be a vital witness and indeed other witnesses in the matter, to make themselves available to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCIID, Panti Yaba, to assist police in the investigation.

    “While recognising the fact that raiding is a major crime fighting strategy of the police, given that it enables proactive intervention into a budding problem, the commissioner of police however, said that it must be purposeful, corruption- free and Intelligence-driven.

    “He, therefore, assures members of the public that if the allegation is found to be true, any officer or men found culpable in the matter, would be appropriately sanctioned in accordance with the relevant sections of the Police Act,” Oti said. (NAN)

  • Corruption allegation rocks pension union

    • Fed Govt pensioners threaten to quit NUP

    Pensioners from Federal Government parastatals are planning to break away from the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) over alleged connivance by some of its national leaders with the syndicate of former Pension Task Force Chairman, Abdul-Rasheed Maina, to steal pension funds.

    The NUP All Sectoral Units (ASU) also accused the leadership of misappropriating the union’s check-off dues, docility, inefficiency and ineffectiveness and lack of care for pensioners’welfare.

    The aggrieved parties are seeking the endorsement of the Ministry of Labour and Employment for them to regroup.

    The Chairman, Comrade Temple Ubani, said: “We wish to disassociate ourselves from the corruption charges against some leaders of the NUP since we have consistently been opposed to leaders, whose main objective in unionism is to make money, clean or dirty.

    “The connivance of some national leaders of the union in the pension fraud between April 2008 and March 2011, which resonated in Maina’s case as reported in the national newspapers of October 30, 2017, is one case too many. When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waded into the matter and arrested some officers, the national leaders kept the entire NEC (NEC members include Chairmen and Secretaries of the 36 states, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and all the different sectors from the federal parastatal and private companies) in the dark.

    “It is worthy of note that the  President Dr. Abel Afolayan was the National Vice President then. He was in the position for nine years before coming on board as president of the union for a fifth year running now. Bringing his tenure as a principal officer of the union to over 13 unbroken years and so he is aware of the pension fraud issue. Apart from the billions involved in the above-mentioned case, several millions of naira from pensioners’ contribution was spent on the case without any disclosure to NEC. And when we leaders of federal parastatal and private company pensioners agitated to know the facts, we were not only silenced but labeled rebels.

    “When it became impossible to access free, illegal funds as in the pension fraud between 2008 and 2011, some leaders at the national level embarked on reckless use of contributions from state, federal civil service, parastatal and private company pensioners. For example, under the leadership, we had the Account Report of 2004 where N132 million was spent on miscellaneous instead of N10 million.We questioned the leadership on this budget. Since then, amount spent annually on miscellaneous is usually more than three times higher than salaries and allowances in NUP expenditure. They also embarked on divide-and-rule tactics, where deliberate actions were taken to destabilise sectors or groups of pensioners perceived as enemies to their selfish interests. They also manipulated the process of elections to remain in office.

    “With these prevailing circumstances, we considered all legally available options to sanitise the union but the best alternative for us was to cry to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as a group, praying for the regrouping of the union. Having established that NUP is inefficient and ineffective in addressing the needs of the Nigerian pensioners due to a monopolistic advantage, the Ministry of Labour and Employment set machinery in motion to reduce the workload on NUP for efficiency.’’

    But reacting to the allegation, NUP, Electricity Sector (ES) Caretaker Committee Chairman, Abel Eikhor, dismmised the allegations.

    He said: “A few months ago, I did mention the antics of the former president of the NUP(ES) using ethnicity by going through the back door trying to register his newly formed association-Electricity Sector Retirees Welfare Association (ESREWA) with the connivance of the minister.

    “Ubani resorted to seeking assistance from the the minister after he met a brick wall at the Registrar of Trade Unions which responsibilities are to protect, defend and promote the wellbeing and the interest of workers and pensioners alike.

    “Having been denied registration by the RTU, he decided to get ESREWA registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The CAC can only register business names and such companies cannot function as trade unions. When it dawned on him that ESREWA cannot function as a trade union, he went back to his kinsman, the minister to seek for further assistance.’’ We are reliably informed that the minister is considering registering ESREWA trying to use Section 3(2) of the Trade Union Act to do so. Article 3(2) states: “No combination of workers or employees shall be registered as a trade union save with the approval of the Minister on his been satisfied that it is to register the union either by regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or otherwise however, but no trade union shall be registered to represent workers or employees in a place where there already exists trade union.”

    Ubani added that among those lined up with his group in seeking autonomy from the docile NUPthat knows nothing other than fighting over check-off dues, are the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) pensioners. “Is it not shameful and absurd for this inefficient NUP to acknowledge that CPS association was inaugurated on February 27, 2017? What has NUP been doing before the scheme was imposed on Nigerian pensioners or since 2004 when it became law? The truth is that there has been a much larger body with nationwide spread within NUP, named Federal Contributory Pensioners Association since 2012. Leaders of this group found no comfort in NUP; rather, NUP was using them to fight for more check-off dues without even understanding their problems.”

     

     

     

     

    Now, because this body identified with our progressive and focussed approach, the NUP hurriedly gathered some innocent contributory pensioners in Abuja to cause confusion. But never mind, dear colleagues, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is very much aware of all the pranks NUP is playing”, he added.

  • Group defends JAMB boss of corruption allegation

    Group defends JAMB boss of corruption allegation

    An Anti-Corruption Group, Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has defended the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede of any wrong doing in an alleged N 2 billion fraud by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

     The group, during a news conference in Abuja, described the allegation against the JAMB registrar as false.

     Its Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac said the petition against Oloyede  by several ASUU officials including 49 University of Ilorin lecturers that were sacked for embarking on an illegal strike in 2001 when the JAMB Registrar was the institution’s vice chancellor showed that it was self-serving

      ASUU last year wrote a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Prof. Oloyede, accusing him of N2 billion naira fraud.

     But Isaac said it is on record that JAMB had been firm about the admission processes since Prof. Oloyede took over as JAMB registrar.

     According to him, the board has also taken a tough stance against the questionable courses that some lecturers have introduced without the necessary approvals.

    He said while the group clearly supports the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari, the anti-corruption war must however not be trivialised or subjected to ridicule by being converted to a tool for settling personal scores, committing institutional blackmail or for extorting undeserved concessions.

     “We further have it on good authority that the union members are not comfortable with the reforms already being initiated by Prof Oloyede at JAMB since these changes would deprive some corrupt lecturers of the money they would have made from admission racketeering.

     “The petition to the EFCC is therefore part of a wider plan to get rid of Prof Oloyede and reverse the gains that the Board has made. If the reforms he is implementing at the examination body are disrupted then the future of tertiary education in the country is in jeopardy.

     “For us it would be a sad situation if unionists from a few universities can deprive other universities, polytechnics and colleges of education the opportunity to get quality candidates just for their own selfish gains.

  • Corruption allegation against NASS: Jibrin backs Obasanjo

    Corruption allegation against NASS: Jibrin backs Obasanjo

    Former House of Representatives Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano) has backed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s description  of members of the National Assembly as corrupt.

    The lawmaker was suspended for one legislative year over allegations of bringing the House into disrepute with his whistle blowing on corruption in the House.

    In a statement yesterday, Jibrin challenged the leadership of the House to make public the financial statement of the House as well as the controversial running cost allowances of lawmakers.

    According to him, former President Obasanjo’s  statement was based on facts, saying, “I wish to state categorically  that all what former President Obasanjo said is true”.

    Jibrin faulted the official response of the House, saying House spokesman, Abdulrazaq Namdas’ statement was not reflective of the opinion of the House members.

    He said: “I have released to the public instances of budget fraud. I have provided sufficient evidence to the security and anti- graft agencies and I have indicated my readiness to stand as witness in case of prosecution.

    “All they are trying to do in their usual style is to blackmail the executive arm to take responsibility for what is an obvious offence.

    “All the anti- graft agencies need to do is to go and investigate only the 2015 SDG projects where about 10 billion naira was budgeted and see where that will lead them. It has remained a huge scandal in the House ,but nobody will talk because it is a system of ‘chop clean mouth’”.

    On insufficient allocation to the National Assembly,  Jibrin said the House spokesman might not have enough facts at his disposal before making the statement

    “The problem is not that the money is insufficient to run the entire activities of the NASS . The truth of the matter is that about half the money is stolen in the name of running costs.

    “The NASS has received about 1 trillion naira since 2006 and about 500 billion naira has gone directly into private pockets through the fraud called running costs.

    “I have received briefing from my lawyers in London that such scams equal a crime against humanity and there are laws in America and Europe that allow the FBI and INTERPOL to deal with such cases at the international level, so that the culprits  can be prosecuted.

    “No member has access to copies of the internal budget of the House to see how the remaining money is spent after deducting the fraudulent running costs.

    “The House should be ashamed of itself that it knows details of budget of the executive arm, including wage bill, but it cannot simply let the world know the details of its own budget.

    “Nobody is saying the members do not need running costs for their offices; what we are saying is that the money is diverted directly into private pockets.”

  • ‘Wike can’t prove corruption allegation against me’

    ‘Wike can’t prove corruption allegation against me’

    Minister of Transportation Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi  restated yesterday that he ran a transparent government as Rivers State governor.

    He also said he did not receive over N3 trillion naira revenue as alleged by Governor Nyesom Wike, adding that Wike has failed to prove the allegation of corruption levelled against him.

     Amaechi spoke at a stakeholders’ forum on corruption organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja.

    He said Rivers State became the first to implement the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Act in Nigeria during his tenure.

    He said: “The State executive used to call the Director General of Public Procurement in the state as an alternative governor and that they wanted an amendment to that law. The reason they wanted amendment is that he (DG) refused to increase the threshold to N100m per ministry, instead he reduced it to N10 million naira.

     Amaechi said transparency in the use of public funds was key to his administration as governor, noting that the Rivers community was fully briefed periodically on how funds were been utilised.

    “The governor of Rivers State said I squandered N3trillion naira. I did not receive up to N1.8 trillion as governor both from IGR and funds from federal allocation. So, how could I have squandered money I did not even receive in the first place? You can see the politics of lies and lies,” he said.