Fraud In ISOPADEC As MD Begs Board Members, Promises To Refund 250m
As residents of Oil Producing Communities in Imo State groan under deep-rooted poverty and underdevelopment, massive fraud has been uncovered in the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Community-ISOPADEC, a Commission established to enhance development of Oil producing Communities in the State.
Last Tuesday, there was a melee in the Commission, the cause of which, despite frantic efforts to suppress the story, has since been discovered to be a three year reign of graft and embezzlement of Board Members' salary by the Commission's Managing Director, Dr. Henry Okafor.
Information emanating from the Office of the Honourable Commissioner for Finance, Imo State, Mr. Chike Okafor reveals that the sum of eight hundred thousand Naira (N800,000.00) had been approved and disbursed as monthly salary for each ISOPADEC Commissioner.
However, Dr. Henry Okafor, acting in consort with Ecobank Plc, Obinze branch, Owerri, had been short-changing and under-paying his fellow (ISOPADEC) Commissioners by between 400 and 500 thousand monthly, since 2011; depending on whether he paid them 300,000 or sometimes, 400,000 Naira.
Trouble first started when the Commissioners, acting on a tip-off from enlightened sources in Ecobank (who had become aggrieved by the Commission's decision to move a great proportion of the Commission's multi-million Naira account from Ecobank to a competitor bank), besieged Mr. Okafor's 4th Floor Office at ISOPADEC, Port Harcourt road, Owerri, to demand an explanation for the three year graft.
Impeccable sources told The Agenda that the Commissioners nearly came to blows with the MD, only to be calmed when Mr. Okafor offered to work out a refund plan.
It is unclear how the MD proposes to refund the monies (estimated to be in the region of N180m-250m) at the rate of N500,000.00 per month, over a period of three years; for 10- 15 Commissioners.
However, it is believed that Mr. Okafor has been helping himself to monies earmarked for developmental projects in the host (Oil) communities of Ohaji/Egbema and Oguta LGAs of the State.
The Agenda investigations at the Commission reveal an abysmally poor level of implementation of the Commission's over N3bn Annual Budget throughout the period under Mr. Henry Okafor, a situation that formed the theme of dispute between Charly Boy Oputa and the Imo State Government, which matter came to a head during a Requiem Mass held in Oguta in honour of the late icon of the judiciary, Chukwudifu Oputa (JSC).
Charly Boy was reported to have told the Governor to channel the N5m which the Government sought to donate towards Oputa's burial, to the electrification of Oguta Community and Local Government Area at large.
The Agenda gathered that Oguta LGA has been in darkness for at least thirty six (36) months running, despite claims by Mr. Okafor's ISOPADEC that it pays the electricity bills of the residents of the local (Oil communities).
At the Requiem Mass proper, events took a turn for the worse when Charly Boy, incensed by the disgraceful lack of development in the LGA, forcefully grabbed the microphone from the governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, forbidding him (the governor) from speaking at his father's (Justice Oputa's) burial.
The governor, embarrassed beyond belief, quickly scurried away and out of the venue: his entourage following. It is feared that these failings by ISOPADEC to develop the oil producing communities in line with the Charter which set it up, might have irreversibly damaged the Government's relationship with Oguta people, a relationship (or the lack thereof) whose fragility has remained the governor's biggest source of political worry since his fortuitous ascension to power.
Thoroughly ruffled by the foregoing, Henry Okafor, still nursing illusions of a shot at the House of Representatives in 2015 under the umbrella of APC, has begun a methodical assembly of a private army of thugs and miscreants, in readiness for any eventuality as electioneering draws nearer.
These thugs, numbering in dozens are said to have a temporary training base in the Commission's N500m new ultra-modern Corporate Headquarters, off PH road, in New Owerri.
The thugs, said to be drawn from a retinue of fugitives on the run from the Police and Law Enforcement officials for sundry crimes, including kidnapping, arson, robbery, strife and murder usually freely mingle with visitors and normal folks by day, during which they engage in menial jobs, and running errands; only to congregate at night for their abhorrent, nefarious pre-occupations involving trade in hard, illicit drugs and banned substances; whore-mongering, strong-arm intimidation and rehearsals in criminal insurrections.
More worrisome is the fact that Nigeria is presently besieged by anarchical terrorists, with a cache of unexploded bombs and IEDs discovered in a pentecostal church premises in World Bank neighbourhood, Owerri in June this year. It is feared that the shape of things to come is even right now emerging.
Last Monday,(July 7, 2014), the thugs allegedly burgled a locker in an office on the last floor of the Commission's headquarters and carted away a huge sum of money, which informed sources advise, might be as much as N380,000.00; a matter which is presently a subject of Police investigation.
When contacted by The Agenda for comments on the security breach at the Commission, some of the personnel of the private security outfit charged with securing ISOPADEC (Greenhorn) which Directors are said to enjoy a very good relationship with Mr. Okafor vowed that they will only pick up the mantle of security at the Commission when the thugs are disbanded.
Meanwhile, the thugs have sworn to stay put, pending when Mr. Okafor issues them fresh instructions; or pays them off: whichever comes first.
As this saga unfolds, the multi-million Naira ISOPADEC edifice continues to play its multiple roles: at once, a day-time office; at others: a makeshift brothel; and a militia training ground, depending on the mood of its unwelcome occupants.
All efforts to reach the Managing Director, Dr. Henry Okafor proved abortive, as calls put across to his mobile line were not answered, while SMS sent was ignored.
Reacting to the development, a member of the present ISOPADEC Board who spoke to The Agenda on the grounds of anonymity described it as unfortunate, regretting that the aim of establishing the Commission is defeated.
He however called for what he described as a total sanitization of the Commission, before it could be returned to track.