Accountants deserve refuge not refugees

Professor Alexander Betts is the Director of Refugee Studies at Oxford University.  His schorlarship, dedication and compassion have won him well deserved accolades. He is author of over 50 articles, book chapters and working papers and his work has appeared in a range of peer reviewed journals.

However, Professor Betts is completely at a loss as to what to make of the some reports coming out of Nigeria. The first is that of the abandoned Apo-Karshi road project. It was reported in the papers that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Bello, wept over the abandoned N6.4 billion Apo-Karshi road project awarded since 2010 by the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA. The minister, who paid an unscheduled visit to the site, last Wednesday, lampooned the authorities and engineers of the Satellite Towns Development Department, STDD, under the FCDA, for failing to ensure proper handling of the prolonged Karshi-Ara and extension of Karshi-Apo road project.

Bello, who was visibly shocked by the appalling progress of work done by the contractors, tongue lashed the FCDA officials for obvious negligence on their part which contributed to the delay in the projects which has lasted for four years with very little result to show.  Describing the situation as a shame, the minister said the much talked about Apo-Karshi road project, which is expected to ease the reoccurring traffic gridlock on the Abuja/Keffi expressway, is an abstract construction from nowhere to nowhere. “I’m delighted to visit and see for myself the very popular Apo-Kashi road which has generated much talk.  I have seen an “abstract construction from nowhere to nowhere”, a sign of what has been wrong with us as a people.  I am very disappointed. The construction of the road would be the solution to the traffic gridlock on Nyanya and Karu road, leading into the city. I don’t understand how it will take the entire engineers in the FCDA and an upcoming contractor like this one up to four years to construct a 13 kilometre road.  It’s an embarrassment, a shame to us all. Having heard all, I weep for our situation; the contractor was initially unwilling to handle the project, the project had no design, it was not designed to Apo from Karshi initially, but was initially designed from Karshi to Wassa community,” Bello stated.

The second has to do with a reported irregularity in the sale of Eleme Petro Chemical Plant. The news has it that Stakeholders are pushing for probe of the lingering allegations of irregularity and underhand dealings in the sale of Eleme Petro Chemical Plant, Rivers State.  They want to know why the plant, which cost tax payers $2.4 billion to build, was flogged to the Thai firm – Indorama – for $215 million. The stakeholders from Rivers State are pleading with the Buhari administration to revisit the sale of the plant, which has capacity to supply about 98 percent of the nation’s petrochemical needs. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has dismissed the allegations of impropriety as unfounded.

The stakeholders led by Mr. Thompson Kpagih on a visit to The Nation office in Abuja said a review of the plant’s sale could not have come at a better time than now when the government at the centre is determined to recover all national assets proven to have been taken illegally. Kpagih said:  “We know that Eleme Petro Chemical Plant was constructed by a world class consortium of premier engineering and EPC contractors of Chiyoda Corporation, JGC and Kobe Steel of Japan,Technimont of Italy and SpieBatignolles of France at a cost of $2.4 billion by the Federal Government and it began operations in 1995.

The plant sits on 400 acres of land, has a state of the art Olefins plant, Polypropylene/Butane and Polypropylene plant; Captive power plant; utilities; Effluent treatment plant; Storage Tanks; Bagging Plant; Numerous Warehouses for raw material, and finished goods, and several other supporting facilities. However, the Federal Government’s privatisation process for this plant was fraught with various allegations of irregularity and under hand dealings as higher bids by Nigerians by Transcorp/Dangote Consortium were put aside and the $2.4 billion plant, was sold to Bangkok-based Indorama Petrochem Company Limited for a paltry $215 million.”

The third case, as reported in the media, has to do with reported cases of extortion by officials of the EFCC. “As fallout of the arrest of one of its operatives, Abdulrahman Biu, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, may have commenced internal cleansing of the agency following widespread allegations that most staff especially in investigation and prosecution become super rich a few months into their deployments.

Biu, a Deputy Detective Superintendent, was arrested last Friday for allegedly collecting $150,000 (about N45 million) from some military officers currently being investigated. He was said to have promised to give the unnamed seven military officers soft landing in order to escape being probed for alleged involvement in the $2.1 billion arms deal scandal, EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, revealed. Biu’s arrest our correspondent learnt is a tip of the iceberg of what transpires in the anti-graft agency. An insider, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, told this newspaper that it has become a norm for officials of the commission to fleece Nigerians petitioned against or seeking the help of the agency to reclaim their monies from fraudsters and failed business contracts etc.

“Biu’s matter is out because it is high profile.  Several Nigerians are fleeced constantly by agents especially those in investigation and prosecution. They tell you how they can help you get soft landing or your file will simply go missing.  Sometimes once a petition is filed, some unscrupulous ones will just take it, contact whoever is involved and get settled for alerting the person on time before official investigation commences. It is very few officials here that are living above board.  From what has happened, the chairman is discreetly investigating staffers of the commission, and if he makes the findings known, Nigerians will simply lose faith in the anti-corruption war,” the source claimed. According to our source, only a quarter of advanced fee fraud suspects get to see the courts as most of them ‘settle’ the agency’s operatives and simply go on with their nefarious activities scamming mostly foreigners.

It would be recalled that the EFCC has had a running battle with the House of Representatives over the non-remittance of over N1 trillion recovered from suspects and convicted fraudsters. Chairman of the House Ad-Hoc Committee investigating alleged fraudulent practices in the collection and management of non-oil revenue remittances by MDAs, Hon. Chike John Okafor, had threatened to order the arrest of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the EFCC, for failing to honour their invitation. Before Magu, Ibrahim Larmode, who has since fled the country after he was removed from office, refused to appear before the House on the alleged missing N1 trillion from seized and recovered assets.”

 

J.K. Randle