Tuesday, 26 July 2016

AGF to reopen Ibori, 30 ex-govs’ corruption cases

Abubakar-Malami — Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

Fresh troubles may be ahead of some former governors as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abukakar Malami, is set to reopen corruption cases for which they were earlier investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.

Sources in the ICPC confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the commission had, last week, received a letter from the office of the AGF, giving the anti-graft agency a directive to that effect.

Some of the ex-governors, according to one of the sources, include some, who had been convicted for charges preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Others are currently undergoing trial on charges initiated against them by the EFCC at either the various divisions of the Federal High Court or the High Courts of their home states.

There are about five of the former governors, who are now serving senators.

Some of them had served as senators after completing two terms as governors.

The sources did not disclose the names of those on the list so as not to bungle further investigations where necessary.

The affected personalities, it was learnt, served as governors for either one or two terms between 1999 and 2015, and are from all the six geopolitical zones in the country.

It was also confirmed that majority of those on the list belonged to the two dominant political parties, the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Another source, however, confirmed that a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was convicted in the United Kingdom for fraud-related charges and still serving his prison terms, was on the list.

Apart from Ibori, two former governors from the South-South, are said to be on the list.

Five of the former governors are from the South-East, and three from the South-West.

The PUNCH was informed that the ex-governors, whose cases would be reopened, included six from the North-West; six from the North-East, and eight from the North-Central.

Part of the AGF’s letter, sighted by our correspondent on Monday, indicated that the cases against some of the former governors had been investigated some years ago but charges were never filed against them.

The letter partly read, “It is clear that some of these governors and other politically-exposed persons have not been charged to court despite the fact that the ICPC has concluded their investigations concerning allegations levelled against them for one reason or the other.

“It is the position of the present administration that all ex-governors that the ICPC had long concluded investigations into the various allegations levelled against them should be immediately prosecuted.”

The letter also gave the Chairman of the ICPC a 14-day ultimatum to “remit the duplicate case files concerning the politically-exposed persons investigated by the ICPC over the years” to the office of the AGF.

The letter indicated that this was in the exercise of the powers vested in the AGF by Section 174(1) of the Constitution as well as sections 105 (3) and 106 (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

The AGF’s letter also requested files of other high-profile cases involving politically-exposed persons.

The AGF letter defines high-profile cases as cases “involving alleged misconduct amounting to economic sabotage; involving complex financial transactions or property movement; involving any of the suspects, who is a politician, a public officer or judicial officer; and where the subject matter involves government or corruption of its official or involves the abuse of office.”

Such judiciary officers, it was learnt, would include judges allegedly involved in economic sabotage, including financial transactions.

It could not be confirmed on Monday whether the AGF’s office had received any response from the ICPC regarding the request.

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the AGF, Mr. Salihu Isah, could not be reached on Monday as his telephone line indicated that it was switched off.

Copyright PUNCH.

Police probe Jibrin’s allegations against Dogara, others

Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

There are indications that the police have begun probing the allegations of budget padding levelled against the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers by a former House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Adbdulmumin Jibrin.

It was learnt on Monday that the police leadership had directed detectives to probe the allegations by Jibrin that the Speaker colluded with his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and the Minority Whip, Leo Ogor, to earmark N40bn to themselves in the 2016 National Assembly budget.

Jibrin, an All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Kano State, who was sacked by the House leadership last week, claimed that he was being victimised by the Speaker because he objected to a request from Dogara that he (Jibrin) should allocate projects worth N40bn to him in the 2016 budget.

Findings indicated on Monday that Jibrin might be summoned before the end of the week to provide evidence on the allegations in his petition to investigators, who it was learnt, would also invite all the people mentioned by the petitioner.

A source said, “The allegations made by the former House committee chairman on appropriations are weighty and cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet because it borders on corruption and an attempt to defraud the nation.

“So, the police have set in motion machinery to investigate the allegations, ascertain the veracity of the allegations, and get to the bottom of the corruption as stated by the petitioner.”

But the Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, said he had not been briefed about the investigation into the petition.

“I am not aware of the petition or the investigation into it and I have not been briefed about it either. The fact is that when someone writes a petition, it goes to the Force Criminal Investigation Department where it would be investigated, but I have not been briefed about it, but I will find out and let you know,” he said.

Copyright PUNCH.

Police probe Jibrin’s allegations against Dogara, others

Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

“So, the police have set in motion machinery to investigate the allegations, ascertain the veracity of the allegations, and get to the bottom of the corruption as stated by the petitioner.”

But the Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, said he had not been briefed about the investigation into the petition.

Copyright PUNCH.

‘Biafra should be allowed to rest-in-peace’

By: Paul Ukpabio

Momah

General Sam Momah, former Adjutant-General of the Nigeria Army; pioneer Director of the National War College and former Minister of Science and Technology in this interview with Paul Ukpabio spoke on calls for separation and the sounds of war in the country. Excerpts

The APC is a year in office; can you assess the party’s performance?

We should recollect that the plan of the APC was to hit the ground running, but this couldn’t happen because of the legislative coup of 9th June 2015. That coup didn’t enable laws that ought to have been made to fast track dividends of democracy to come on board. Like you know, the Senate President is on trial and that has slowed down a lot of issues which is very unfortunate. But I believe that the APC government is still trying to put itself together. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. And therefore they are still making sure that the dividends of democracy get to the masses. As you know, the TSA account is a major breakthrough and has blocked loopholes for corruption. That’s a major masterstroke by the APC government. There is also a reasonable looted amount of money that has been recovered. I am advising that it should be used to build estates in all the state capitals of the federation and Abuja and called Recovered Stolen Money (RSM), Estates so that Nigerians would always remember the funds were not only recovered but were put to good use. Also, it will discourage looting of treasury in future.

What is your take on pro-Biafra protests?

I feel sorry, sad and disappointed with them. Honestly, its a misnomer. These are young men and women probably not born before the civil war and hence don’t know what going to war means. It is unfortunate that instead of finding ways to better their lives they are idling away talking about Biafra. As you know, Biafra, from analysis of events, is dead and buried. Two main events concretised it. First, we should remember that Biafra died when Zik crossed over from Biafra via Britain to Nigeria. It was the masterstroke that ended the civil war. Secondly, Biafra got buried when the erstwhile leader of Biafra accepted the pardon of our revered President Shehu Shagari. Not only that, when Ojukwu came back, he contested for the presidency of our beloved country Nigeria. He didn’t win and in the following dispensation, he contested for a seat at the Senate but lost. By so doing, Ojukwu confirmed that Biafra is dead and buried. Definitely, what Nnamdi Kanu and his misguided followers are doing makes no sense. It is downright embarrassing. They claim to be peaceful but mean while they talk of the Restoration of Sovereign State of Biafra, which is at variance to Nigerian’s Constitution which again is worsened with inciting broadcasts abusing and insulting our national leaders and other tribes in unprintable tirades. That’s against Igbo culture. The world is now a global village in which you give and take. Indeed, it is now necessary for Ohanaeze to take control and thus join other socio-cultural groups Afenifere, Arewa etc, in ensuring that real peace prevails to enable development take root in Nigeria. The appellation, “Biafra” should be allowed to Rest-In-Peace otherwise the ghost of Biafra will continue to hunt us with the painful reminder of three million souls that perished, 2.5m orphans, 1.5m widows and then of course, the heart-ache of “abandoned” property in Port-Harcourt. These are ugly reminders of Biafra that shouldn’t be re-opened in order to enable Ohanaeze and South-East leaders concentrate in pressing home issues such as improved federal presence in the South-East, amelioration of abandoned property to ensure it is never repeated anywhere in Nigeria again, restoration of merit to enable the nation move forward, completion of Zik Mausoleum, construction of Niger Bridge, development of the coal mine and oil field in the South-East, etc.

There is so much to gain by being together than in splitting because once you start splitting, there will be no end to it until it blows down to your village. This is so because of the multifarious tribes in Nigeria. Nigeria may be down today, but she is destined to be a world power tomorrow. The potentials are there; the underlying problems are intricate but with internationally acclaimed honest leader like PMB, he is our only hope for now to lay a strong foundation for Nigeria’s greatness. The parents of those pro-Biafran youths should call them to order. They are disgracing a lot of us from the South-East. Biafra is not what we should glorify in. Biafra is the past and Nigeria is the future.

The issue of Fulani herdsmen has become a nightmare; Prof Wole Soyinka said Buhari is acting late, what is your take?

 I think this issue has been on since Independence, but it is being highlighted now. The good thing is that the President has reacted positively and instructed that the herdsmen be brought to order. That instruction must be strictly carried out. There should be no more killings. Nigeria is tired of bloodbath. Those who commit atrocities such as murder must be brought to book by hanging, and not by granting them amnesty. If that is done, murderers will stop. The problem with Nigeria is that people commit offence as grievous as murder and they get away with it. And that’s why incessant killings have continued. There is also the need to go to the root cause of the problem.

The Biafran ghost

By: Sam Omatseye

•President Buhari

Like Banquo’s ghost, the past haunts us today, again. Forty nine years after the civil war, we are still fighting the war. Some think the war is over. They are wrong. The war is with us because we are a nation of self-deceit. We lie to and at ourselves. We say peace whereas tribulation lurks and detonates everywhere.
That is why Boko Haram harangues us in the North. It explains the resurgence of the IPOB and MASSOB and the rumblings of the Niger Delta Avengers and the barbarous entitlement of herdsmen. Even before the past few years, when bombs were literally quiet, tongues exploded between tribes. Rhetoric rattled rhetoric. Tribes and tongues differed by saying tribes and tongues differed. The June 12 excitement was a rebirth of the divisions of the 1960’s.
We did not solve the problem when it confronted us. When Gowon exploited his name as an acronym of unity, GO ON WITH ONE NIGERIA turned out to be an empty epithet, a feel-good delusion from a victor. Nothing concrete was resolved other than fell the enemy in battle.
Did we resolve the issue of abandoned properties? Leading up to the war, pogrom lit up the North in incandescent murders. Not only Igbo were killed as many tendentious literature say. Even Adichie’s Half Of The Yellow Sun, for all its strengths, portrayed the single story that the author has campaigned against. The slaughter up North targeted anyone who was not Yoruba, and that included the sweep of minorities in the today’s Niger Delta. Urhobo, Itsekiri, Edo, Efik, Ogoni, etc were mincemeat in the cauldron of death.
Now, did we have any enquiries into that sanguinary chapter? The northern elite, including political, feudal and military leaders, reportedly encouraged the barbarities. Has anyone been punished or even been officially reprimanded? We have not even officially investigated. We know too that Nzeogwu’s coup was seen as tendentious, and it inspired some Igbo to provoke northerners with their proprietary swagger, boasting that they had taken over the country. Have we looked at that, too? If the swagger was bad, the killings were never justified. But even at that, have we addressed them as a people? Ironsi enacted Decree 34, and some analysts said it was naïve because he did not intend to introduce a unitary system to impose Igbo hegemony. If that act was naïve, what of the second act? He did not want to try the coup plotters. That, according to critics, gave him away as an Igbo jingoist.

Have we revisited the Aburi meeting, and its aftermath, and how that confab either ossified or laid bare the fissures of our inter-ethnic relations? Were there blames? Where there acts of overreach on both sides? Was the war avoidable? Did the pogrom make war inevitable? How come a region that knew it was tactically and materially inferior to its opponent take the plunge into war?
So, we also had the war atrocities. We saw what Ojukwu’s army did in the Midwest when Biafra invaded, and the resentment overshadows conversation up till today. We know of the killings of the Igbo in Asaba and how Murtala’s Second Division teased out trusting locals to welcome them and killed them like animals. Gowon, who could not rein in his generals, only had an apology over 40 years after. The apology, however heartfelt, never brought closure.
So, when hostilities ended, Gowon declared that there was no victor and no vanquished. We know that was as vacuous as GOWON. We just wanted to move on, like a child who walks into a party from a bathroom without cleaning up. The smell and mess linger.
The ghost has followed us ever since. In education, over whether we should have catchment areas or not. In the Orkar coup. In Saro Wiwa’s murder. In the Matatsine imbroglio. In the meltdown of Fulani and indigenes relations in the plateau. In the June 12 logjam. In the choice of Jonathan as president. In the choice of Buhari as counter president. The list is endless.
So, when many, including the self-serving Atiku, called for restructuring, it was because the civil war and ghosts of the many dead are still with us, walking the Nigeria earth, apologies to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Developed nations understand the merits of closure. Last week, Britain unveiled the Chilcot report and picked to pieces all the facts of that ignoble chapter of the Iraq War. Tony Blair was exposed, as well as some of the intelligence community and the parliament. The nation looked itself in the mirror, and mea culpa replaced a sense of righteousness.
On the Iraq war, the New York Times issued a lengthy apology for allowing the emotion of the day sway its professional duties. Next time, both England and United States will think deeper before throwing innocents at the teeth of battle. The crisis of the Balkans is still lapping up its culprits today. Enquiries have dredged up the bad guys and they are subjected to the rule of law. The Hutus and Tutsis have also had theirs and those who inflamed the land to butchery have been exposed and punished. Apartheid in South Africa had its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Second World War could not be concluded without a clear resolution through the Nuremberg trials. The First World War was concluded without such an enquiry. The victors simply punished Germany and isolated it. The result: a resurgent Germany with the Hitler of hate.
A people must always learn not to take its injustice for granted. During the Peloponnesian War, Athens fell because it merely slaughtered its best generals who did not pick up its dead at sea as was the custom. The parliament did not reason. The absence of its best brood of soldiers allowed Sparta to crush it.
So, when Buhari stands accused as nepotist and regionalist in his appointments, it is because he has not transcended the hubris of the civil war. He invokes GOWON but he denies it when his pen signs an appointment. When does a chief of staff to a president become a board member of Nigeria’s choicest corporation? How do we call a truce with the Avengers when the NNPC board is lopsided and has only one name from the oil producing areas?
The civil war haunts because the hostilities have never really ended. Unnerved on his throne, Macbeth could not exorcise Banquo’s ghost. He said, “Avaunt and quit my sight. Let the earth hide thee, thy bone is marrowless and thy blood is cold.”
The Biafran ghost still spills cold blood. We may deny it and say our nation is not negotiable, but the past keeps growling and badgering. The more we claim we are together, the more apart we get.

Re: The Biafran Ghost

By: Victor H. Ikikhueme

SIR: As I read last week’s article with the above title by Sam Omatseye, my heart bled and my thoughts ran rings of frustration. The write-up was a grand and veritable riposte to a betrayed, raped and vilified country I call my own. Like a novel I read years ago by Dorren Wayne with the apt title “Love Is A Well-raped Word”, Nigeria has been serially abused, tormented and brutalized since Independence by its elite – political, economic and military – sans boundaries. Meaning that when it comes to exploiting and despoiling Nigeria, our elite have no qualms about religion or ethnic configuration; they gang up in unified subversion of our common good. I submit that the average Nigerian had no problems with his Nupe, Urhobo, Fulani or Yoruba compatriots until the politicians (Khaki or Agbada) came along with their incendiary and combustible rhetoric of religion and ethnic jingoisms.
From the first military coup till date, our various rulers (no leaders, please) have perpetually played the ostrich game without shame or remorse. As he pointed out in that article, we, as a people have imbibed a culture of lying through our problems while refusing to confront the usual demons that come with pragmatic nation-building. Beginning with the botched Nzeogwu coup to Aguiyi-Ironsi’s naïve alchemy in political engineering, culminating in his blunt refusal to try the January 1966 coup plotters, the beneficiaries of his policies saw nothing wrong with his agenda as it affected the sensibilities of other Nigerians.
This, however, does not justify the horrendous massacre of southerners in their hundreds in the northern part of the country, majority of who were Igbo between May and September 1966. In a cynical play of role reversal, the “Swagger of the Igbo” in early 1966 gave way to the “Triumphalism of the North” later that same year. The elites on both sides winked and connived at these despicable acts that were to be the harbinger to the civil war from 1967 – 1970.
As a young man growing up in the then Eastern Region, I was a witness to the bloody orgy of mindless massacre and dehumanization of the Igbo. However, whether secession from Nigeria was the final solution remains debatable.
Unfortunately, the aftermath of the post-civil war was not effectively handled as Nigeria suffered a deficit of quality leadership in the ruling military and its subservient and colluding civilian wing. I suspect that till today we are still caught up in an infernal contradiction between the “Igbo Swagger” and the “Northern Triumphalism”. Throw in the mix a burgeoning restive Niger Delta with their avowed Sense of Entitlement, and you have Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s “Cauldron of the Witches”. And as Omatseye pointed out, we are still to live down the “Biafran Ghost”.

There is no doubt that a society, or nation makes no significant progress in the face of grave centripetal tendencies such as we have in ourpolity, no matter how well-meaning the intentions of its leadership. The time to sit back, reflect and chart a new course for our beloved nation is NOW.
For a start, we, leaders and followers, must hearken to the rebuke of former U.S. President Bill Clinton to immediately begin the process of building strong institutions and jettison the jaded and anachronistic culture of entrenching the “African Big Man”. Nations are founded on institutions and not primordial values of religion, ethnicism and cronyism.

Victor H. Ikikhueme,

idiakevictor@yahoo.com

Monday, 25 July 2016

How we shared N468.7m project fund: Suspect tells ICPC

By: Yusuf Alli

•N924m already returned to ministry
A principal suspect in the alleged stealing of N468, 794,613.79 earmarked for the Great Green Wall, a federal government initiative to check desert encroachment through tree planting, has revealed how a cartel planned the fraud and how the beneficiaries helped themselves to the loot.
Adeolu Olugbenga Adeyanju told Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) interrogators that the cartel hijacked the account from the Federal Ministry of Environment and stole the sum before luck ran against them in the process of exhausting the entire allocation of over N1.392billion originally meant for the project.
ICPC foiled moves to withdraw the balance of about N924million in the account and recovered it for the ministry.
Adeyanju said the N468, 794,613.79 was first converted to dollars – about $2million based on the exchange rate in 2014 – and was then shared at a popular cinema house in Abuja.

He claimed to have received $57,000 for making his company, Detwinx Global Service Limited available for the fraud.
Adeyanju has already been charged to the High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory while the ICPC is on the trail of top civil servants who connived with him to loot the account.
In a statement on oath by Adeyanju, which was attached to the charge sheet and obtained from the court, he explained how the fraud was perpetrated in November 2014.
He implicated a Director of Finance and Account, Mr. Edet Akpan in the deal.
Akpan has denied ever knowing Adeyanju or having anything to do with him.
Adeyanju said: “Sometime in April 2014, I went in search of contract. I visited the Ministry of Environment in my quest to get a contract.
“I walked up to Mr. Edet Akpan at the Ministry, Mabushi where I pleaded seriously if I can be awarded any contract at all, even if it is supply or any available contract.
“He told me that he was alone on ground as at the time I was in his office. We exchanged telephone numbers in case I may be favourably considered any other time. He gave me one Airtel number 080233246….
“Sometime in July-August, he called me to meet him at Silverbird Galleria, Central Area. I rushed to meet him with the hope that I will get contract or I have been considered by Edet Akpan.
“Meanwhile, he called me with one Glo line on that day-08085…He came with his Honda Accord ash colour with Abuja number plate. He was with a driver but he excused the driver from us.
“On getting there, he told me that he wanted to use my company for a contract he will execute and the money will be paid into my account but am I sure I will not run away with the money and I answered that never, I can never run away with his money.
“Then he said he will test me to see if he can trust me. Then a sum of N5million was paid to me which I collected and gave him. And he gave me N150,000 after he showed me a document of the list of expenses on the execution of the contract that showed a gain of N450,000.
“Then he called me sometime November 2014 to meet him in his house in Wuse 2. He said that there is another contract he wanted to use my company if only I can abide by the rules. He stated categorically that he will give me a phone that we shall use in communicating only till the contract is finally executed and paid.
“He said I should not call him on any other number except from the line he gave to me. Also, I should call his Glo line alone and I should make sure I get the money out of the bank on the same day.
“I said if that was his rule, I will abide with it. As we were rounding up, a woman drove in a KIA SPORTAGE, brown colour with Abuja number plate and he greeted the woman as “honey” and he immediately dismissed me that we shall see the following day.
“This meeting was at about 8-8.30pm that day. He gave me a small Nokia phone with a Glo line of 0807…and his Glo line 0805… was saved on it.
Throwing light on how the N468, 794,613.79 was wired into his account, he said: “at about 11am on the 28th of November, 2014, Mr. Akpan called me that money had been paid into my account.
“I asked him how much was paid and he said over N450million. I moved to the bank and confirmed same.
“Immediately, I told my account officer to arranged for a Bureau De Change that I could transfer to. When he got the BDC, I returned and wrote cheques for transfer to the Bureau De Change (BDC) account and Williams delivered the dollar value of the same figure to me. I dashed him $500 and the fellow that helped him in bringing the money into the car was also dashed $500.
“Then I drove to Silverbird Galleria to wait for Mr. Akpan. He kept me waiting for close to two hours and I became uncomfortable staying in public with the huge sum and I didn’t know what was in the mind of the bankers.
“I decided to move to ASD Motors to collect the car I bought from them the same day through transfer.
“On the 28th of November, 2014, I gave over $2milliom to Mr. Edet Akpan and he gave me $57,000 only. Mr. Williams Echechi of Zenith Bank can recall the actual amount he collected from the Bureau De Change. Mr. Edet Akpan made me to understand that he had executed contract with the Ministry of Environment.
“I returned to Silverbird Galleria where I waited for a while as well before Mr. Akpan arrived with Honda Accord car alone and showed me the list of expenses as usual and made me to understand that he shall give me $57,000 only which he did.
“He collected the Nokia phone from me and said we shall have something doing in March and he will get to me then.
“I have not heard from him. I did not know that the money was stolen or from fraud.”
But Akpan in a statement to ICPC said: “I do not know the person by name Adeolu Adeyanju neither the owner of Detwinx Global Service Limited. I do not know Adeolu Adeyanju. It is in the course of the investigation being carried out by ICPC that I got to know or hear of this name Adeolu Adeyanju and the company.
“I have never transacted any business with him. Nobody with this name has ever come to my office for any transaction.”
As at press time, it was gathered that ICPC was still on the trail of the syndicate behind the fraud.
Records indicated that the anti-graft agency had on September 15, 2015 returned N924million intercepted to the Federal
The ICPC chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta, had explained how the commission burst the fraud.
He said: “On the 1st of December, 2014, we received a petition from this Ministry in respect of a fraudulent electronic funds transfer from its accounts. A forged payment mandate in the sum of N924million was presented to the First City Monument Bank Plc. Where the Ministry’s account was domiciled, the funds were diverted to different company accounts.
“The funds were meant for the Great Wall Programme of the federal government meant to check desert encroachment through tree planting.”

INVESTIGATION: Nigeria’s Central Bank in foreign PR contract scandal

International Centre for Investigative Reporting

Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor

By Tajudeen Suleiman

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has given itself a new mandate and it has nothing to do with money matters. It does not even have anything to do with stabilising the foreign exchange regime or strengthening the naira, desirable as that task is.
The new role of Nigeria’s apex bank is to launder Nigeria’s image abroad.
In what is the latest in a trend of frivolous and wasteful spending of tax payers’ money, the apex bank in April engaged the services of APCO Worldwide Inc., a public relations and political consultancy firm based in Washington DC, to help launder the image of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the country in the United States.
In the last three years, the icirnigeria.org has tracked many of such controversial contracts amounting to over $6 million dollars awarded by different agencies of the Nigerian government to foreign firms to launder the country’s image abroad.
From our investigations, such contracts, it appears, are mere conduits for siphoning public funds.
Previous similar questionable contracts tracked by this news website include a $3 million lobbying contract awarded by the National Security Adviser’s office in September 2013 to Patton Boggs, an American law firm that specialises in lobbying and a $1.5 million PR contract awarded by the News Agency of Nigeria to Levick Strategic Communications, a Washington-based PR firm.
There is also a $700,000 PR contract awarded by the Nigerian Embassy in the US to Mercury Public Affairs.

Read our reports on these frivolous contracts here, here and here.
The latest image laundering contract awarded by the CBN has an initial fixed payment of $95,000, more than N33 million at the parallel market exchange rate today, and is for a period of three months beginning from April 18 to July 17, 2016. The contract agreement, however, gives wide room for APCO to negotiate further fees when necessary during the life of the contract.
According to a document obtained from the US Department of Justice by icirnigeria.org, APCO is expected to provide media relations, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications services for Nigeria within the United States.
“Registrant (APCO) has contracted with Davebrook Digital PR Services Limited to provide services for the foreign principal (CBN) within the United States to promote positive relations between the United States and the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the document states.
The document states further: “A copy of the Registrant’s agreement with Davebrook Digital PR Services Limited is attached. The Registrant commenced services within the United States for the foreign principal starting on June 1, 2016.”
The CBN contract raises too many questions with nobody purportedly involved in it ready to provide answers. There are also many curious things about the contract.
First, the CBN did not award the contract directly to APCO but purportedly hired a Nigerian public relations firm, Davebrook Digital PR Services, to engage the US PR consultants. Davebrook, according to the document is located at No 1, Asabi Cole, Ikeja, Lagos.
“THIS MASTER ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENT (Agreement) made and entered into as of April 18,2016 (Effective Date) with offices located at 90 Long Acre, London by and between APCO Worldwide Limited WC2E 9RA, United Kingdom (“APCO”) and Davebrook Digital PR Services Limited…(“Client”)…” are the exact words of the agreement.
Another curious point in the contract is that although APCO is an American firm, the contract is enforced by laws of the United Kingdom and Wales, not US statutes. Thus, the person who signed the document for APCO, which is headquartered in Washington, is James Acheson – Gray, the managing director of the firm’s London office.
Of the questions the contract raises, perhaps the most obvious is why the Buhari administration, which has enjoyed worldwide support and goodwill since its emergence in May last year, would need to embark on any image laundering exercise.
Besides, why would the CBN be the government agency to award a PR contract when the ministry of information and the office of the media adviser to the president exist?
Also, what will the Buhari administration benefit from a three-month image laundering job in the US?
But, most importantly, was due process followed in the award of the contract? For this kind of contract, the Public Procurement Act requires that the contract be advertised in at least two international newspapers and a bidding process conducted, among other due processes. From our investigations, it is unlikely that any of these processes was followed.
What clearly proves the contract to be bogus, however, is that the Nigerian firm which the CBN purportedly hired to award the contract to APCO denied any knowledge of its existence.

When our reporter contacted the Managing Director of Davebrook, Adesida Adelekan, who is shown to have signed the document for the CBN, to speak on the PR job, he expressed shock that his company was linked to a contract awarded by CBN. He said his company had never handled or been involved in any public relations contract with or for the apex bank.
“This is news to me. Please I want more details about this contract because this is the first time I’m hearing about it. We don’t have any contract with either the CBN or the federal government,” he declared, adding that some people might be using his company’s name to feather their nests.
But the biggest scandal of all is the denial by the CBN of any knowledge of the contract. When our reporter contacted the spokesman of the regulatory bank, Isaac Okorafor, to clarify issues surrounding the contract, he said that it does not exist as there was nothing in the records of the bank regarding it.
When he was first told of the contract, Mr. Okorafor denied any knowledge and said he would not “respond to a rumour.” He asked whether the reporter had evidence of the contract to which he got an affirmative response.
Mr. Okorafor then asked the reporter to “do an email stating the details of the contract.” On Tuesday morning, the CBN spokesman called our reporter to say that he had searched everywhere and asked everyone, but there was nothing about the contract in their books.
“I have searched through our system, I’ve asked around and looked out for what you said at every corner of our office and I can’t find anything like that. If you have any evidence or document to show me, you can scan it and show it to me,” he stated.
Asked if he confirmed from Kingsley Obiora whose name is provided as the liaison person for the bank, Mr. Okorafor said the CBN governor’s aide also denied knowledge of the contract.
“I am telling you I haven’t seen anything. I’ve asked everybody. So if you have any document to show me you can scan and send to me…” he said.
He refused further discussion on the matter and added that the newspaper could go ahead and publish falsehood.
“I have answered your question. If you want to go ahead and publish falsehood, you can go ahead. You can’t expect me to comment on a document I have not seen. I am a professional.”

Also curious is the refusal of APCO to respond to issues concerning the contract. An email sent to Mr. Acheson last week Thursday was not replied until press time. Margery Kraus, founder and executive chairman of APCO, who is based in the US, also did not reply an email sent to her email.
By U S law, specifically the Foreign Agents Registration Act OF 1938, as amended, every firm providing services for a foreign principal is required to provide detailed information about any contract signed.
The document in the possession of the icirnigeria.org was filed and signed on June 9, 2016 by Terry Judd, a senior director at APCO on behalf of the PR firm. He gives the registrant’s name as APCO Worldwide Inc. and its address as 1299 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20004.
In the filing, the foreign principal is given as “Central Bank of Nigeria (through Davebrook Digital PR Services Limited)” with address at “Plot 33, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Way, Central Business District, Cadastral Zone, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.”
Also, in the document, the name and title of the official with whom registrant deals with is given as “Kingsley Obiora, Special Adviser to the Governor (Economic Matters) Central Bank of Nigeria.”
The detailed activity for which the PR firm will provide the CBN for three months at the cost of $95,000 is “media relations, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications services within the United States to promote positive relations between the United States and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The contract document was signed on April 20, 2016 by Acheson- Gray and Adesida.
However, the contract document itself was not filed as an annexture with the US Department of Justice as required by law. When our reporter checked www.fara.gov, the contract document was missing and he had to physically go to the Washington office of the Department of Justice to collect it. The official who provided the full contract document could not explain why it was missing in the documents filed with the Department of Justice.
The chief executive officer of the Public and Private Development Centre, PPDC, which advocates transparency in budget and public procurement processes, Seember Nyager, questions the entire contract and condemned the trend whereby public funds are being frivolously expended by several agencies of government to launder the country’s image.
“All government contracts must be bound by the Public Procurement law as long as state resources are involved. All contract will have to be through competitive bidding unless there is a reason to use a restricted method, and even then there has to be a justifiable reason,” she said.
“In any case why is CBN the one to award a PR contract for government? Is it because they have the resources?” she queried.
“I don’t think it is a good use of our resources. The unfortunate thing is that these things keep happening,” she said.
This report was first published by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. We have their permission to republish here.

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Re: The Biafran Ghost

Monday, 25 July 2016

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