Society Gists

The fight against sleaze and other vices that are inimical to the rejuvenation of the Nigerian State may all be futile, if those in charge of the crusade are equally complacent of covering up fraudsters under their watch.

Information reaching us revealed that, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed who is the arrow head of the latest mantra of the “Change begins with me” Initiative of the federal government has refused to curtail the excesses of one of the Director Generals under his purview. Mr. Yusuf Abdallah is the DG, National Monuments and Museums Commission on whom the axe of Damocles of intriguing fraudulent practices is hovering.

On January 13^th, 2016, a letter written to the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture by the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE; titled “ Intervene Now to avert looming unrest in the NCMM” chronicled the activities of the incumbent DG of the Commission since he assumed office in a no holds bares.

The letter read in part, “The challenges brought upon the NCMM by the Yusuf Abdallah led administration are innumerable, most of which are criminal in nature and execution. They include among others embezzlement of public funds, misappropriation, mismanagement, illegal employment without due recourse to due process, threat to live and victimization of staff”…..

In the petition, AUPCTRE listed some points of concern to the staff of the agency which included the diversions of over N3billion of tax payers’ money to personal use by the DG, Mr. Yusuf Abdallah Usman. The group called on the Minister to constitute a strong audit panel to examine and investigate among others:

• What happened to NCMM personal funds in excess of N388millon as at December 2013
• What happened to the N500 million presidential intervention fund released for the museum /archives during the Obasanjo administration
• The questionable payment of N27 millions of public funds to Rave Consults Limited for a fictious staff audit, staff profiling and pigeon-holing in 2012/2013 which was never carried out
• The questionable payment of over N25 million to Sola Alagbe for roofing protection in Motna for a job which was executed at less than N5 million among others.

Our findings also revealed that the DG has engaged himself in round tripping around a particular zone in the country on duty tours in order to present outrageous bills for his trips. Among such are trips to Kano, Adamawa, Sokoto and Kebbi within a week in the month of March 2013 that gulped over N4million. Other trips as well gulped out-gaping sums of money that could have been avoided if the DG is not frivolous and unmindful of how to spend the agency’s funds judiciously

Of importance is the latest sale of the agency’s 200KVA generator by one Thaddeus Zyi for N850, 000, a generator that was purchased at the sum of over N15 million about three years ago. And to add salt upon injury, the said generator was sold upon what Thaddeus termed ANTICIPATORY APPROVAL according to his explanation to a query.

Thaddeus has been summarily dismissed by a committee set up by the ministry to investigate the matter, but; the DG is still dragging foot to do so as many have alleged that the DG has a hand in the sale of the generator.

Investigation into the numerous allegations against Abdallah reached a head recently when a civil society group, Transparency Centre Network wrote a letter to the DG to step aside and allow the EFCC to wage into the matter. Yet, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed has refused to heed the call of the group and many others to ask the DG to step aside for full investigations into his activities since he took over office for alleged complicity in the handling of the financial affairs of the agency. Many are alleging that the Honourable minister may equally have his hands in the pie of the agency.

The former Assistant Director Finance/Admin, Mr O. Oke in a telephone chat revealed that, all payments were approved by Yusuf Abdallah and could not disobey His boss even when it was obvious that prices were inflated. Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary Of Transparency Centre, Segun Jones told SocietyGists that the Group is putting finishing touches to its scheduled protest for the removal of the DG.