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Last Updated: Jul 17, 2008 - 7:48:09 AM |
The
managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),
Ndutimi Alaibe will soon be answering questions from anti-corruption
agents if feelers from a team of investigators at the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are anything to go by.
Saharareporters gather that the agency is looking into massive
allegations of corruption and abuse of office in the commission he
directs.
Alaibe’s case is also causing ripples among the
recently appointed board members of the EFCC, pitching the chairperson,
Farida Waziri, against the commission's secretary, Emmanuel Akomaye.
Sources at the EFCC told Saharareporters that the chairperson of EFCC
has accused him of shielding Alaibe from investigation. Both Alaibe and
Akomaye were reportedly colleagues at some point.
Alaibe's
history as banker is as controversial as the history of failed banks in
Nigeria. Every bank where Alaibe was employed has failed. His banking
career, which started at the African Continental Bank (ACB) – now
defunct - snarled through another defunct bank, Savannah Bank ; it also
included a Port Harcourt-based finance house, reportedly co-owned by
Alaibe. His career finally ended at the failed Societe Generale Bank of
Nigeria (SGBN) where he became a general manager before he joined the
NDDC as the executive director in charge of finance. The Saraki family,
owns SGBN, it not clear if governor Saraki has weighed in on behalf of
Alaibe in the ongoing investigations,
A Niger Delta activist,
who asked not to be named, described Alaibe as, “Obasanjo's fixer in
the Niger Delta region and the bribe-master-general of the Nigerian
state”. Also a Port Harcourt-based lawyer told Saharareporters
anonymously that Alaibe remains the most powerful “Father Christmas who
plays that role year round”. Further stating that, “Mr. Kenny Martins
(currently under trial for squandering Police Equipment Fund, Mr.
Martins denies the charges) would not qualify to be Alaibe’s assistant
in the business of squandering the NDDC resources”
Some of the
petitions against Alaibe seen by Saharareporters allege that he used
the NDDC resources as a slush fund for former president Obasanjo and
approved all sorts of contracts to politically exposed persons
including Obasanjo’s family members, cronies and political supporters.
A case in point involves a certain House of Representative member,
Olaka Wogu, who got an unspecified sum of money from the NDDC as a
contractor to build Landmark Hotel in Port Harcourt. The hotel is
booked year round by the NDDC at the cost of N20, 000 per night, it is
alleged that Alaibe houses his political supporters and cultist
elements in the hotel for prolonged periods of time. Honorable Wogu
was a strong supporter of the tenure elongation (3rd-Term) project for
Obasanjo.
The petitioners further stated that some of the
persons who got contracts at the NDDC either didn’t execute the
contracts or simply got contracts that were inflated and had nothing to
do with the mandate of the NDDC, at the behest of the former president
and his senior special assistant on domestic affairs, Emmanuel Nnamdi
‘Andy’ Uba.
The petitioners also alleged that the recent alarm
over plots to assassinate Alaibe and the Akwa Ibom State governor,
Godswill Akpabio was sponsored by the duo to deflect public attention
from the massive corruption perpetrated by them. Mr. Akpabio is the
first state governor to be openly accused of corruption by the
Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). One of petitioners
stated that the alarm raised by Akpabio was targeted at the chairman of
the NDDC board, Ambassador Sam Edem.
Alaibe is also said to be
the financier of the recent campaigns to force the Yar’adua government
to pay up on the N200 billion owed the NDDC.
Other allegations
against him include denominating contracts in US dollars and making
foreign exchange payments (contrary to the Foreign Exchange Act which
designates the Central Bank of Nigeria as the only authority empowered
to do so) and single-handedly engaging in variation of contracts
without recourse to the NDDC board. One such contract was awarded to a
certain Pelfaco Limited to construct shore protection projects in
Okerekoko community in Warri South West local government area of Delta
State. A petitioner alleges that though the contracted was awarded for
N317 million, Mr. Alaibe jerked it up to N980 million
Also
cited was another contract involving shore protection of Ogborode in
Warri South West local government area which was awarded to Tontine
Technicals for the sum of N317 million but was later varied to N1.2
billion, a difference of over five hundred million naira.
The
petitioners also include a road contract awarded to a company; Octopus
Clan Nig Limited for the sum of N200 million which was later reviewed
upward to N220 million.
Another contract to rehabilitate the
Buguma-Ido Abalama-Degema-Abonnema road and bridge in Rivers State
which was awarded to Hadocks Limited for the sum of N480 million was
also varied to N800 million when the final payment vouchers were
signed. Alaibe was accused of making over N350 million naira profits
from that single deal.
The petitioners further allege that
Mr. Alaibe inappropriately opened bank accounts on behalf of the
commission without regards to rules governing such transactions, in
particular, the NDDC accounting manuals, and also without recourse to
the NDDC board. He was also accused of using Local Purchase Orders
(LPOs) as a conduit for siphoning billion of dollars through cronies
and fronts.
Mr. Alaibe is currently visiting London to find a
possibility of meeting Yar’adua to discuss ways of resolving the
corruption charges swirling around him. It will be the second time in
two weeks that Alaibe will be visiting London where he maintains a
hotel suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Mayfair area of Central
London. A night in the suites 501 and 502 of the hotel costs the NDDC
£3,000 according to hoteliers knowledgeable about Four Seasons pricing.
A call to the Four Seasons shows that Mr. Alaibe may have left
instructions to shield his use of the hotel, as hotel receptionists
gave conflicting information about his stay in the hotel. Mr. Alaibe
owns a multimillion-dollar home in Maidevale, London, but doesn’t stay
there when he visits the UK.
Last week Sunday, Mr. Alaibe was on the same return flight to Nigeria
as the EFCC chairperson, Mrs. Farida Waziri.
Saharareporters
has also learnt that the secretary to the Federal government,
Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe is on Alaibe’s payroll and may have been
helping him to douse the pressure mounted to have the NDDC accounts
reviewed by the Federal government.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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