Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Wednesday 14th July 2021
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 14/07/21
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E2%80%98abusing-buhari%E2%80%99 BREAKING: APC Suspends Okorocha For ‘Abusing Buhari’
Rochas Okorocha
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended a former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha.
Okorocha’s suspension was communicated in a letter dated July 12, 2021, and signed by Mai Mala Buni and John Akpanudoedehe, national chairman and secretary of the APC caretaker committee, respectively.
Rochas Okorocha
According to the letter, the decision to suspend Okorocha, senator representing Imo west, was in line with the decision of the state chapter of the party and results from the former governor’s involvement in “anti-party activities.”
He was also accused of abusing the person and office of the President of Nigeria.
“This is to communicate to you, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Party ratification of your suspension by the Imo State Chapter of our great party for anti-party activities,” the letter addressed to Okorocha reads.
“The suspension follows after the recommendation by the Imo State Disciplinary Committee set up to investigate allegations of gross anti-party activities against you, which is in line with Article 21 (B) I-VI of our party’s constitution.
“Below are the anti-party activities on which the investigation and subsequent suspension were relied upon. Continuous, discrete meetings with the opposition party both at the state and national level.
“Flagrant public abuse on the person and office of the President, Republic of Nigeria (An APC-led government).”
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E2%80%99s-college Uzodinma, Okorocha Clash Again As Imo Government Seals Ex-Governor’s College
The Imo State Government on Tuesday shut Rochas Foundation College, Orji, in Owerri, the state capital.
The government officials arrived at the location, which is the old quarters of the staff of Imo Broadcasting Corporation and sealed it.
Rochas Okorocha owns the college.
It was observed that the state government had taken over the massive property.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Imo State on Print Media, Modestus Nwamkpa, who confirmed the development, said the governor, Hope Uzodinma, was committed to recovering properties of the state allegedly “looted by Okorocha and his family members.”
Nwamkpa said that the governor was implementing the recommendations of various White Papers by committees set up by the state government.
The governor’s aide confirmed the seal off “is true,” adding that “Governor Hope Uzodinma is committed to recovering all the properties of the state stolen. This is not a personal war it is just the implementation of the recommendations of the whitepapers of the various committees set up the government.”
But Okorocha’s spokesperson, Sam Onwuemeodo, when contacted, said that Okorocha’s enormous political capacity jolted Uzodinma.
Speaking with Punch, Okorocha’s aide said, “This is the fourth time Imo State Government has announced sealing that place. EFCC had also announced that they had closed it but the truth is that Uzodinma should wake up. There is hunger in the state.
“This is just the renewal of his war against Okorocha after Okorocha and other strong APC chieftains in Imo State visited APC National Secretariat. Each time Uzodinma realizes that the people are not happy with his style of governance, he uses Okorocha’s name to distract the people but the truth is poverty and hunger pervade the atmosphere. He should be humble enough to consult Okorocha on how to govern the state.”
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Final-year University Of Calabar Student Shot Dead By Trigger-happy Soldier, Friends, Family Seek Justice
Friends and family members of Gray Ekpezu, a final-year student of Genetics and Biotechnology of the University of Calabar, who was shot dead by a trigger-happy soldier, have called for justice.
A source told SaharaReporters that Ekpezu was with his friends on Friday night in front of his compound at Edibe Edibe, Calabar South, Cross River State and was accosted by a yet-to-be-identified soldier, who ordered that they all lay on the floor.
It was stated that Ekpezu was shot on the back by the soldier, who immediately left the scene afterward.
“Gray was shot dead on the 9th of July by a soldier. He was out with seven of his friends, including my elder brother; they were there around 9 pm when a soldier came and asked all of them to lay down with their faces to the ground. Suddenly, the soldier pulled the trigger and shot Ekpezu on the back. His friends wanted to rush him to the hospital but he was already dead.
“We later learned that the soldier was taken to Afokang Prison. The community people went to Afokang prison in Calabar South. They insisted on seeing the culprit, but the military men there said the soldier was newly posted to the area that he dropped the uniform and his rifle and fled. We don’t even know what the truth is.
“We heard that the same soldier was apprehended at a Car park in Calabar and we don’t want this issue to be swept under the carpet. That is why we are seeking justice.
“They told us that once the guy has been apprehended, justice will take its course but you know Nigeria. They said he would be arraigned in the martial court but there is no date for now. The military even told the wife to visit the prison on Monday but the guy’s father said they should hold on till he returns from a journey.
“He was shot in cold blood; please we want justice for Ekpezu. He has a four-year-old son who keeps saying his father was shot.”
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Senate’s Rejection of Mrs. Lauretta Onochie: A Good Day For Democracy By Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq.
I must commend the National Assembly, particularly the distinguished members of the Senate who have today given Nigerians reasons to keep believing in our nascent democracy by rejecting the nomination of Madam Lauretta Onochie for a position within the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). By this singular action, the Senate has affirmed its commitment to the rule of law and equity, and have displayed uncommon impartiality in the discharge of its legislative mandate as a pivot for the check and balancing of executive powers in the country.
Madam Lauretta Onochie’s nomination rankled the country for its bare audacity and posed a threat to the integrity and impartiality of Nigeria’s electoral body if her nomination had indeed sailed through. Therefore, the Senate’s recognition of, and alignment with, the objective opposition to her nomination championed by well-meaning members of the public and civil society organisations must be commended and indeed puts the Red Chamber in good public stead.
I am at once proud of all members of the Senate and must express my satisfaction with the alacrity with which they discharged their sworn duty to the Nigerian people and the constitution. Indeed, contrary to widely held reservations about the autonomy of the National Assembly, their action and decision in this one instance dispels the public’s despair and assures of a legislative chamber peopled by distinguished members with the best interests of Nigeria and Nigerians at heart.
I want to express the hope that this is a sign of more legislative dividends to come and the timing could not be better. At this moment in time, Nigerians need a National Assembly it can hope on to keep the exercise and excesses of executive powers in check, and the Senate have indeed demonstrated capacity when the bell tolled the loudest for their intervention in the best interests of our democracy.
It is also on record that the obnoxious NBC and NPC amendment bills were withdrawn by its sponsor today having perhaps read the room and recognised the Senate’s commitment to oppose anti-people bills. This is really commendable and is an exemplification of Abraham Lincoln’s popular description of a democracy.
I want to also specially congratulate the general public; individuals, groups, civil society groups and others, whose strategic outrage kindled the democratic fibres of the Senate. As a people united in voice and action, there are simply no limits to the imposition of our preferences in our democratic experience. Good job and well done.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq. is a Legal Practitioner and the Principal Partner at LAW CORRIDOR, Abuja. Lawcorridor@gmail.com
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E2%80%93-prof-akintoye-recalls-conversation-awolowo-video Yoruba, Igbo Must Work Together For Freedom – Prof Akintoye Recalls Conversation With Awolowo In Video
The President-General of the Ilana Omo Oodua, Emeritus Prof. Banji Akintoye, has disclosed that former Premier of the old Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, told him in 1984 Yoruba and Igbo people must work together to get freed of slavery in Nigeria.
Akintoye said he recalled how Awolowo spoke like a prophet, holding his hands and saying, “Banji, you and Igbo will work together” to bring the desired emancipation.
Professor Akintoye stated these in a video he made on Tuesday, January 15, 2021, obtained by SaharaReporters.
Text of his conversation reads:
“Dele Ogun has a book ‘A Fatherless People,’ and there is a small account of it (that) Zik returning from America in 1932 with highly grown Nigerians of past pan-Africanism, the Black man around the world and so on.
“But, he was vulnerable. He was a poor person and he wasn’t getting the kind of help he deserved. He had applied for jobs at many organizations and agencies in Nigeria, and none had given him a job.
“And when he arrived from London on his way back home, that vulnerability put him in the hands of the colonial authorities. Basically, the British respected the Yoruba, but they didn’t particularly like the kind of Black man the Yoruba were. They didn’t like it, because, by the time they came, the Yoruba were fairly highly educated.
“They had been producing graduates from the mass years of the 1850s and by the time the British began to come into the Yoruba land in the 1880s and 1890s, there were already very many Yoruba graduates in every area of life.
“And when the British finally became the rulers of Nigeria (I’m jumping over a whole lot of things), they didn’t fancy the Yoruba at all. They might be friends with the individual Yoruba people that were educated, who were their friends mostly. But they feared that Yoruba were going to make the profits of colonialism difficult to achieve in Nigeria.
“So, the British didn’t particularly like the Yoruba such that they needed to subdue the interest and influence of the Yoruba people in Nigeria. And according to the account in the book that I have quoted, ‘A Fatherless People’, Mongrel Peller, who was a scholar of the colonial establishment, got hold of Nnamdi Azikwe and took him to meetings with the British colonialists in London.
“And finally arranged a meeting between him and a team of people in the colonial office, and what seemed to have happened in those meetings was that the British wanted to construct the Igbo and the Yoruba as an enemy of one another because these were the two most powerful people in Nigeria,” Prof Akintoye narrated.
The Yoruba self-determination agitation leader said Yoruba and Igbo ethnic nationalities had realized that they had been used against each other in the past while adding that the two major tribes in Nigeria had overcome that in this present dispensation.
He further said that the former Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, after eleven days of Nigeria’s Independence, had said that the North should not allow the South to control Nigeria, saying that Southern Nigeria should be treated as a conquered territory.
Also, Prof Akintoye disclosed that the British colonialists had known that there would be an end to their colonial benefits the day Yoruba and Igbo joined forces.
“If the Yoruba and Igbo collaborated, the British thought that would be the end of all the colonial benefits from their colonial endeavors in Nigeria. And, so (Nnamdi) Azikiwe arrived in Nigeria, the man who left Nigeria with high sounding ideas of the black race, the black man and Pan-Africanism, arrived in Nigeria with not so much of those ideas anymore.
“But as I said, we, the Yoruba and Igbo, have allowed ourselves to be pitched against each other. I don’t want to tell a story. A story I want to tell is the story of the change of the future. We are now at a point in the history of Yoruba and Igbo nations, where a substantial people of Igbo and Yoruba now recognize the following things that we Yoruba and Igbo have allowed ourselves to be used against each other, have now ended up nothing better than slavery in Nigeria.
“They have lost everything and now they are just fumbling around in the hands of people who are dedicated to an idea that they must hold Nigeria, they must rule Nigeria, they must control Nigeria and they must make sure that other peoples in Nigeria do not control the resources of Nigeria.
“That was what Ahmadu Bello said on October 12, that was eleven days after Independence in 1960. ‘The South we’ll treat as conquered territory. We must treat the South as conquered territory and not let them ever rule us and never let them control their own future,” the don added.
In the video interview titled: ‘Yoruba and Igbo Conference: Speaking With One Voice,’ the Yoruba leader said the foremost Yoruba nationalist spoke like a prophecy that Igbo and Yoruba must work together.
The Professor said late Chief Awolowo told him about Yoruba and Igbo joining forces to get liberated in 1984 after he (Akintoye) was released from the custody of the security agents ordered by the former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari who is also the current Nigerian President.
“I have participated in discussions around Chief Awolowo as one of the young intellectuals from Ife in which we had very infinitely decided that the road forward either for Yoruba or Igbo was that both of them must learn to work together but nothing had come out of those discussions.
“In May 1984, I was released from detention by the then military ruler, Buhari. Chief Awolowo and I spent a whole day together (and I want everybody to listen to this.) Please, listen to what I want to say because it is a story I need to be telling the Yoruba and Igbo nations and shout it. We spent the whole day talking about Nigeria.
“And it was time for us to go to dinner at about 4:35, and as we stood and went towards the dining table, Chief Awolowo stopped me and held my hand and said, ‘Banji, there’s something more I should not forget to tell you.’ So, I stopped and looked at him, and he said, ‘Banji, you, we Yoruba must find a way to work with Igbo. I say you and Igbo will work together. It’s not a question of must now.’”
“He was now talking as if he was prophesying. He had started by saying you and Igbo must work together, then he upgraded his talk to something like a prophecy, that ‘You and Igbo will work together, and that’s the only way you can be freed in the world. It is the only way we can be freed in the world. It is the only way we can achieve what we deserve in the world. You and Igbo will work together.’ I’m quoting him, ‘I’m not saying it’s going to be easy as much as I can remember, ‘I am not saying it’s going to be easy but I’m saying it will be done.’”
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Department Of State Services Arrests Israeli Filmmakers In Nigeria Over Alleged Contact With IPOB Members, Israeli Embassy Reacts
Three Israelis shooting a documentary in a separatist region in southeast Nigeria were arrested last week, the Foreign Ministry has confirmed.
According to Times Of Israel, Nigerian authorities arrested and interrogated the trio on suspicion that they had come into contact with ‘Biafran separatists.’
According to the Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in Abuja is following the case closely and is in contact with Nigerian authorities.
One of the Israelis arrested is Rudy Rochman, a Zionist activist with almost 95,000 followers on Instagram. Making the flight with him were filmmaker Noam Leibman and French-Israeli journalist E. David Benaym.
The Israelis were in Nigeria to film “We Were Never Lost,” a documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and Nigeria.
They took off from Ben Gurion Airport on July 5 and landed in Nigeria the next day.
According to residents, the crew was detained at a synagogue during Friday night services in the Igbo village of Ogidi by Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) and taken to Abuja.
Ogidi is the headquarters of Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State.
The filmmakers were aware of the political sensitivity surrounding the filming of the Igbo community. Last Thursday, the “We Were Never Lost” Facebook page stressed: “We do not take any position on political movements as we are not here as politicians nor as a part of any governmental delegations.”
Last week, the group met with Igbo leader, Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, and presented him with a framed Shiviti made in Jerusalem.
Rochman also presented another Igbo community with a Torah scroll whose cover was designed by British-Israeli street artist Solomon Souza.
The Igbo consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel.
In January, a conflict broke out in southeastern Nigeria between Nigerian forces and the military wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement. The fight is ongoing.
A previous unilateral declaration of independence by the Igbo people in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war that left more than a million dead.
In 2018, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu gave a radio broadcast saying he was in Israel and indicating he owed his survival to the Jewish state.
Kanu, a former London estate agent, heads IPOB and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra.
He maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead them to the promised land of Biafra.
The Nigerian government, on June 21, announced Kanu’s arrest and extradition to Nigeria to continue facing trial.
He was subsequently arraigned before Binta Nyako, a Judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of the campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB.
He was granted bail in April 2017 for health reasons but skipped bail after disregarding some of the conditions given to him by the court.
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Police Rescue Kidnapped Bethel Baptist Student, Two Others
File photo used to illustrate story.
The Kaduna Police Command has rescued one of the students of Bethel Baptist School, Kaduna, and two other victims from their abductors.
The victims were rescued during a routine patrol mission by the operatives around the forest of Tsohon Gaya village of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna.
File photo used to illustrate story.
The Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Jalige, said this in a statement that the two other rescued victims were kidnapped recently along Kaduna – Kachia Road.
The statement read in part, “On the 12th July 2021 at about 3:40 pm, the Operatives of the Command alongside Civilian JTF during a routine rescue patrol around the forest of Tsohon Gaya village of Chikun LGA of Kaduna State stumbled on three kidnapped victims roaming the bush extremely exhausted and weak.
“The victims were safely evacuated and rushed to Police Clinic Kaduna where they are currently being resuscitated and will subsequently be handed over to their immediate families.”
The police identified Zaharaddeen Ibrahim, Nura Nuhu; victims kidnapped recently along Kaduna – Kachia Road and Abraham Aniya, and one of Bethel Baptist Secondary School students, Kujama kidnapped the previous week.
The Command reassured the public of its resolve to ensure more victims are rescued within the shortest possible time.
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Group, Northern Youths Commend Senate Rejection Of Onochie As INEC Commissioner
Lauretta Onochie
The Concerned Nigerians Group and the Northern Youths Council of Nigeria have commended the 9th Senate for rejecting the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Committee, Kabiru Gaya, said in his report that Onochie did not satisfy the provisions of the Federal Character Principles.
Lauretta Onochie
Concerned Nigerians Group, in a statement by its spokesperson, Theophilus Abuh Agada, commended this move by the Senate.
It noted that the nomination of Onochie, a member of the ruling All Progressive Congress and special assistant to the president as INEC commissioner is an aberration and mockery of Nigeria’s democracy.
“We commend the Nigerian Senate for showing extraordinary courage in rejecting the nomination of Onochie as INEC commissioner. INEC is an independent institution, and the candidacy of Onochie negates the principle upon which the body was established.
“Onochie is not just partisan; she has proven over time to be a paid hack of the ruling party. Her demonstrable actions in defending the president and politicians elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress will affect her sense of judgment in discharging her duties as an INEC commissioner.” the group said.
The group stated that an INEC commissioner ought to be someone with no questionable character but with proven integrity.
It also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the amended electoral bill to strengthen Nigeria’s electoral process and ensure transparency and credibility in elections.
“If the President means well for Nigeria and he is concerned about the quality of leaders elected into different offices, he should sign the amended electoral bill rather than appointing an aide of questionable integrity that will help him and his party rig elections.
“In the same vein, we call on the National Assembly not to reverse the gains we have made in our electoral process by banning the electronic transmissions of results.
” The ruling All Progressives Congress succeeded in 2015 in assuming power because of the innovative introduction of a card reader. The National Assembly must continue to support creative ideas by INEC, which will help the commission conduct free, credible and transparent elections.
“Finally, we call on the Inspector General of Police to begin immediate prosecution of Lauretta Onochie for brazenly lying under oath.”
The Northern Youths Council of Nigeria also lauded the Senate’s rejection of the nomination of Onochie, describing it as a victory for democracy and confirmation of the Independence of the National Assembly.
In a statement by its President, Isah Abubakar, the group stated those who badly counseled President Buhari to make such nominations had better “desist from misleading him or risked facing the anger of Northern youths.”
The Council admonished the leaders of the National Assembly and other Legislative wings to continue to put Nigeria’s Democracy first above party and individual sentiments.
It said, “Without democracy, the Senate President would have been handling chalk in the classroom, or Mr. Speaker would have been busy in court without the hope of occupying the sensitive positions democracy afforded them. This also applies to other members of the National Assembly.”
The group further urged them to ensure that they safeguard democracy for the future generation so that their children would benefit from it too.
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Sponsor Of Controversial NBC, NPC Bills That Sparked Front-page Protest Says Bills Have Been Suspended
A federal lawmaker from Oyo state, Olusegun Odebunmi, who sponsored the bills for the amendment to the laws establishing the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission and the Nigerian Press Council, says the legislative process on the bills has been suspended.
Media stakeholders have described the steps taken by the lower legislative chamber to amend the NPC and the NBC Acts as ‘draconian’ and an attempt to stifle free speech in the country.
On Monday, major newspapers started a front-page protest through the publication of a uniform artwork in a resolve to resist the government’s attempt to stifle the media’s constitutional freedom of speech in Nigeria.
But speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television program, on Tuesday, Odebunmi said he initiated the suspension of the bills to allow for consultation with stakeholders in the industry.
He said, “I’m suspending the process for more consultation.
“What I’m saying is that the NUJ cannot gag the activities of the national assembly by saying ‘No, you must drop it’ because obviously, that is not the way.
“We have suspended the process for more consultation to happen on it. They demanded a lot of time, and I said, ‘no problem, we have given you; even if you spend three, four to five weeks. So far, more consultations from critical stakeholders, and many people have been submitting their memoranda to the national assembly even within the industry.”
The federal lawmaker also said his intention is not to gag the press, saying he recognizes the lapses in the practice of journalism in Nigeria and that the amendments aim to fix those problems.
He said, “My intention is not to gag the press, and unless all the practitioners can say all is well with the industry, to the best of my knowledge, I know all is not well. And I know the national assembly has the power to look into the existing act.
“All is not well with the NPC agency. It is an agency of the government, and you’re expecting something to be given back to the society, but until now, nothing has been coming from the agency.”
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Ministry Official Narrates How Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Sadiya Farouq Allegedly Embezzled Money In Government Agencies
Sadiya Umar Farouk
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has turned the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and North-East Development Commission (NEDC) to her Automated Teller Machines, where funds are taken at her conveniences, a source at the ministry told SaharaReporters.
While NEDC was, among other objectives, established to rebuild the infrastructure and institutions destroyed by Boko Haram in the North-East, NEMA was created via Act 12 as amended by Act 50 of 1999, to manage disasters in the country.
Sadiya Umar Farouk
However, instead of sticking with their mandate, the management of the two agencies has been embroiled in multi-billion naira corruption scandals under the supervision of Farouq.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, a source at the ministry said, “The Minister has turned both agencies to her ATMs where she collects money at any time. She took over the entire ministry funds; she didn’t allow the NEMA DG, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, and his NEDC counterpart, Mohammed Goni Alkali, to work.
“Both agencies currently have over 500 abandoned projects, Farouq turned them to where she can walk to and pluck money and go away. All funds meant for political compensation by the APC government in North East are mainly from both agencies, especially NEDC.
“You will hear her telling them in the Hausa language that ‘Baba Buhari ya nemi mu ba wannan ?an siyasan wannan fitina, ya sake ta’ which means ‘Baba Buhari asked us to give this politician this amount, release it.’
“Even the two DGs are corrupt; they have forgotten they are in charge of interventionist agencies. If you can still remember a story done by SaharaReporters recently, about five billion naira that was approved and released as special funds for Ngwom Housing Estate is currently missing in transit between the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the office of the Managing Director of the NEDC.”
The source asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to beam its searchlight on Farouq, NEMA DG, Mustapha Habib Ahmed and NEDC MD, Mohammed Goni Alkali.
This is coming few days after a group, North-East Vanguard, claimed to have unearthed massive corruption involving billions of naira at the NEDC.
Besides allegedly embezzling billions of naira, the group accused Alkali of running the commission with nepotism.
In a document jointly signed by the group’s National Coordinator and National Secretary, Pwasato Aaron, and Goni Umar Muazu, respectively, It urges President Muhammadu Buhari to officially suspend the MD to allow free investigation into the issues raised.
The document seen by SaharaReporters reads in part, “The Managing Director, Mohammed Goni Alkali, takes home a monthly salary, N8.5 million without recourse to the Salaries and Wages Commission.
“This is apart from a whopping N300 million as running cost for his office per annum. How justifiable is that?
“Since its establishment, no single employment has been carried out, as Mohammed Goni Alkali, singlehandedly hand-picked from the ministries, people from his tribe of Kanuri (90% of the about 60 staff members of the commission are Kanuri).
“Purchase by the Managing Director of 100 Hilux pick-up vans for the military and other security personnel at the cost of N28 million each, against the market value of N17 million in 2020, without any recourse to the board, an act which completely negates the country’s procurement laws.
“The Managing Director singlehandedly procured all Covid-19 equipment to the tune of N5 billion without approval from the board and procurement procedures.
“Five billion naira that was approved and released as special funds for Ngwom Housing Estate is missing in transit between the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the office of the Managing Director of the commission.”
Other infractions allegedly committed by Alkali were said to involve the diversion of funds meant for the purchase of houses for staff members.
Other monies alleged to have been squandered involved the construction of corporate headquarters in Maiduguri and mass housing across the six North-East states.
It added, “Funds meant for the production of the master plan of the region are being stolen through bogus contracts using pseudo names.
“The Alkali management has misappropriated funds appropriated two years ago to establish 18 additional computer training centers.
“Funds meant for the construction of offices in the six states of the region have been diverted to other personal uses.
“Funds meant for the construction of ‘Mega Schools’ in the 18 senatorial zones of the region have disappeared.
“Tractors and other agricultural equipment, approved and fully funded, have yet to be purchased two years after, while billions of naira are being spent on fraudulent food procurement at the expense of farmers of the region.
“Billions of naira spent on the defunct PCNI liabilities should be thoroughly investigated as some of the claims cannot be validated.
“The board of the North-East Development Commission Education Endowment Fund-NEDCEF was inaugurated on August 7, 2020, as an educational component of the commission, but for close to one year now, the board has not been able to take off, let alone achieve its core mandate of interventions in the education sub-sector, because of meddlesomeness and needless frustrations by the Managing Director.
“Instead, funds earmarked for interventions by NEDCEF are being diverted for personal use by members of the Board Of Trustees.
“It is no surprise that during the recent presidential visit to Borno state by President Muhammadu Buhari, no single NEDC project was commissioned.”
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