A Civil Society Organisation, Zero Tolerance for Social Immoralities Initiative, ZETSI, on Tuesday morning took to the National Human Rights Commission headquarters in Abuja to protest the suspension of 7 staff members of Rural Electrification Agency, REA, over alleged N1.2bn fraud.
The protesters chanting solidarity songs claimed the suspended members of staff of the electricity agency were unjustly suspended by REA management.
They accused the latter under the leadership of the Managing Director, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, of being the chief perpetrator of the said fraud.
Bearing placards with inscriptions such as: “SALIHIJO SUSPENDS 7 REA STAFF AFTER USING THEM TO PERPETRATE N1.2BN FRAUD, “WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR 7 REA STAFF SUSPENDED BY SALIHIJO AFTER USING THEM TO COMMIT N1.2BN FRAUD”,
“N1.2BN FRAUD: SALIHIJO CAN’T SIT IN JUDGMENT OVER A FRAUD HE WAS INVOLVED IN,” they called on the human rights commission to step into the matter and ensure justice is done.
Reading from the petition addressed to the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Anthony Okechukwu Ojukwu, ZETSI Chairman, Ibrahim Abdulrasaq Imam said, “They(the suspended workers) were used to perpetrate the said fraud between March and June last year by REA authority, and currently made fall guys and serving suspension for the heist.
“The road to their ordeal started last year’s March when the authorities transferred various sums to the tune of N1.2b from the agency’s coffers to personal bank accounts of the said staff members, including Usman Kwakwa Ahmed, who hitherto was seconded from the Accountant-General Office to REA.
“All of the affected staff are in the Account Department of REA. The monies were transferred in bit with less than N5m paid into each staff member’s account at a time in order not to raise suspicions, and masked the fraud.
“The fraudulent scheme, an intrigue to clean out all the remaining 2022 allocation in the agency’s coffers, the narrations for the payments border on project supervisions and adjunct that have no relevant to their job.
“You would notice from the attached document that in total over N202m was paid into Asuni’s account, with N126m, N212.9m, N211.3m, N249.8m and N215.9m laundered through the bank accounts of Karaye(First Bank), Henrietta (Diamond), Titus (FirstBank), Laure (GTB) and Usman Kwakwa Ahmed (GTB & Zenith) respectively.
“Ostensibly acting on instruction from those who made the fraud possible, most of the affected staff members redirected the stolen monies to the accounts of their colleague, Usman Kwakwa Ahmed.
“It became incontrovertible that those staff members were used as conduits for the fraud by the powers-that-be in REA when following the leakage of the heist to the media and the ensuing reportage, the Managing Director, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad in an attempt to exonerate himself and some of his colleagues at the top set up a Disciplinary Committee headed by the Executive Director, Corporate Services, Mr Olaniyi Netufo.
“It turned out that Salihijo and Netufo were implicated with Kwakwa’s response to his query by the panel detailing how on the MD’s instructions he transferred the loot to some persons’ accounts including that of Netufo.
“Clearly, Netufo partook in the said fraud.There are copius evidence that Usman Kwakwa Ahmed through his accounts and his company’s account, Biznirrabi General and Supplies also transferred the spoils of fraud to that of Director of Fund, Abubakar Sambo, with Zenith, that of Olaniyi Netufo, one Adudu Yusuf Mohammed with FCMB, and Dan mama Mohammed’s account.
“It may interest you to know that the crisis emanating from the N1.2bn fraud is in a state in which the MD and Netufo have thrown their accessories under the bus having suspended them indefinitely.
“Only Kwakwa and the Director of Fund, Sambo, escaped suspension because they are not staff members of REA but that of the Accountant-General Office and have returned to their base.
“We therefore call on you to use your good office to right this wrong and get justice for the suspended staff members, who have been seriously treated unfairly by their boss with their careers harmed.”
