Danjuma Confirms N421m Fraud

THE Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma Tuesday confirmed the N421 million scam involving the permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr. Julius Makanjuola and four other directors, describing it as "an embarrassment to the ministry."

Also officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH), are to explain to the police team investigating the scandal how the sum of N107.1 million was recommended for the Ikoro community in Rivers State, in respect of land compensation as against the N40 million demanded by the community.

Dr. Julius Makanjuola and four other directors in the ministry, it would be recalled, were last Friday arrested and taken to the force headquarters Abuja in respect of payments made to certain individuals as compensation on land allegedly acquired by the ministry.

At a press conference Tuesday in Abuja, the Defence minister who spoke through his personal assistant, Mr. John Dara said that the action of the permanent secretary, Dr. Julius Makanjuola and his cohorts was "an embarrassment to the ministry."

?The event of the last few days in the ministry has come as an embarrassment to the minister because when he resumed duty here, he stated in no ambiguous terms his commitment to reform the operation of the ministry. However, what I will consider as an aberration cropped up last week, when the minister discovered that there has been some financial irregularities in the ministry.?

Other directors involved in the scandal, according to police interim report, include Mr. Patrick Ajumobi, (Director Joint Services) who admitted processing two of the payments amounting to N65 million, deputy director joint services, Mr. R. Udaku, who dealt directly with the permanent secretary during the course of processing the payments and the deputy director, finance and supply, Mr. Eroma.

The fraud at the ministry was uncovered when the minister took upon himself to scrutinise policy files on the day-to-day activities of the ministry, and ?in the process, he stumbled on some files (six of them) relating to payments of a total of N421 million as compensation in respect of various lands purportedly acquired by the army.

Danjuma also observed that payments were made without any reference to him, and that the beneficiaries did not append their signatures on the vouchers before payment was effected, with all payment vouchers stamped.

Following the discovery, the minister requested the inspector general of police, Mr. Musiliu Smith to set up an investigating team into the matter, with a view to recovering the amount involved and bringing the culprits to book. He also handed over photocopies of six policy files to the investigating team to facilitate their work.

It was in the course of police investigation that the permanent secretary and four directors whose roles were questionable in the payment were arrested for interrogation. "After his own preliminary investigation, the minister engaged in the spirit of due process and upholding the rule of law. What he did was to invite the police to investigate the matter."

The police also observed that while the Okoro community in Isokpo, Ekwere local government area of Rivers State applied for N40.7 million compensation, surprisingly, the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing evaluation team recommended for them, the sum of N107.1 million.

"The community asked for N40 million, and government officials are demanding that they should be paid N107.1 million, I think we have very generous public officials."

He added that out of this figure, N25 million has already been paid out. ?The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing officials who indulged themselves in this questionable act for personal reasons, because government interest was not protected at all, are to be invited to justify their action.?

The police also discovered that all six applications for payment for compensation covering five communities in Anambra State were handled by one law firm - Nwege and Nwege, based in Lagos. The investigators wondered why only one lawyer was engaged by the entire six communities.

Also two companies based in Lagos and Port Harcourt respectively assisted in effecting the payments. The investigating police team is currently in Anambra and Rivers states to ascertain whether these communities actually received the money and whether they also demanded for claims. The police team is also to among others identify the lands and persons who received payment on behalf of the community, to ascertain if actually the community received payment and if they did, the amount paid; to locate local government chairmen and traditional rulers of the various communities to confirm their alleged roles and to recover documents in respect of the payments. The names of the alleged beneficiaries and the compensation paid to them and dates of payments include the following:

Aguleri community in Anambra State presumed to be paid the total sum of N77.0 million on October 11, 1999 and Umonachi community (Anambra State) received the total sum of N30 million on December 12, 1999. Udoekpe Ogbaru community (Anambra State) received a total sum of N93.4 million, Nowfia community, in Njikoka Local Government (Anambra State collected the sum of N112.7 million. Others include Akwuzu community, Onyi local government area, Anambra State collected N82.4 million and Ikoro community in Isiokpo Ekwere Local Government Area of Rivers State which received the total sum of N25 million. However, all the vouchers were not signed by the beneficiaries, even though such vouchers were dully stamped according to police investigation.

Currently, investigation on the matter is still in progress and more officers are likely to be invited by the police.

Obasanjo Orders Agabi to Re-Arrest Makanjuola, If...
From Eddy Odivwri in Abuja

Those who swear by President Olusegun Obasanjo have in the last few days said that the anti-corruption war declared by the president on May 29, 1999 has at last begun. They point to the recent arrest and sacking of a serving minister, Alhaji Hussaini Akwanga over an alleged bribery scam involving $214 million (two hundred and fourteen million dollars) national identity card project. They say Obasanjo should be commended because "it is better late than never".

A few days ago, coinciding with CHOGM, the president ordered the arrest of the minister of labour and productivity along with Chief Sunday Michael Afolabi, one of the president's closest friends who was minister of internal affairs in the president's first term cabinet, Alhaji Mohammed Shata, the minister of state and a later replacement for Afolabi also during the first term cabinet and Dr. Okwey Nwodo, the former national secretary of the PDP who defected to the ANPP and was its senatorial candidate for the Enugu North senatorial district. Also apprehended were Ms R. O. Akerele, the permanent secretary in the internal affairs ministry and Mr. Niyi Adelagun, the businessman who put them all in trouble in the first place. Mr. Adelagun is a business partner of SAGEM SA of France, the major contractor handling the project.

Trouble seems to have started when Mr. Adelagun had alleged that 90 percent of the entire money released for the ID card project in the last four years was shared among some "relevant public officers". Otunba Johnson Fasawe, the first friend, who had walked up to SAGEM SA Nigeria and requested that he be appointed a "middleman", a request promptly granted him and for which he was handsomely paid, was quizzed by the SSS on Wednesday (10-12-03) but released. Nobody knows why Mr. Pierre Jean Delarue, the French SAGEM regional manager in Nigeria who had allegedly participated with Mr. Adelagun in the bribe sharing was let off the hook.

Of the arrests, the one that should surprise everyone is that of Chief S. M. Afolabi, the president's sidekick. The former minister of internal affairs belongs to the exclusive class of sacred cows in Obasanjo's administration who graze freely in the family vegetable garden with impunity. Together with Tony Anenih, Olusegun Agagu, Jackson Gaius-Obaseki and even the recently sacked Olabode George, seemed to be above the laws of the land including the anti-corruption law. By the time Olabode George was relieved as the chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), for instance, the parastatal which had always been a cash cow for the federal government, had been set back by more than N25 billion (twenty-five billion naira). All George got was a slap on the wrist. That is usually the kind of privilege that people of his breed get on account of their closeness to the president. So, it is somewhat surprising that Afolabi should be given the treatment. But many think the arrest was just a stunt to convince (or confuse) the visiting Queen Elizabeth II and head of the Commonwealth of Nations and other Commonwealth leaders that the Obasanjo government was indeed serious about the anti-corruption war. This speculation has basis because the arrest was effected to coincide with the commencement of the CHOGM.

Yet many others think the arrested ministers are probably in trouble because they did not take the stolen money to the common pool. Everybody knows that there was a slush fund the president and his men used to execute the April Four-One-Nine elections. This one also has basis in the president's style and antecedent. During the president's first term, a junior minister from one of the North Western states took a bribe of N90 million from a contractor handling one of the roads in the North East. When his senior minister, renown for his mastery of baksheesh found out, he reported to the president who then summoned the "offending" minister and the contractor. The minister's offence apparently was that he took the money for himself and did not remit it to the common pool.

The minister was dropped during the first cabinet reshuffle and the president himself told the media that corruption was one of the reasons for the cabinet reshuffle. Of course, the president still did not send the matter to Justice Akanbi's ICPC and Justice Akanbi did not ask to be served either. Today, out of the three sacked ministers, one is a serving Senator and another, a serving minister. So what really has Afolabi done so gravely?

Regardless, since the president said he has started his war against corruption - no one believes him in any case - it will be pertinent to offer him some advice free of charge. First, you don't start this kind of war from the middle. You start from the beginning. And that brings us to the rude question - where is Julius Makanjuola? The case of Makanjuola, the former defence permanent secretary is the open sore of the Obasanjo government and a clear testimony that Obasanjo's anti-graft war is a deceit. General T. Y. Danjuma, minister of defence at the time, arrested Mr. Makanjuola on allegation of stealing N480 million. Danjuma gathered all his evidence before getting the permanent secretary to confess to the crime.

At that time, Danjuma took the anti-corruption talk of the president seriously, not knowing it was a ruse. After Makanjuola had spent some time in prison, Obasanjo's ministers of justice, Kanu Agabi and Musa Elayo presented a nolle prosequi to free the permanent secretary. While that happened, the president pretended that he did not know what was going on. Today, Makanjuola is free and has even escaped to Europe where he is currently savouring his loot. That's the credential of a president and statesman fighting corruption in Nigeria.

Makanjuola is not the only question the president will have to answer. Last year, he declared in Ogun State that he was ashamed of federal roads. That was after Tony Anenih, the minister of works and housing and Garba Madaki, the minister of state, had "expended" about N350 billion constructing potholes into federal roads. They had paid out about N180 billion to contractors and the balance was yet to be paid. That was also the era that many state governments started working on federal roads because the federal government was derelict in its responsibility. The president really needed to be ashamed of himself as he confessed, because the entire Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) that was designed by the late General Sani Abacha and which had a tremendous impact on the quality of life of Nigerians cost just a little over N110 billion, of which, the entire 12,500 kilometres of road networks that was reconstructed by the PTF, apart from the several urban road repairs (which Nigerians saw), gulped only N60 billion. Well, maybe it has not crossed the president's mind yet, but he will need to arrest these two ministers of works urgently. If only for the reason that the president himself confessed to being ashamed, these two ministers should be questioned. They have no right to cause such shame to the president.

Another question for the anti-corruption president is why he didn't dispatch Bode George and Aminu Dabo to the ICPC like Akwanga and co? We hear Aminu Dabo has an interesting story to tell. He has reportedly been telling every listening ear that all the expropriation he is being accused of was done for and in the interest of the 2003 election of the president and his cohorts in the PDP. Aminu Dabo and Co. are of course innocent until proven guilty but the ICPC would need to investigate that allegation because the giver of the bribe and the receiver are guilty of the crime. The receiver of stolen goods - in this case, public funds for campaign - is also as culpable as the thief himself. So Akanbi should really be very busy now. Afenifere leaders and defeated AD candidates have been complaining that Olabode George, Olusegun Agagu and this same S. M. Afolabi brought all the money (from God knows where) and the paraphernalia of the federal government that was used to harass and suborn them at the April elections.

The president will also do well to direct his minister of FCT, the inimitable Nasir el-Rufai to take some time off demolishing mosques, churches and the properties of generals and write to the ICPC explaining the entire N54 million Senate graft story. Nigerians have refused to forget this disgrace. It is already etched in their minds. Many Nigerians believe the minister but also think that it is the president that is not serious. Since the minister works for the president, his anti-corruption credentials will be given a heft if he directs his minister to correspond with Justice Akanbi. Such an action will also finally prove whether the current No. 54 official car plate number of Senator Jonathan Zwingina is a fitting coincidence. How about Chris Uba, the president's godson? Uba is the Aso Rock-backed Anambra godfather who organised the mafia-style kidnap of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State after failing to procure Anambra State government post-dated cheques from the governor. Uba is not only free, he now moves around with policemen and SSS operatives in spite of presidential directives that policemen should be withdrawn from private citizens.

Well, as everyone knows, one can continue reeling out such corruption cases ad infinitum, but there's no need. It is a hopeless case. The president has no intention of fighting corruption. But one thing has emerged from the arrest of Akwanga and Co. Mr. Adelagun, the man who exposed the whole deal said 90 percent of the money released for the ID card project was paid to relevant government officials. Nigerians used to be aware of 10 percent kickbacks to government officials. It is obvious that the rate of inflation in the Obasanjo regime has upped this figure to 90 percent. Does this explain why after spending more than N4 trillion in the last four years, the Obasanjo government has nothing to show for it? Ninety percent of this gargantuan expenditure probably went to the "relevant government officials". God dey!

Sam Nda-Isaiah is the publisher of Leadership Confidential