Fraud
rocks FG electricity agency, NELMCO
MD elevates brother-in-law as signatory to account
Consultants paid N360m for verification
EFCC, ICPC helpless
Victimization, fraud and deployment of proxies to ‘corner’ juicy contracts
are some of the operational methods of the Managing Director/Chief Executive of
the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company Ltd (NELMCO), Dr. Samuel
Agbogun, a whistleblower has alleged.
NELMCO is a special purpose agency set up by the Federal Government to
manage stranded liabilities of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN), including the staff pension of retirees and non-core assets approximating
N300 billion. It started effective operations in January, 2010.
The agency’s board, chaired by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, has the Director General of BPE, a director in the Ministry of Power
and a director (Revenue and Investment) in the Accountant-General’s office as
members, with Agbogun as secretary.
The whistleblower alleged, in a petition to the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), that Agbogun uses a syndicate of about 36
companies and some NELMCO staff to defraud the company.
According to the petitioner, suspended Special Assistant to Agbogun, Mr
Toluwase Abejirin, who spoke exclusively to New Telegraph in Abuja, Umezal
Nigeria Limited and Muse Engineering Company are among the companies the
agency’s boss uses to siphon government funds. Also in the syndicate are CEA
Solutions and Lily Emeya & Co which Aboderin alleged the MD enlisted to
draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for physical verification of PHCN assets, a
brief that had already been concluded and submitted to NELMCO by a committee
set up for that purpose.
Others include some key members of staff and the MD’s brother-inlaw, Mr.
Seyi Awe, who he elevated to replace the personal assistant as a signatory to
NELMCO’s account when he found Abejirin an unwilling accomplice in defrauding
the Federal Government.
“Dr. Agbogun also engaged consultants to carry out another verification
exercise for N360 million in order to access funds, all in the name of due
diligence,” Aboderin revealed. He further told New Telegraph that NELMCO
Tenders Evaluation Committee, which he headed, advertised in the Federal Tender
Journal “and companies applied for lots but the MD discarded the work of the committee
and awarded some of the plum jobs to his cronies without considering companies
that applied”.
In the heat of the spat between Abejirin and Agbogun, the NELMCO MD wrote
the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) on September 1,
2011 and ordered the removal of the former from the PHCN Liquidation Committee
and his replacement with Mr. Makki A. Yalleman.
Other allegations contained in the petition include a bloated staff list,
inflated contracts, and deliberate overpayment of estacode in hard currency and
award of contracts beyond his approved limit. From New Telegraph investigations
and confidential documents obtained, NELMCO management later suspended Aboderin
after he objected to the goings on, curiously accusing him of failing to submit
the originals of his credentials, a claim the latter dismissed as unfounded and
groundless.
All efforts mounted by Abejirin to secure the intervention of the EFCC,
ICPC, BPE, Federal Ministry of Finance and House of Representatives Committee
on Public Petitions were ineffective. A source said the antigraft agencies are
helpless in the matter. “It looks like they are not even interested in the
petition, despite the documents submitted”.
When New Telegraph sought specific response from NELMCO’s MD at the agency’s
headquarters in Abuja, it was impossible to see him after four visits. At the
fourth call, a certain Nnamdi who claimed he is the agency’s media officer
pleaded that Agbogun was defending the company’s budget at the National
Assembly and requested more time.
The same Nnamdi later asked our reporter to submit his bank account number
so the agency can make some bulk payment on condition that he drops his
investigation and rather publishes a public relations material he would send
and which he e-mailed to our reporter. Before press time, when New Telegraph
reporter obtained the MD’s number and called him directly, he replied with a
sms text that he was in a meeting but neither called back nor confirmed a date
he would respond to the allegations.
Agbogun retired from PHCN in 2006 and later joined BPE as a director. While
serving as the Director of Power in BPE, he was also the MD/ CEO of NELMCO. He
was disengaged from BPE in 2009 in compliance with government directive which
states that any director who has served for eight years should proceed on
retirement.
But instead of complying, Agbogun re-emerged as NELMCO’s Managing Director
and Chief Executive. According to Abejirin, “Dr. Agbogun vindictively demoted
and re-designated me from his Special Assistant to Principal Manager and
eventually sacked me when he found me an unwilling accomplice in defrauding the
Federal Government.
“He found me confrontational and removed me as a signatory to NELMCO account
and replaced me with his brother-in-law, Seyi Awe. “Dr. Agbogun also engaged
consultants to carry out another verification exercise in order to access funds
all in the name of due diligence for over N360 million,” he further told New
Telegraph.
“We advertised in the Federal Tender Journal, companies applied for lots. I
was the head of the Tenders Evaluation Committee. He discarded all we did and
awarded a few of the jobs to his cronies without considering those who duly
applied.”
From New Telegraph findings, Abejirin was employed (Ref: N E L M C O – HRD-03-005-2010
dated 25 January, 2010) with effect from 1st February 2010 as SA to NELMCO’s MD
with his core schedules as advising the MD/CE on financial and technical
matters and to prepare presentations for use at seminars and conferences.
But in heat of the spat between Abejirin and Agbogun, the latter wrote the
Director-General BPE (dated 1st September, 2011) and ordered the removal of the
former from the PHCN Liquidation Committee and his replacement with Yalleman.
“Dr. Agbogun has even resorted to threatening my life as he boasts that he
would derail every possible effort I make at bringing him to book”, Abejirin
further told New Telegraph.
Source: News Telegraph Online.
