The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Monday arrested, quizzed and detained former minister of Interior Abba Moro over his involvement in the botched March 2014 employment scam in the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
Also arrested by the EFCC for their complicity in the scam were a former permanent secretary in the ministry of interior, Fatima Bamidele and a deputy director, simply identified as Ibrahim.
EFCC interrogated Moro last October over scam which led to the death of about 20 graduate applicants at various recruitment centres across the country, which was hatched to fleece over 520,000 graduate applicants who paid N520 million at N1,000 each for limited job slots.
A source at the EFCC said Moro and the others may be arraigned on a 12-count charge before the Federal High Court in Abuja today.
Moro and the other suspects may be charged with false pretence, procurement offences, corrupt practices and money laundering.
According to a source at the EFCC, the former minister arrived at the headquarters of the anti-graft agency in the morning and was still being interrogated by a team of investigators by press time.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, noted that the former minister will remain with the EFCC and be charged to court subsequently to face the charges.
He also explained that the former permanent secretary was quizzed after investigations showed that he was involved in the botched Immigration job recruitment scandal.
The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC Wilson Uwujaren could not be reached for confirmation.
At least nine job seekers died on March 15, 2014 at the Abuja National Stadium while scrambling to secure seats for the recruitment test. The stampede ensued after 200,000 job seekers scrambled through a poorly organized barricade at the stadium.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, four applicants died from a similar stampede while 12 others sustained injuries and were rushed to Rivers government-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital.
There were casualties in other centres across the country.
After the March 15 tragedy, several Nigerians demanded the resignation or dismissal and prosecution of Moro and the Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, for criminal negligence, involuntary homicide and fraud.
They were accused of putting in place a sham recruitment process that enabled the Interior Ministry to extort N520 million in compulsory levy imposed on applicants.
But Parradang had put the entire blame on the minister, saying his office had been side-lined. Nevertheless, President Muhammadu Buhari fired him as soon as he came into office.
The minister, who initially blamed impatience and refusal by applicants to abide by instructions for the tragedy, later accepted responsibility for the incident. He, however, refused to resign from office.
Talking on a Channels TV’s breakfast programme, Sunrise, on October 20, 2014, Moro made it clear he would not resign, saying he would rather stay put in office to clear the mess caused by the incident.
“The point at which we are now is not about resignation. That time has gone,” Moro said in response to a question over why he refused to quit. “At the time (people were calling for his resignation), I think emotions were very high. I was in the eye of a storm.
“At that time, a lot of options were on the table. The issue is, do you resign or do you stay to sort out the problems that had been created? I decided that staying and mopping up the mess caused by the lack of proper implementation of our plans was better. That’s the point we are now.”
The minister reasoned with Nigerians to consider the tragedy as an accident.
“I also have families. I didn’t set out on that journey knowing that accident would occur that would lead to the death of human beings. We took everything into proper perspective. If we had succeeded, a few Nigerians would have congratulated us for the job well done,” he had said.
But now, he has to tell the EFCC, and most probably the courts, all he knows about the matter, to prove his innocence or otherwise.
Halliburton: ‘Why EFCC is after 4 SANs’
The current probe of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) over the $180m Halliburton bribery scandal by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has intensified, with the Commission insisting that it must get to the root of the matter to ascertain the level of their involvement in the deal.
While the anti-graft agency has got fresh information which it believes would give a direct clue to how the money was fraudulently diverted and funnelled into individual pockets, the probe will be useless without useful explanations and insight from the learned silks.
Godwin Obla honours EFCC invitation Tuesday
It was also learnt that one of the SANs, Chief Godwin Obla, is expected to be at the commission’s office for interrogation today. He is the second SAN to be quizzed after Mr Damian Dodo was grilled for close to eight hours last Thursday.
The other two SANs under EFCC’s probe are Mr Emmanuel Ukala and former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr Joseph Daudu
They were members of the legal team that represented the Federal Government in the over $22. 4 million and DRM 500,000 paid in bribes to Nigerian government officials in the Halliburton scandal.
Our correspondent learnt that for the Commission to unravel what actually transpired, it needs explanation from the senior lawyers on how money meant for the federal government was paid into the accounts of members of the legal team.
But available documents sighted by our correspondent showed that the accused persons paid all the money into federal government’s designated accounts and that what was paid to the legal team was their professional fees as directed and approved by the former attorney-general of the Federation, Chief Mohammed Adoke (SAN).
The document stated that following the out of court settlement of the matter, the accused persons paid a cumulative total amount in excess of $200 million in fines to the federal government in exchange for the dismissal of the pending charges against the foreign corporate entities.
According to the document, the fines were paid into the various accounts designated by the federal government in the various settlement agreements thus: “Halliburton Energy Service paid $32,500,000 into the Accountant General of the Federation, Sub Treasury (CRF) account in the Central Bank of Nigeria with Account Number: 0025414110.
“Another $30,000,000 was also paid into same account by Snamprogetti Netherlands (BV). In the same vein, Japan Gas Corporation paid $26,500,000 into another federal government account domiciled in J.P. Morgan Chase New York with Swift BIC Code: CHASUS33, A/C Number:000742501406865, and account title Madison Avenue Escrow/CBN/FGN.
“Another sum was paid into CBN/FGN Independent Revenue. Account No:400-939134, with Swift code: CHASUS33 and through Chase Manhattan Bank NY USA. by TECHNIP. The above amount totalling over $200m are far in excess of the $22,417,000 and DRM 500,000 bribes in the Halliburton scandal.”
Sources close to the federal government’s legal team wondered why, despite the aforementioned documented information, the federal government would be probing the SANs instead of commending them for a job well done.
One of the sources, who described reports suggesting that the lawyers collected government funds as unverified information being peddled, said there was never a time monies meant for the federal government were paid into the accounts of any member of the legal team.
He said, “It is worthy of mention that EFCC, which is now ostensibly conducting an investigation into this Halliburton case, was part of the process from the beginning and was privy to all the settlement negotiations which transpired between and among the parties.
“Given this clear and unequivocal provision, signed by both the then AGF and Secretary to your Commission, one then wonders what the statutory or constitutional basis for this extant inquiry into the payment of professional fees to counsel who represented the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a transaction of which the fees were paid by others.
“It also defies any logic and commonsense that the EFCC would be purporting to conduct an investigation into the Halliburton Matter and choose to concentrate their investigation on the lawyers rather than the parties who were actually involved in the scandal”.
The source further added that the legal fees paid to the lawyers in the case were much less than the statutory 10% usually charged by lawyers under the circumstances of the case.
“The fees paid to the lawyers in this case were paid by the accused persons and not the Federal Government of Nigeria. Also, the Settlement and Non-prosecution Agreements were signed on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Honourable Attorney General of The Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, and witnessed by the then Secretary of the EFCC, Emmanuel Akomaye, who signed on behalf of the commission”, he added.
-Leadership