Revealed: Untold story of Corruption, illegal reappointment of DG of NASC

Desert Herald
11/09/2019
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By DESERT HERALD

As earlier reported by DESERT HERALD and because of the significance of the National Agricultural Seeds Council to President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolved to ensure food security through revolutionizing agriculture with improved and treated seeds as a vital components, this paper will continue to focus on this important government Agency to ensure that violations of the previous years are not only corrected but do not happen again and to ensure that glaring cases of corruption under the current leadership of Dr. Philip Ojo as impediment to its effective performance are address by appropriate government institutions.

In one of the two petitions against Dr. Ojo which was thoroughly analysed by DESERT HERALD, they draw the attention of President Buhari, the Ministers of Agriculture, Nanono, the SGF, Boss Mustapha and the public to the shocking revelation of corruption and illegal appointment of the Director General of National Agric Seeds Council.

Following the publication of this paper on the issue there was reactions across the country and the demand for thorough investigation on the issues that were raised even though the embattled DG has since then embarked on diversionary tactics as well as reaching out to strategic persons to frustrate the issue.

Based on the reaction received from the public and some from the National Agric Seeds Council, this media house has continued intensification of investigation about the controversy surrounding the illegal appointment and reappointment of the current Director General of NASC, Dr. P.O. Ojo. Emerging revelations at the disposal of this paper if not immediately addressed will certainly affects the growth and development of this important Agency as a pivot for Agric Sector revolution agenda of President Buhari. The petitioners have also called on the President and the Minister of Agric to once again act fast.

DESERT HERALD exclusively gathered that the appointment of Dr. Ojo as the as the substantive Director General on 25th May, 2015 (after serving as acting Director General between 2013-2015, and his retirement from Civil Service in 2015), did not follow Due Process of existing laws and provisions in the Civil Service and that the entire process is indeed fraudulent, corrupt, abuse of Office, scandalous and total violation of PSR (Public Service Rule). Also, the provision of Section 020411, which state, a retired Officers, may only be re-engaged into Career posts on grade levels immediately below that on which they retired was grossly violated. Similarly, the new Seed Council Act, also clearly states that, pending the approval of the Honourable Minister’s recommendation to Mr. President, the legally appointed Director General must first hand over to the most Senior Director in the Council at the expiration of his tenure. That process was not followed and was ignored by even the Board members of the Council which were largely nominated by Dr. Ojo as Board members and still enjoys blind support from them. Our findings also revealed that most Council Board members do not even understand the inner workings of the Agency for them to determine the level of corruption and abuse of office going on in the Council.

DESERT HERALD further learnt that before the signing of the amended Seed Act by Mr. President on 24th June, 2019, all appointments into the Council including that of the Director General are purely CIVIL SERVICE BASE. There is nowhere in the Act that empowers the Council to have Director General outside the Civil Servant, therefore, this paper wonders where a retired person like Dr. Ojo got his power from to stay over five years as Director General of the Council.

This paper also gathered that in 2016, when the illegal appointment was challenged, the ICPC invited the then Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agric, Arch. Sonny Echono who signed the fraudulent appointment letter for questioning. The the embattled Director General of NASC was also invited by the ICPC for awarding contract for the supplies of fake Seeds to his private company by name BUMFASH CO.LTD. The fraudulent contract which DESERT HERALD has obtained documented details is worth over N50 Million. Dr. Ojo awarded the contract during the wet season GES Programme 2014/2015 to Nigeria’s farmer. The payment voucher and the money claimed by the none existing company which was also exclusively obtained by this paper revealed its fraudulent nature. This flagrant violation of code of conduct is similar or even bigger offence than what former SGF, Babachir Lawal was accused of and is being prosecuted for.

As DESERT HERALD intensified investigations to determine due process was followed in the re-appointment of the DG, Dr. Ojo, this paper discovered that the vacant position was not advertised to give equal opportunities to qualify Nigerians to apply. However, out of desperation and curiosity and for the fact that his illegal tenure was billed to expired on 25th May, 2019, two Nigerians and the DG applied for the position through the office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. What shocked this paper was the discovery that the recommendations of the SA (Agric) to the Vice President on these candidates did not favour the DG (Dr. Ojo), because it was clearly stated he has retired from service and should not be re-appointed. The recommendation actually favoured one of the candidates which we gathered was sent by the SA (Agric) to the Vice President for endorsement and for further processes. At the end, DESERT HERALD confirmed to its shock that Dr. Ojo who has since officially retired and as the current DG has bribed his way to obtained allegedly a forged appointment letter which was meant for the favoured recommended candidate.

DESERT HERALD also discovered that his first illegal appointment letter was drafted by the then Director of Admin of NASC in 2015 where it was taken to the Permanent Secretary for signing. That explains the reason for the hurried nature of the processing of the appointment letter. To probe its fraudulent nature, the appointment letter as seen by DESERT HERALD was full of ambiguities, errors, discrepancies etc. Similarly, this paper authoritatively gathered that the said re-appointment recommendations were drafted by the Director General, Dr. Ojo himself after which he took it to the immediate past Minister of Agric, Chief Audu Ogbe for endorsement. The letter was purported to have received the approval and clearance of Mr. President was not actually true. This paper confirmed from credible sources at the presidency that at no time such approval was given by Mr. President. It is also on record that the SGF himself did not sign any letter of re-appointment of Dr. Ojo as the Director General of NASC on the said date of 25th May, 2019 as claimed by Ojo.The SGF or his office did not also make announcement of the re-appointment of the Director General (Dr. Ojo) as it ought to be, instead his re-appointment as Director General was done by himself using the Council’s funds in NTA and two other print medias.

This paper can also reveal that there are identified fraudsters in the office of the SGF that are allegedly helping people like Dr. Ojo to perpetrate their acts of illegality, fraud and desperation. The name of a particular officer at the SGF’s office that used to draft appointment letters whenever the situation demands and if he is properly settled is Nasiru Gadzama and the Perm Sec in the same office reportedly used to sign such letters. This acts is what insiders at the SGF’s office called racketeering of appointment letters as long as the beneficiaries will settle them.

DESERT HERALD has in the cause of this report also tried to probe into the composition of the Governing Board of the Council, and discovered that, out of the 12 members of the Board, only four (4) members plus the Chairman of the Board were appointed by Federal Government while the remaining 7 members were representatives of stakeholders in the Seeds Industry in Nigeria as enshrined in the Seed Act. The 7 members this paper can revealed and confirmed were ‘shrewdly’ and carefully selected by the DG, Dr. Ojo, thus creating serious problem of divided loyalties in the board between the Government appointees and Dr. Ojo’s appointees.

It is also on record that when the other 4 members that were directly appointed by the government were fed up with the dictatorship, mismanagement and corruption in the Council, they wrote to the SGF on their displeasure on this, but the letter could not get to the SGF on account of Dr. Ojo’s connections. The letter this paper learnt was retrieved by a member of the Board and pass it to the SA of the Director General. This opened a flood gate for all sorts of compromises within the Board for juices.

Presently, this paper is uncertain whether the documentation of his fake re-appointment letter has been completed by the Supervisory Ministry (Federal Ministry of Agric).

DESERT HERALD further gathered that DG Ojo has violated one of the financial regulation by his actions of using some Directors in the Council as conduit pipe to siphoned Council money by depositing Millions of Naira in the personal account of certain Directors in the Council purported to be for operations and training of their departmental staff, but who will later transfer the money back to him.

Our findings into the contracts for projects under Dr. Ojo revealed that contracts in millions of Naira were initiated, awarded by the Director General without the knowledge of the Board, to his cronies while monies paid out. But during our visits to some of the project sites, we discovered that the contractors have either stop work on some sites, projects not completed as per the time lines, with the contractors complaining of paucity of funds to complete the works. But surprisingly, we discovered that most of these projects were appropriated, budgeted, plan for executions in the 2018 budget and the Council has received 100% of the 2018 releases as capital from Federation Account ( over 1 Billion Naira) . These projects again will now be push forward for appropriation/payments from 2019 budget. Such projects are in Zonal Offices in Zaria( NW), Gombe (NE), Headquarters/Road Project(Abuja), Ibadan (SW), only rehabilitation of the roof done, Asaba(SS),Umudike (SE).

The most unfortunate one as gathered by this paper is that of the Headquarters of the Council at Sheda which has been conceived for over three years to be transform to center of excellence, but sadly the only change in the Headquarters is the repainting and minor renovation works carried out on the Office buildings, laboratory and residential houses. It is also to be noted that all these buildings/other infrastructures in the Headquarters were built by the former Head of the Council, late Dr. Okolo closed to 15 years ago, when the budgetary provision of the Council was not up to 10% of what the present DG is getting now from Federation Account.

Base on intense investigation and available documents at our disposal, this paper is convinced that not up to 30% of all monies in hard and local currencies received from foreign/local development partners are properly appropriated. Stakeholders have emphasised on the need for government to investigate all these monies investigated and we can report that only small portion of these monies is used for cosmetics capacity/ training programmes.

DESERT HERALD in the cause of findings was awash of too many overseas trips/ programme made by the Director General primarily using such questionable expenditures as conduit-pipe. As a retired Officer, such trips should instead be given to the young ones to prepare them for eventual take over by them in future. Recently, in the month of May, 2019, he directed the auditing of over N50 million as claims of estacodes for some trips for payment in the Account Department of the Council.

While other important sections are lacking in vehicles and other tools for effective operations, this paper is amazed by the number of officials vehicles DG Poo allocated to himself. They include 2Nos expensive SUV Jeeps, 2Nos Hilux as back up vehicles/domestic use, while functional vehicles for field operations are broken down/off the road for a very long time.

Subsequent report by this paper will reveal even more details in this important government Agency and the urgent need to cleanse the rot in that system and to ensure that Due Process particularly in the appointment of a DG and in award of contracts are followed with strict adherence to laid down laws.