Tension in EFCC over Tunde Ogunsakin’s removal

[Ednut]

This is not new in Nigeria; It happens at all levels of education in Nigeria, from secondary level to the post secondary as this case suggests, even to the adult professional education system. Recently, while we were both visiting Nigeria, a UK based cousin of mine introduced me to one of his cousins who is a highly placed politician today and is a now practicing lawyer. Nothing wrong with that except that his cousin while a business man at Onitsha, never set his feet one day at the Law school where he got his degree from. He hired someone to do the whole program for him while he kept his eyes on his business, my cousin alleged. His cousin never really was interested on being a registered lawyer but he felt that he needed to be addressed as having a law degree if he is to advance in politics, Nigeria style.

Of course, with the Nigerian police, we all expect the worst when it comes to any type of character issues.

ednut

Tension in EFCC over Tunde Ogunsakin’s removal
By Murphy Ganagana
Sunday, May 10, 2009

An interesting drama is unfolding at the EFCC as mind-bogging details are emerging on how a clash of interest at the top echelon of the anti-graft agency created deep gullies of bad blood which eventually consumed the Mr Ogunsakin.

Ogunsakin, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), was removed last week Tuesday and redeployed to the Force Headquarters following allegations that he contracted a student to sit for an examination on his behalf at the Law faculty of the University of Abuja, where he is currently undergoing a programme.

Reports had further alleged that Ogunsakin paid the student a hefty sum of N500,000 to write the examination for him in proxy, just as he was said to be enjoying the support of a Deputy Dean of Faculty, whom he bought an expensive Toyota car to curry his favour when necessary.

Interestingly, when the scandal blew open, the EFCC moved swiftly to investigate the incident even when the authorities of the University of Abuja were yet to commence inquiry on the matter.
During its investigation, the EFCC operatives reportedly attempted to take possession of Ogunsakin’s unmarked script for the Equity course, an examination he wrote on April 29, 2009, three weeks after the scandal broke.

The operatives also took the bank account of the student, who allegedly wrote the examination for the erstwhile EFCC boss.
However, the confessional statement of Bright Edobor, the 500-level Law student at the centre of the alleged examination scam, has introduced a new twist into the saga, claiming that he had been under pressure by some EFCC officials with a promise of a soft-landing and other juicy offers if only he could testify to implicate Ogunsakin.

Similarly, Kwara State-born Yinka Afolayan, a 400-level student of the Department of Public and International Law, who admitted being a close friend to Ogunsakin, said he takes full responsibility for the incident, which he said, resulted in his bid to assist a friend without his consent.
Edobor said he is therefore at a loss as to why some top officials of the EFCC want him to nail Ogunsakin, with a promise of adequate security protection as well as sponsorship to a school of his choice outside the shores of the country.

In a confessional statement dated April 30, 2009, Edobor denied either meeting Ogunsakin or being contracted by him to sit for an examination.
But he admitted writing a test for continuous assessment in the name of Ogunsakin on the request of Yinka Afolayan, whom he described as his close friend.

Part of his statement reads: “…On the 24th of April, 2009, I was told my name and matriculation number were on a newspaper over an allegation that I wrote an exam for an EFCC boss, a Director of Operations. I found out that a lot that were written were not true. I was never taken to the Dean of Student Affairs after I was caught. I was only taken to the school security. I never confessed that I was involved in such an act on several occasion or ever before. I have been receiving strange calls from private numbers, some claiming that they were EFCC officials, and that if I knew the extent of my act, that I should try to see them or testify against the EFCC boss with a promise that they will make sure I get out of this peacefully.

“They went further promising to sponsor my schooling abroad if I am afraid that their boss (Ogunsakin) will deal with me if I lie against him.
“Some others spoke about helping me with finances, but I out-rightly refused to see any of them. I told some of them that my conscience will not permit such an act of false witness…As a result of the pressure I was getting from the people who claimed to be EFCC official, I sensed that they were trying to use me to blackmail him [Ogunsakin]. I wish to state categorically that I was never offered money by Yinka to write the test, and I have never set my eyes on the EFCC boss before this incident.

“It is important to note that it was a test I wrote for the said Tunde Ogunsakin and not examination though, without his consent, and I have decided to make this fact public because of the attitude of the EFCC officials who came to interrogate me on April 29, 2009, as they tried to make me say that DCP Tunde sent me, but I couldn’t do that because my conscience could not let me”.

Evidently, Bright’s revelation suggested that all had not been well at the top hierarchy of the EFCC since the present leadership assumed office, and Ogunsakin may have fallen victim of high-tech conspiracy and power-play, which eventually saw him being eased out last week. In fact, Sunday Sun findings revealed that that the removal of Ogunsakin was the hallmark of a sustained game of distrust, intrigues and suspicion between him and the Commission’s chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri.

Sources close to the Commission confided in Sunday Sun that since her assumption of office, Waziri had barely tolerated her Director of Operations, whom she reportedly told some of her close aides, was not her choice, but imposed on her. Waziri, according to sources, had nursed this feeling even before she was cleared by the Senate to assume duties, as she reportedly attempted to stop Ogunsakin from assuming his office after his appointment had been announced.

It was further gathered that signs of cracks in the house became more glaring barely three months after assumption of duties of the present EFCC leadership, as Mrs, Waziri was said to have summoned Ogunsakin into her office where she accused him of leaking information to the presidency to the effect that she was in love with money, and was therefore prone to bribe-taking.

Thus, she reportedly moved to clip Ogunsakin’s wings, first, by creating three parallel investigative teams comprising her close loyalists who reported directly to her rather than through the Director of Operations as required in the chain of command. Besides, she also created a monitoring unit which she directly assigned duties, especially cases in which she allegedly had interest. Unwilling to bear the degrading treatment, Sunday Sun gathered that Ogunsakin had once confronted her on the issue, and she promised to reverse the situation. Sources close to the EFCC said she never did.

In fact, the frosty relationship was said to have taken a turn for the worse on a daily basis to the extent that operatives were sent out on some special assignments without the knowledge of the Director of Operations. One of such cases is the arrest of former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George, whose arrest over the NPA contract scam was said to be made without the knowledge of DCP Ogunsakin. Sunday Sun learnt that it took a phone call by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoaka, for Ogunshakin to know that George had been arrested.

Besides operational differences, Sunday Sun further gathered Ogunsakin may have fallen out of favour with his boss following his show of displeasure on her manner of handling some sensitive investigations, especially those involving some ex-governors, top politicians and some members of the National Assembly. Again, her decision to contract the services of security consultants some of whom engaged in blackmailing in the name of the EFCC, was also said to be a source of ripples at the Commission. A case in point is one Mr. Victor Nwanze, allegedly commissioned by Mrs. Waziri to fish out top public officers and politicians who owned posh houses and fat bank accounts abroad.

According to impeccable sources, Nwanze had, in the course of his assignment, even approached the Minister of Information and Culture, Professor Dora Akunyili, with a request that she play ball, for the concealment of a property in London, which he claimed, ownership had been linked to her. Akunyili was said to have called his bluff, and he scampered out of her office.

Remarkably, there seem to be more revelations pointing to the fact that an hurricane may soon sweep across the office of the EFCC chairman, as fingers point towards that direction in the leakage of the examination scandal involving the erstwhile Director of Operations to the media through Times of Nigeria, an online news outfit. Reports indicated that the information on the alleged examination scam was sent to the online medium through the official email box address of the PSO to Mrs. Waziri, Mr. Bala Sanga.

Ironically, Sunday Sun gathered that Ogunsakin had, indeed, written a letter of resignation which he was yet to present to President Umaru Yar'Adua, before his sudden removal. He was also said to have repeatedly complained of the goings on at the EFCC to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, who has been reportedly calming his frayed nerves.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpage...5-2009-001.htm

[DaBishop]

Too many issues:

1. Is the DOO a student at said Unviversity?

2. Did any other person other than DOO ever write an exam or a test in his name? Why?

3. If the above is answered in the affirmative, an investigation ought be opened.

4. The politics in EFCC: Did DOO ever confront his boss? On what investigations?

5. Does the EFCC have a manual with corporate organization chart with roles and responsibilities? and order of investigations?

6. Why was DOO fired? What official reason was given, was it exam malpractice? If it was, he can only be on suspension pending investigations.

[Igboamaeze]

Nothing strange in all these. The same things we have been seeing and hearing from the begining. It is all a case of do me I do you. You expose my yansh and I expose yours. Score 1, 1.

EFCC was rotten, EFCC is rotten and EFCC shall remain rotten so long as Nigeria remains in sixes and sevens...

[emj]

Hmmmm...EFCC....interesting shenanigans
Ednut, you're so right about some degrees being Flaunted all over the place...Politics and what it drags in.

More on EFCC Olympic style wayo games. No victims, no winners.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?t...00905123205721

EFCC detains Elumelu, arrests UBEC director
By John Ameh and Olufemi Adeosun, Abuja
Published: Tuesday, 12 May 2009

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday detained the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Power, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu, over a N5bn contract scam in the Rural Electrification Agency.
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Mr. Ndudi Elumelu

Also held by the commission are Elumelu’s deputy, Alhaji Mohammed Jibo, and the Chairman of the House Committee on Rural Development, Mr. Igwe Paulinus.

It was gathered that the three lawmakers submitted themselves to the commission after they returned from an overseas trips.

The EFCC had written to the Clerk of the House, Mr. Niyi Ajiboye, reminding the leadership of the House of its promise to make the legislators available for questioning.

The commission had last Wednesday arrested the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Ugbane, over the alleged scam.

Ugbane was as at Monday still being detained by the EFCC after it secured a court ruling on the matter.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi, and the Managing Director, REA, Mr. Sam Gapke, were earlier arrested over the same allegation.

The Senate and House committees on power were alleged to have smuggled the controversial N5bn projects into the 2009 budget without the knowledge of the Presidency.

Since Ugbane’s arrest last week, some media reports (not The Punch) had claimed that the three members of the House were on the run.

But the House Spokesman, Mr. Eseme Eyiboh, scoffed at such a claim and insisted that the lawmakers were on foreign trips.

Eyiboh, who spoke with one of our correspondents at about 6.15pm on Monday, explained that the lawmakers returned on Monday and picked up their invitations from Ajiboye’s office at the National Assembly from where they went to the EFCC’s office in Abuja.

He said, “They were not arrested, they went there voluntarily to submit themselves as law-abiding citizens.

“I, as the spokesman of the House, accompanied them to the EFCC’s office. I left them and returned home. I am going back there right away, and I can assure you that I will come back with them.”

However, a source at the EFCC insisted that Elumelu and his colleagues would remain with the commission just like Ubane, Abdullahi and Gapke.

It was gathered that all those detained would be charged to court before the end of this week.

When contacted, the Head of Media and Publicity of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed the detention of the three lawmakers.

He also explained that the lawmakers surrendered themselves to the commission at about 10.am on Monday.

Elumelu had been in the eye of the storm shortly after his committee submitted its report on the alleged $13bn spent on the power sector by the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Some members of the committee accused him of unilaterally authoring the report which recommended the prosecution of Obasanjo, a former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Segun Agagu, and others for their roles in the disbursement of the sum.

Before the report was submitted, the committee was accused of collecting bribe while carrying out the probe.

Although Elumelu denied the allegation, the House mandated its Ethics and Privileges Committee to investigate the matter.

The report is currently pending before an Ad hoc committee of the House.

The EFCC had earlier on Friday arrested one of the directors of the Universal Basic Education Commission Directors, Mr. Mulkat Muftang, over an alleged N1.7bn contract scam.

Muftans was picked by the operatives of the commission in Abuja.

He was alleged to have scaled the UBEC fence last Tuesday when the EFCC operatives invaded the commission.

With his arrest, about six directors of UBEC are now remanded at the commission’s office.

The other UBEC officials are Dr. Andrew Ekpanobi, Mr. Michael Aule, Prof. Gidado Tahir and Hajia Adizat.

It was learnt that they might also be arraigned before Saturday.

Babafemi, who also spoke on the development, said that the commission had concluded its preliminary investigation on the fraud in UBEC and was prepared to go to court.

“The commission has concluded its investigation and the suspects will be taken to court before the end of the week to defend themselves in the various allegations levied against them,” he explained.