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Tag: Okiro

  • Group alleges plot to blackmail Okiro

    A non-governmental organisation -Integrity Against Corruption – yesterday alleged plot by those it called disgruntled police officers, selfish politicians and civil society groups to mount a smear campaign against the Chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), Sir Mike Okiro.

    The group said in a statement that the said persons and groups planned to “publish frivolous allegations against the former IGP,” on account of their dissatisfaction with the recent promotions and recommendations by the immediate past IGP, Solomon Arase.

    It said: “Since his appointment in June 2013, he has rectified several lopsided promotions and postings, especially ethnic imbalance, in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

    “The chairman always exhibits professionalism and uprightness without sentiments in approving promotions, postings and retirements.

    “For the records, Okiro’s responsibility as chairman of PSC is to approve recommendations by the IGP of promotion of officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and above. He is also saddled with the responsibility of approving posting of state Commissioners of Police (CPs) and zonal Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) as recommended by the IGP, while the presidency sometimes gives similar approvals.”

    The group also claimed that  some politicians are “angry with the former IGP who is from the South-south region, for appealing to the Niger Delta Avengers and other militants to drop their arms and embrace dialogue with the federal government.”

  • Okiro calls for patriotic leadership

    Okiro calls for patriotic leadership

    The Chairman, Police Service Commission, Dr. Mike Okiro, has called for selfless and patriotic leadership that is visionary and accountable to the people in Nigeria.

    Okiro said this at the 2016 National Youth Summit on Crime Prevention organized by the African Youth Initiative Crime Prevention in partnership with the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) held at the NIIA, Lagos.

    The programme tagged ‘Securing Our Lives, Community and Country through Prevention Mechanism’ brought together hundreds of students, public servants, diplomat, civil society groups which feature training. Personality awards and prevention ambassadors induction.

    He said Nigeria needed leadership that could massively mobilize the people in making them feel they are Nigerians with a sense of belonging that can make them prepare to die for their country.

    He said: “Nigeria is a nation blessed by God. It is blessed with quality and endless resources, both human and material. The Nigerian environment is one of the best gifts nature could give to any nation.

  • Group to Okiro: resign over fraud allegation

    Group to Okiro: resign over fraud allegation

    A pressure group, Access to Justice (AJ), has asked the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC),  Mike Mbama Okiro, to resign following the findings of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission  (ICPC), which indicted the Commission of corruption and fraudulent activities to the tune of N133.4 million.

    In a statement in Lagos last week  by its Executive Director, Joseph Otteh and Okechukwu Nwanguma of the Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN), the AJ said the indictment of the PSC by the ICPC was enough reason for the chairman of the Commission to vacate office.

    Access to Justice said the PSC “leadership has brought upon the Commission a huge credibility crisis and degraded its moral authority too much to be able to effectively hold police officers accountable for misconduct”.

    In view of this, the group contended that the findings made by the ICPC has reached the thresholds for demanding that the PSC chair vacates office immediately.

    “The Police Service Commission cannot be indulging in an entrenched pattern of malfeasance and misappropriations and remain positioned to discharge its constitutional mandate of fighting corruption or abuse of power within the police force or sanctioning police officers guilty of corruption or misconduct,”it argued.

    The group noted that the PSC is responsible for the disciplinary control of police officers and for ensuring that police officers comply with all police laws and regulations, including those on corruption.

    “Where the PSC cannot effectively perform its oversight disciplinary responsibilities, a huge disciplinary and control gap will be created within the Nigerian Police Force, which will, consequently, further entrench and facilitate systematic corruption within the institution.

    “The continuance of the present incumbent of the office of the Chairman of the Police Service Commission is, therefore, no longer tenable. It is in the best interest of the body and for the sake of preserving the PSC’s ability to effectively perform its constitutional duties, that we are, therefore, demanding that he vacates the office now,”AJ contended.

    The ICPC on August 11, ordered the PSC and its Chairman, to refund to the government treasury the sum of N133.4 million out of the N350 million it received from the Federal Government for the monitoring of the conduct of the 2015 elections following an investigation carried out by the commission based on a petition by Mr. Aaron Kaase, a staff of the PSC.

    The petition alleged acts of corruption, abuse of office and fraudulent acts to swindle the PSC to the tune of N275.5 million on the part of the chairman of the PSC.

    Access to Justice noted that the findings of the ICPC on the activities of the PSC revealed that “the Police Service Commission (PSC) received the sum of N350 million from the Federal Government to monitor the conduct of police personnel in the recently conducted general election.

    “The Commission budgeted to expend the fund on training and physical monitoring during the election. Investigation revealed that the Commission budgeted for training of 900 staff to conduct training in Abuja, Lagos and Kano. However, the entire staff force was not more that 391 and that was the figure actually trained in a programme held in Abuja only… “

    The group, in spite of having called for the resignation of PSC Chairman, Okiro, however, faulted the conclusion of the report of the ICPC on the investigation conducted into the commission.

    “Judging from the ICPC’s statement, it is fairly evident that, from the start, an intention to misappropriate funds was clearly incubated, set in motion, and manifested when the Commission projected to train 509 more staff than it actually had. In other words, the Commission received training monies for a large retinue of “ghost staff”.

    “Those preparatory steps were subsequently consummated: the Commission got taxpayers’ monies based upon the misrepresentations it made, and held on to the money that remained afterwards.

    “As the ICPC found, the Police Service Commission even knowingly paid its staff based in Abuja return air ticket money for a programme that held in Abuja; yet another fraud!

    “How these corrupt practices and deceptions could come to be characterised by the ICPC as merely “administrative in nature and within the ambits of career public servants handlings” is baffling,” AJ argued.

    The group recalled that in 2008, a former Minister and Senator were arraigned and prosecuted for failing to return unspent funds in their Ministries/Committees to the government’s coffers.

    “The ICPC’s working definition of criminal corruption sets our alarm bells ringing; it is clearly too flawed and deficit to help Nigeria’s war against corruption. If there were no criminal acts committed, it becomes open to question the business of the ICPC in ordering the PSC to refund money. The ICPC’s mandate, it may be said, extends only to the investigation and prosecution of acts that constitute corrupt practices,” the group said.

     

     

     

  • Okiro and ICPC’s bland verdict

    SIR: The recent slap-on-the-wrist punishment, as it were, handed down by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the Chairman of Police Service Commission, Mr. Mike Okiro, after the Commission’s report of investigations into allegations of graft levelled against him by a PSC worker, Solomon Kaase, who petitioned the ICPC in May, 2015 over alleged moves by Okiro to swindle the PSC to the tune of N275m, is unacceptable and does not portray the seriousness towards the much taunted fight against graft in the country by the present administration.

    The former Inspector General of Police was accused in May, 2015, of some hanky-panky in the management of the Commission’s fund. He was believed to have benefitted heavily from the behemoth of financial frauds and reckless spending that went into the failed re-election bid of the former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in the March general elections. Okiro collected N350m on behalf of PSC, which money was meant for the training of 900 staff of the Commission for the election. But as it turned out, the actual number of officers and staff working with the Commission and who eventually underwent the training were 391 and not the 900 claimed by Okiro. The following words of the Commission are quite instructive and revealing:”Investigation findings revealed that the commission budgeted for training of 900 (members of) staff and to conduct training in Abuja, Lagos and Kano. However, the entire work force was not more that 391 and that is the figure actually trained in a programme held in Abuja only. The commission accepted the explanation that due process could not be adhered to strictly because of time constraint.”

    Apparently, it would seem that the Commission overlooked the possible collateral effects of such fraudulent action our national psyche and its impact on the current fight against the scourge when it submitted that”Consequently, this Commission hereby directs as follows that the total balance of N133,413,845.99 from the N350,000,000 2015 election monitoring exercise domiciled within FCMB be remitted to the Federal Treasury through the ICPC Recovery Account No.1012929790 at Zenith Bank Plc,”. It appears largely that Nta Ekpo and his Commission only concerned itself with the amount involved. Perhaps, the commission felt there was no point in pressing criminal charges against the retired police boss since the amount involved does not fall within the usual billions of naira that thieving public office holders and politicians often steal from the nation’s treasury.

    It is highly regrettable and unfortunate that the Commission took this unpopular stance. It needs to be reminded that corruption is a crime against humanity. And like the President himself admitted at the Nigerian Bar Association’s Conference, corruption is worse than human rights violation. It is completely of no moment that the amount of money stolen was meagre. Sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with financial misappropriation. An abuse of office or power is of same consequence as stealing billions of naira. And if the Commission had viewed the PSC’ boss action in this light,  it sure would have taken a more far reaching decision on the issue.

    The agitating question then is: What could have informed this irrational decision by the Commission? Indeed, the only answer that readily comes to mind is that the Commission seems to be finding it extremely difficult to disentangle itself from the web of its former modus operandi under the last regime, which incidentally did not recognise stealing as corruption, a position the Commission publicly and regrettably aligned itself with. Little wonder, it practically went into a hibernation mode for the six years the regime lasted. Or was the Commission oblivious of the fact that the PSC Chairman’s action runs foul of Section 19 of the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Act,  2010 (as amended), which elegantly states thus :”Any public officer who uses his office or position to gratify or confer any corrupt or unfair advantage upon himself or any relation or associate of the public officer or any other public officer shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for five (5) years without option of fine.”?

    There is an urgent need for the Commission to go beyond this method. It should exercise its prosecutorial powers against these pilferers just so it sets an example and serves a warning to other prospective public thieves. Whoever was indicted in that report should be made to face the music squarely, but certainly not this bland and dilly-dally verdict.

    President Mohammadu Buhari must call for the review of this decision if he wants Nigerians to take his administration’s campaign against corruption seriously. In my view, this is a litmus test for Buhari. Okiro and the indicted individuals, in addition to the return of the misappropriated fund, must be subjected to the instrumentality of the relevant laws of the land. Thankfully, the Commission appears to have carried out a thorough investigation into the allegation. Proving its case, therefore, won’t pose much challenge in court. But above all, it is important Mr. Nta Ekpo and his Commission to understand that crime without punishment breeds greater crimes and enthrones the culture of impunity.

     

    • Okoro Gabriel, Esq.,

    Lagos.

     

  • Was Okiro crucified?

    After a long wait, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) recently emerged like a lion that regurgitates its prey, a prey many had thought it would masticate and pass out as a distasteful waste. The man in the eye of the storm, former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, is not really new to such trials. He had gone through battles with spurious allegations before. His career would have been torpedoed in the past but his strong character and record always saw him through.

    When the petition from a staff member of his Police Service Commission against him landed on the table of the ICPC Chairman, many did not give him a chance. Today, after 80 days of

    “thorough investigation” by ICPC, the verdict of the investigators clearly exonerated Okiro from any untoward criminal offence but was directed to correct some administrative lapses that had made many to queue behind the petitioner waiting to hear that Okiro is sanctioned and probably prosecuted.  ICPC noted in its two page verdict that “the investigation has not revealed any criminal infraction against the person of Okiro”. It is the criminal aspect of the investigation that really appeals to Nigerians, knowing the mood in the country today, where every Tom, Dick and Harry is posing as the righteous one while only those in leadership positions are the evil ones in the society.

    Okiro as a leader,  like many others like him and those coming up, should bear the brunt of such unfortunate ordeal whenever it comes their way and should not be deterred or discouraged from offering themselves for  service.   Such stone throwing at leaders is expected; but it is becoming rampant in our society and must be checked. I was just wondering if an allegation would not emerge against the ICPC chairman one of these days for not turning in the verdict of guilty that some accusers expect any time they throw empty allegations at people in top positions. This is what the society is gradually turning into, breeding evil whistle blowers. In this particular case, the petitioner had alleged that Okiro squandered all the  N350 million vote approved by the Presidency for the purpose of monitoring the 2015  general elections, by  staffers of the Police Service Commission.

    The petitioner did not stop at that but further alleged that an approved foreign trip for Okiro was not even embarked on and that he pocketed the entire flight ticket money and allowances.  A critical look at the ICPC report that took 80 days to write clearly shows that even the ICPC was surprised at their findings. They too must have thought that Okiro would be nailed by the weight of the allegation by his staff.

    But there are worrisome aspects of the ICPC handling of the Okiro case. It is unfortunate, for example, that the report of ICPC on the matter only got to Okiro after it had been circulated to the media. Then, the ICPC report, having concluded that there was no criminal infraction against the person of Okiro still directed the former IGP to “refund” the said balance of N133, 413,845.99 which the report said is domiciled within FCMB, noting that it should be remitted to the Federal Treasury through the ICPC recovery account number. The question to be asked is:  which money is ICPC talking about? The same money that Okiro in his submission during interrogation disclosed that the balance was handed over to the Police Service Commission Accountant and was deposited in the Commission’s account with FCMB, or is it any other money embezzled?

    It is surprising that ICPC could not inform the public that the said FCMB account it directed Okiro in its report to remit the balance of the money to is the same FCMB account operated by the Police Service Commission and that the money ICPC is directing Okiro to pay into FCMB is the same money Okiro had earlier directed PSC accountant to deposit at the same bank. If this clarification had been made, the confusion that Okiro is to refund money would not have arisen in the first place. Is it that the writer of the report got confused or was it deliberate mischief? The word “refund” connotes that the person being addressed was in possession of the alleged  stolen money which therefore means that he is to remit the money in  his possession by handing  it over. Since the ICPC must have gone through the whole documents and exonerated Okiro of doing any wrong as he directed the Accountant of the PSC to pay the balance of the approved money into the FCMB account of the Commission, what does it mean to say that he should remit the same money in question into the same account where the money already is? Is this not confusion? See why the Oresanya report said the ICPC is a deliberate creation to cause confusion and should either be scrapped or merged with the EFCC.

    ‘The question now is:  what should be done to sanction people who throw baseless allegations against top public servants simply because the mood in Nigeria at the moment is that of dealing with corrupt public officers?’

    In truth,  Okiro spent out of the total money for the purpose it was approved for , but also directed the Police Service Commission accountant to lodge the balance of the money with the Commission’s official bank which is the same FCMB that ICPC is referring to. That being the situation, since ICPC was sure that Okiro did not tamper with the balance of the money, why was the Commission not forthcoming in the way it explained the outcome of its investigation?

    In the report, the Commission noted that Okiro was investigated for alleged “corruption, abuse of office and fraudulent act of swindling the Police Service Commission to the tune of N275, 525,000”.  It is very unfortunate that after coming to the conclusion that “the investigation did not reveal any act of criminal infraction”, the petitioner who set out to tarnish the image of such a top public servant will be left to quietly go home without any sanction. It is obvious that Okiro has proved to be a man of integrity. Many of those wishing that he be crucified would have misappropriated the balance of the money, if they were in Okiro’s shoes. It is interesting to look at the issue of air ticket that was not utilised, which the petitioner also tried to make an issue of. Here, there are two foreign trips; one to Dublin and the next to Florida for the purpose of attending security conferences approved by the Presidency. It is on record that the petitioner had alleged that Okiro never attended any of the conferences, but the ICPC was shocked when it saw Okiro in clips from NTA that covered the Dublin conference. As for the Florida trip, he had tendered cogent reasons why he could not immediately attend and the Commission noted in its report that it would cross check “if the presidency approves of the application by the Chairman to utilise the Florida ticket later “. Even at this point, it is clear that the whole petition is another mischief targeted at dealing with a top public office holder to settle scores. The question now is not whether at the end Okiro was crucified, because he was not crucified. The question now is:  what should be done to sanction people who throw baseless allegations against top public servants simply because the mood in Nigeria at the moment is that of dealing with corrupt public officers?  What should be done to false accusers of public office holders as in the case of the petitioner against Okiro? The Police not only frown at false informants; the law provides for their prosecution too.

    • Igbozuruike wrote in from Abuja.

  • Buhari, Okiro, governors for Anambra summit

    President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to lead the chairman of Police Service Commission (PSC), Mike Okiro as well as state governors to Anambra State next week for a summit on moral education.

    The summit is scheduled to hold at the Women Development Centre in Awka, the state capital.

    The event is organised by the Association of Moral Education in Nigeria and Africa, led by its coordinator, Rev. Sis. Maryjude Therese – Nwodo.

    Briefing reporters at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, Nwodo said President Buhari was chosen for the summit because of his “demonstrable commitment in moral re-armament.”

    She said, “President Buhari is chosen because of his change mantra. We sent an invitation to the President and we got a message that he has shown interest to attend.”

    The Revd. Sister maintained that moral education has become a burden in the society, while blaming the government for not creating jobs for the teeming youths in the society.

    She said in Anambra State, for instance, former governors Chris Ngige and Peter Obi tried their best in teaching morals in the society, adding that Obiano has also not been quiet on the topic.

    She further said the association decided to organise the conference to keep a legacy for the next generation, adding that it is creating awareness on how to build a better society.

    The event, which would start on 14 July and ends on 18 July, 2015 at Finotel Hotels, would have Prof. Godswill Obioma, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Education Research Development Council deliver a paper on the day.

    The association, according to Therese Nwodo, was formed in 1976 and had Nigeria as its 36th member nation.

     She said the Parent American Association on Moral Education became interested in making Nigeria its member after her presentation the last time she visited the organiSation.

     She said the task of imparting virtues in the young was a job for everybody, adding that was why the association is non-religious and inter-disciplinary.

  • Buhari, Okiro, governors for Anambra summit

    Buhari, Okiro, governors for Anambra summit

    President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to lead the chairman of Police Service Commission (PSC), Mike Okiro as well as state governors to Anambra State next week for a summit on moral education.

    The summit is scheduled to hold at the Women Development Centre in Awka, the state capital.

    The event is organised by the Association of Moral Education in Nigeria and Africa, led by its coordinator, Rev. Sis. Maryjude Therese – Nwodo.

    Briefing reporters at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, Nwodo said President Buhari was chosen for the summit because of his “demonstrable commitment in moral re-armament.”

    She said, “President Buhari is chosen because of his change mantra. We sent an invitation to the President and we got a message that he has shown interest to attend.”

    The Revd. Sister maintained that moral education has become a burden in the society, while blaming the government for not creating jobs for the teeming youths in the society.

    She said in Anambra State, for instance, former governors Chris Ngige and Peter Obi tried their best in teaching morals in the society, adding that Obiano has also not been quiet on the topic.

    She further said the association decided to organise the conference to keep a legacy for the next generation, adding that it is creating awareness on how to build a better society.

    The event, which would start on 14 July and ends on 18 July, 2015 at Finotel Hotels, would have Prof. Godswill Obioma, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Education Research Development Council deliver a paper on the day.

    The association, according to Therese Nwodo, was formed in 1976 and had Nigeria as its 36th member nation.

    She said the Parent American Association on Moral Education became interested in making Nigeria its member after her presentation the last time she visited the organiSation.

    She said the task of imparting virtues in the young was a job for everybody, adding that was why the association is non-religious and inter-disciplinary.

  • Okiro and his blackmailers

    Okiro and his blackmailers

    Retired Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, hit the nail on the head over the hullabaloo regarding the alleged N275.5million election fund fraud; the whole scheme was an attempt to blackmail him.  Any dutiful and objective appraisal of the issues arising from reports over the matter cannot but agree with Okiro that the Principal Administrative Officer in the Press and Public Relations Unit of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Aaron Kaase, was really out to blackmail him.

    It is difficult to fault the genuine accounts of Mr. Okiro on this matter when he asserted, at a press conference, in Abuja on June 8, 2015, that “the PSC spent N217.3million of the money and that the remaining N132.6 million was returned to the commission’s project account.”  Mr. Kaase had claimed, in his petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), that “the money was part of the N350 million collected by the PSC for monitoring conferences and training of staff ahead of the March/April general elections.”  It is easy to deduce that an Okiro-led PSC out to defraud the government would not have left a balance of the money in a special account of the PSC.  If the intention was to embezzle public funds, the N132.6million would have ended up in the private bank accounts of Mr. Okiro and other high officials of the PSC.

    Again, Mr. Okiro made the point that “because the approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) came late, we were able to conduct only one-day training, and the PSC staff were paid their allowances and daily travelling allowance (DTA) for the exercise and their entitlements for the journey to the states for the monitoring.”  Mr. Kaase had said “that instead of the four-day approval granted by the Bureau of Public Procurement, a mock training of two hours was conducted at Northgate Hotels Limited, Mararaba, Nasarawa State instead of Kano State.”  However, an objective appraisal of the two positions stated here shows that while Okiro is right, Mr. Kaase is mischievously wrong.  If approval for the trainings were granted only a few days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, was it still feasible to conduct a four-day training exercise?

     Mr. Kaase would have had a case if he had shown that the companies that were awarded the training contracts were not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and also did not meet the registration requirements for participation in contracting endeavours emanating from the PSC. As long as he failed to show that the companies that got the PSC training contracts were not qualified to embark on the endeavours they handled for the PSC, his claim that Mr. Okiro abused the powers of his office by awarding the training contracts to his girlfriend and cronies showed he was on an idle mission, rather than attempting to expose corrupt practices at the PSC.

    In any case, what point did Mr. Kaase set out to make when he claimed that “Okiro has failed to refund the money granted for the other three days in his request letter?”  If, as things are becoming clearer by the day that there is a N132.6 million balance from the N350 million in a special project account of the PSC, what kind of money refund is Mr. Kaase talking about?  Is Mr. Okiro expected to refund monies already paid to the contracting firms to conduct the one-day training exercise?

    In the final analysis, the point just has to be made that Mr. Kaase’s tantrums against Mr. Okiro, in the name of idle petitions to the ICPC and the EFCC over the alleged mismanagement of the sum of N350 million, remains a failed blackmailing scheme.

    Thomas Adegoke, 5 Cuito Crescent, Off Yesderam Street, Maitama, Abuja.

  • Alleged N275m scam: It’s all blackmail, says Okiro

    Alleged N275m scam: It’s all blackmail, says Okiro

    The chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Sir Mike Okiro, has dismissed the N275 million scam allegedly perpetrated by him, saying it was all blackmail.

    A staff member of the PSC, Mr. Aaron Kaase, had petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), accusing the PSC chairman of misappropriating the said amount.

    Kaase had stated in his petition that the money was part of the N350 million collected by the PSC for monitoring, conferences and training of staff ahead of the March/April general election.

    But at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Okiro said the PSC spent N217.3 million of the money and that the remaining N132.6 million was returned to the Commission’s project account.

    “Because the approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement came late, we were able to conduct only one day training. The PSC staff were paid their allowances and DTA for the on day training and their entitlements for the journey to the states for the monitoring.

    “The total amount paid was N217, 383, 154. 00. The remainder N132, 611, 845. 99 is still in the PSC project account”, Okiro stated.

    The petitioner also accused the chairman of inflating the numerical staff strength of the Commission in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano to 900 whereas the entire staff strength of the PSC nationwide was 400.

    The chairman however denied the allegation, saying it was a plot hatched by the petitioner, in cahoots with the publisher of an Abuja based newspaper to blackmail him.

    According to Okiro, Sami had approached him on April 2, 2025, through an SMS demanding N10 million from him to stop the publication of the alleged scam, a demand which he said he turned down.

    “On April 8, at 03.39 pm, he sent me his bank account number by text to pay the money in case I change my mind to avoid shame and embarrassment. This man would not let me rest.

    “Therefore, on April 10, at 10.58 am, I sent him this text; ‘I received your bank account number where I should pay N10 million to stop you and your group from publishing a damaging report against me. Sorry, I can’t succumb to your blackmail.

    “I didn’t steal government money and have nothing to fear, President Buhari is not coming to witch hunt or punish innocent people. You have visited my house several times and called my phone uncountable times threatening and demanding N10 million. I have had enough. Please give me a break. If this persists, I will report you to the Guild of Editors”.

    The PSC chairman said Kaase’s action was as a result of his redeployment from the protocols unit, where he was later discovered to have perpetrated a number of criminal acts.

    According to him, the petitioner was eventually arrested by the police for obtaining N1 million from someone under the pretense of helping him obtain a United States visa.

    Omits added that police later wrote to the PSC on May 13, informing the commission that Kaase was facing a criminal charge, as a result of which he was suspended in compliance with Rule 030406 of the Public Service.

     

  • Okiro reacts to N275m fraud allegation

    Okiro reacts to N275m fraud allegation

    The Chairman, Police Service Commission, Mr Mike Okiro, on Monday reacted to the allegation that he defrauded the Commission of N275 million and vowed not to succumb to the blackmail.

    According to NAN report, Okiri alleged that a staff of the commission, Mr. Aaron Kaase, of the Press Unit, colluded with a Journalist and Publisher (name withheld) to blackmail him with the allegation to collect N10 million.

    The chairman, who spoke at a news conference in Abuja, said the commission received N350 from the Federal Government to train its staff to monitor the conduct of policemen involved in the 2015 general elections.

    It will be recalled that Okiro appeared before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences (ICPC) on June 4, following a petition by Kaase that he embezzled N275 million belonging to the Commission.

    “I still believe that a clear conscience fears no accusation and I will not yield to blackmail no matter how long it takes to clear my name.

    “I have nothing to fear,’’ he said.

    According to Okiro, we (Commission) received N350 million for election monitoring/conferences/training of the staff of the commission and deployed them to states to monitor police conduct during the general elections of 2015.

    The chairman said that the commission spent N217.3 million of the N350 million, leaving a balance of N132.6 million in the commission’s project account.

    He, however, said that on April 2, he got a text message from the publisher that he was doing a story on the alleged fraud.

    Okiro said that the publisher claimed to have sent the story to six other newspapers for publication and demanded N10 million to cover it up and save him of the embarrassment.

    Okiro quoted the publisher as threatening that “Gen. Buhari is coming to fight corruption, once the papers publish any such story against you (Okiro), he would remove you immediately’’.

    The chairman further alleged that the publisher, on April 8, sent his account details for the said N10 million to be paid into it to save him – Okiro, of embarrassment.

    He said to stop the journalist from bothering him with the demand for the money; he invited and handed him over to the police Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).

    This, he said was after several calls and text messages from the journalist demanding for the money.

    “The result was mind boggling and depicted the comedy of errors. It was revealed that Mr Aaron Kaase, my erstwhile Protocol Officer, wanted to wed in May and needed money.

    “He (Kaase) felt the quickest way was to connive with the journalist to extort money from me so they could share it, and so he could conduct his traditional wedding.

    “The journalist was brought to my office by the officer in charge of SARS and his officers.

    “The journalist confronted Aaron Kaase in the presence of the commissioners, permanent secretary, directors and other management staff of the PSC,’’ he said.

    According to Okiro, Kaase confirmed that he gave my phone number to the journalist to call and demand N10 million.

    On suspension of Kaase from the commission, the chairman explained that it was done because Kaase was facing a criminal charge involving N1 million fraud.

    He alleged that Kaase had been arrested and charged to court for allegedly defrauding someone of the money to secure for him a US visa which he failed to deliver.

    Okiro said that Kaase’s suspension had nothing to do with the petition against him.