THE Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) on Thursday received a petition from Leslie Vera & Associates, a consortium of lawyers based in Abuja, requesting it to probe the alleged fraudulent purchase of office items worth N32.8million by the Management of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA), Onne, Rivers State for the use of its Abuja office.
Concurrently, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in the Presidency, is also beaming its searchlights on the activities of OGFZA Management over allegations of “criminal manipulation and mischievous distortion to execute ethnic agenda” at the Federal Government Parastatal.
Leslie Vera & Associates in a petition dated November 3, 2011, which was deposited with the anti-graft Agency is requesting an investigation into the operations of OGFZA “as there are evidences of fraud there”.
The most glaring which the lawyers brought to the attention of ICPC was the approval of N32,818,970 by the Management of OGFZA in a single day for the purchase of mundane items which were over-inflated.
Incredibly, the contract award was split to be in tandem with the approval limit of the Managing Team, which was put at a maximum of N700,000 per contract as at the time of award but presently increased by the Federal Government to N2.5million.
The Petitioners alleged that the money said to be used to furnish the Abuja Liaison office of OGFZA was supposed to include the purchase of a brand new generator and office tables and chairs but that it was the old generator in the office that was serviced and re-supplied as new one.
They added that the chairs and tables were procured by roadside sellers and the over N21million said to be spent on all the items was fraudulent.
Leslie Vera & Associates then pleaded with ICPC to use its good offices to prosecute all the erring officers at OGFZA who participated in the alleged fraud so as to bring sanity back to the Management of OGFZA.
A breakdown of the list of expenses incurred with the said fraudulent money is as follows:
In a related development, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, directed the Legal Adviser in his office, Abdul-Hameed Ibrahim, to write a letter dated July 6, 2011 to the Director General of OGFZA, Dr. Noble Abe, requesting him to comment on issues raised by one Mr. David Funmi Omosule in his petition to Anyim titled “criminal manipulation and mischievous distortion to execute ethnic agenda at OGFZA”.
Omosule’s petition to Anyim was copied to the Ministers of Police Affairs, Trade and Investment, Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Head of Service, the ICPC Chairman and the Permanent Secretary of the Police Service Commission.
In the petition dated May 31, 2011, Omosule stated that he is from the South-Western part of the country and one of the most senior officers from that Region in the service of OGFZA and that pursuant to the Federal Government directives in respect of Directors on Grade Level 17 who have spent eight years in office, there are vacancies in that grade level at OGFZA.
The petition written on behalf of Omosule by Leslie Vera & Associates reads: “By virtue of the Provisions of the Administrative and Financial Manual of the Authority, our client is qualified to fill one of the vacancies for having over 19 (Nineteen) years post – NYSC experience.
“The Board of the Authority wrote to our Client a letter dated 10th December, 2010 directing him to forward the original of his certificates for consideration for promotion/upgrade.
“The Board sat to consider staff promotion and upgrade and on the 17th day of April, 2011, while our Client was expecting a promotion letter, he was given a letter suspending him for two months without pay for his failure to submit his original certificates whereas our client had submitted the certified true copies of the said certificates.
“The illegal suspension of our client spun us to seek the legality and basis of it. We embarked on a thorough investigation to discover that there is conscious and deliberate manipulation and distortion to prevent the promotion/upgrade and these individuals went further to distort the name of our client as Olufunmilayo O. Funmi as against his proper names.
“The purport of this name distortion is to criminally get the not of the Board for this illegal suspension as so many of the Board members would not ordinarily accede to the suspension of our client. Our client has since been idle and psychologically traumatized.
“Another pointer that there is an ethnic agenda is the promotion of an officer who has not spent up to 2(Two) years in the service of the Authority from grade level 09 to grade level 12 contrary to Civil Service Rules. This scheme is to eventually make him fill one of the vacancies.
“We also write to intimate your honourable office on the fact that we wrote a letter to the Inspector General of Police sometimes in June, 2011 and the officers were called for but they deliberately refused to respond to the invitation of the IGP and some of the officers of the Authority have been threatening to deal with our client.
“Our client is a humble citizen of this country and entitled to his freedom of movement but he lives in fear as he cannot say for certain when they want to deal with him or how he will be dealt with by these people.
“Premised on the above- chronicled, we take the liberty of our noble profession to humbly urge you to cause an inquiry to this anomaly with a view to remedying it.
“We believe in your efficiency and capability to do justice expeditiously in this matter without fear or favour. Your timely action will prevent further criminality as we are aware that there is systemic execution of ethnic bigotry agenda in the Authority”.
Worried by the ineptitude, indolence and dereliction of duties by senior officers of the Federal Government especially helmsmen of Federal Government Agencies, the Senate, on Thursday, threatened to work with the Executive arm of Government to ensure their sack.
Senate President, David Mark, who stated the stand of the Senators, threatened that the Senate would no longer tolerate a situation where few individuals, through indolence and indifference to their duties, derailed the nation’s progress and further expressed shock that the helmsmen of Federal Government Agencies had not put national interest above personal considerations.
“If they cannot do the right thing, then, they have no business being in government, because there are so many Nigerians who are prepared to work” Senator Mark fumed.
Attempts to contact the Resident Consultant of ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, met a brick-wall as he was said to have traveled to Idanre, Ondo State, his home town for the burial of his mother.
However, a source at ICPC who pleaded anonymity confided that the Commission had received all the petitions and necessary machinery is being put in place to act on them.