Immigration recruitment:Ex-minister, fugitive businessman know fate Thursday
In 2014, there was a recruitment exercise, during which applicants died in a stampede.
The story began with former NIS Controller General, David Paradang, approaching former President Goodluck Jonathan through the Ministry of Finance requesting that a total of 4,556 officers and men be recruited to shore up the NIS operations. But the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, overruled Paradang, saying that there was no money to support that large number.
The EFCC said the accused by-passed all relevant laws, including the Public Procurement Act, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act 2005 and the Immigration and Prison Board Act to enable them to manipulate the recruitment process to suit their aim. “Evidence before the court is that the procurement process was activated by the defendants with utter disregard for the provisions of BPP Act 2007, Immigration and Prison Board Act 2004 and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act 2005 in a scheme designed to fraudulently obtain money from innocent applicants.
“The first transaction in September 2013 was N20, 000 for legal fees. Subsequently, there were two major inflows into the account. Another witness, Augustine Chukwuma Ugorji, a former Head of Finance, Pay4Me Services Nigeria Limited, an e-commerce company, narrated to the court how Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited engaged Pay4Me Services Nigeria Limited to provide a payment platform for the collection and online management of payment activities through designated banks for the ill-fated recruitment exercise.
Giving details of remittances by each of the banks, Ugorji stated that, Zenith Bank remitted N22,425,390.00; Sterling Bank- N38,013,420.00; United Bank for Africa, UBA, – N190,187,416; Diamond Bank – N114,616,260.00; Union Bank – N133,862,010.00; Fidelity Bank – N58,175,670.00; Enterprise Bank – N12,527,100.00; EcoBank – N48,146,870.00 and Card Payments: N10,879,115.00.” He added that two tranches of remittance were made to Drexel through their Keystone Bank account.
Interestingly, while other co-accused have been admitted on bail, Mahmood Ahmadu has continued to enjoy trade partnership with the Federal Government through another of his company called Online Integrated Solutions . However, its registration details on the Companies House record in the United Kingdom showed that it was incorporated in October 2012 with 75 per cent being controlled by Mahmood Ahmadu. He was also described in the UK Companies House record as owner with significant influence or control, controlling rights of votes and right to appoint and remove directors.
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