Leadership (Abuja)
Iyobosa Uwugiaren
22 May 2008
Business activities have been grounded at the corporate headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja following the inability of the newly-appointed acting chairman of the commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, to officially assume duty.
LEADERSHIP gathered last night that Mrs. Waziri, a lawyer who is very conversant with the EFCC Act, has refused to officially assume duty because of the pronouncement by the Senate that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua didn't follow due process in her appointment.
"Contrary to newspaper report, Mrs. Farida Waziri has not officially started work, she just went to the EFCC office after her appointment was announced to familiarise herself with the staff.
"She didn't meet with the workers as reported by the media," a source told LEADERSHIP last night.
The source added that Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde had stopped attending to official duty immediately the appointment of his successor was announced by the Federal Government.
The secretary of the commission, Mr. Emmanuel Akomoye, has also stopped going to office because his tenure has expired and requires confirmation of the Senate.
"Business activities at the commission headquarters and other zonal offices have been crippled in the last few days; nothing is happening now," our source stated.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the presidency, which is aware of the happenings at the commission, had to quickly forward the name of Mrs. Waziri and others to the Senate yesterday for confirmation so that activities could resume at the anti-graft agency.
Yar'Adua yesterday sent a list of six persons for Senate confirmation as chairman and members of the EFCC.
The president's letter appointing the chairman and members of the commission was read yesterday by Senate president David Mark during the plenary session.
Those appointed are Mrs Farida Waziri, a retired assistant inspector-general of police (AIG), as chairman, Mr Basil Anagoh (member) and Mr Paul Ogbole (member).
Others are Mr Banjo Olaniyan (member), Alhaji Mohammed Jibo (member) and Mr Emmanuel Akomoye as member and secretary of the commission.
Yar'Adua said that section 2 (3) of the EFCC Act had conferred upon him the powers to appoint the chairman and members of the commission other than the ex-officio members.
"The EFCC is an agency established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2004 and charged with the responsibility of enforcement of economic and financial crimes law, among other things.
"The appointment of the chairman and members of the commission is provided for in sections 2(1) and sub-sections A and B of the EFCC Act," he added.
The president, however, said the appointment of the secretary of the commission was provided for separately in section 8(1) of the Act.
The post of the chairman of the commission became vacant when its former chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, went on study leave in January.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has uncovered an alleged fraud at the Nigeria Customs Service, just as it moved to amend relevant sections of the Act that established the organisation.
The House Committee on Customs Service said most capital projects earmarked for execution in the entire Zone C in year 2007 Appropriation of the NCS were not executed.
Specifically, the committee headed by Hon Yakubu Dogara discovered during its just concluded oversight visit to Zones A and C with headquarters in Lagos and Port Harcourt respectively that no contract was awarded for the construction of a slip-way in Port Harcourt which was budgeted for in the 2006 Appropriation.
"No contract has been awarded for the construction of a slip-way which was budgeted for in the year 2006 Appropriation, the only jetty being constructed at Calabar.
The execution was based on direct labour and work commenced in March 2008.
"The committee was informed that the project became necessary when there was no jetty available for the Comptroller General to commission boats in February 2008," the committee's report said.
The panel also noted the absence of jetty in the whole of the Eastern marine base in Port Harcourt, emphasizing that the NCS boats operating in the area are using the jetty in the Nigeria Police for their operation.
All contracts executed in the zone, the panel noted, were awarded from Abuja without inputs from either the Area Command or the zonal headquarters.
The report further noted consistent reduction collected by the Customs from August 2007 to date when compared with the figures collected in the same period in the preceding years.
It said the 7% deducted and retained by the organisation as cost of collection in the light of the needs of the service, especially dealing with welfare issues in the light of dwindling fortune of the service was inadequate.
The lawmakers lamented that the morale of the officers and men which they linked to welfare issues was low.
Also yesterday, President Yar'Adua sacked Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, his special adviser (National Assembly matters), and replaced her with Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji from Borno State.
Ita-Giwa, a former senator, was appointed by former president Olusegun Obasanjo and played an active role in the regime.
A statement signed by secretary to the Federal Government of the Federation, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, said the appointment of Abba Aji took effect from May 20, 2008.
Abba Aji, who holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of Manchester, has had a distinguished career in the Borno State civil service rising to the position of permanent secretary/director-general.
He served on the boards of several commercial banks and was the pioneer managing director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.
He began his political career in 2003 and was elected to the Senate to represent Borno central senatorial district.
While in the Senate, Abba Aji served as the minority chief whip, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour and member of various standing and ad-hoc committees of the Senate.
Abba Aji is a recipient of the national honour of the Member of Federal Republic (MFR) and a distinguished fellow of the institute of Public Administration of Nigeria.
He is also a recipient of industrial relations merit award of the Nigerian Institute of Bank, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees in recognition of his track record of promoting harmonious industrial relations in all the institutions where he worked.
He is married and has children.
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Look if you live outside Nigeria and thank God as most of us do and see what corruption has done to the people in Nigeria and especially the poor masses you would then thank for your host Western nations for running taking care of her citizens.
Watching the international news and considering that Nigeria sells about 2million barrells of crude oil @ $125.00 per parrell and seeing the abject poverty in the country then you would accept the perception by the West that something is wrong with the Black man. The young educated Nigerians should revolt politically using their intelect to suborn and over take the corrupt government in Nigerian. Unless a startling display of radicality takes place in Nigeria there would be no normal transperency and good governance therefore poverty holds sway.