22 April 2016, Lagos – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has traced N316m to the company account of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Clement Iloh.
Our correspondent learnt that Iloh was currently in the EFCC custody as part of investigations into the fraud at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency under the leadership of the immediate past Director-General of the agency, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi.
A reliable source in the anti-graft agency told our correspondent that the N316m was traced to Iloh’s company account domiciled in Zenith Bank in contravention of Civil Service Rules.
The Civil Service Rules Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section 2 (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that, “A public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on a full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade, but nothing shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming.”
The source, who did not want his name in print, said the permanent secretary was undergoing interrogation at the Lagos office of the EFCC as of Wednesday.
The detective said N14.1m was traced to Iloh’s bank account from NIMASA.
He said, “In the course of investigating the Technical Committee for Ratification of MLC of NIMASA, we traced about N14.1m from NIMASA’s account to a company account belonging to Clement, Bob and Associates domiciled in Zenith Bank. Upon investigations, we found out that the account belonged to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Iloh, who is the sole signatory.
He is being investigated because we traced N316m to a company belonging to him.
“The name of the company is Clement, Bob and Associates. Investigations revealed that Iloh is a signatory to the account which is domiciled in Zenith Bank.”
It was learnt that although NIMASA is not under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the ministry is concerned with relations between workers and employers.
Last year, Iloh as the permanent secretary headed the ministry for several months in the absence of a minister, overseeing labour matters at NIMASA.
The source stated that the EFCC traced some money from what he called ‘maritime labour services’ into Iloh’s account.
- Punch
