Ike Amos
Dublin, Ireland — The unending allegations of sleaze and maladministration in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has resurfaced once again, with the Interim Administrator of the programme, Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd) accused of misappropriating over N7.3 billion in three months, through various fictitious payments, contract splitting and racketeering, among others.
Ndiomu, who was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, September 15, 2022, was also alleged to have superintended the spending of N11.4 billion on questionable expenditures, along with a number of key officers of the programme.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was set up in 2009, with a monthly allocation of around N5 billion, to transform former Niger Delta agitators to responsible citizens, either through making them business owners or sponsoring them to continue their education so that they can be employable and make meaningful contributions to the Nigerian economy.
However, despite its laudable objectives, the programme, which on its website, claimed to have engaged over 30,000 ex-agitators, has been marred by a series of allegations of corruption over the years.
The latest allegation is by Chief Olotu Owei, National Coordinator of Niger Delta Conscience, Mind and Voice for the Voiceless, who in a series of petitions and reports, accused Ndiomu of large-scale embezzlement and fraud, while also calling for his immediate suspension, along with a number of key officers of PAP.
Owei was supported by Mr. Andrew Pinneh, one of the contractors who claimed to be affected by Ndiomu’s alleged maladministration and sleaze, who accused the chief executive of PAP of frustrating his payment through the use of underhand practices.
He said: The company I work for has refused to bend and pay bribes or agree to share the payment due for a legitimately executed contract with corrupt PAP officials and as such they have resorted to calling the contract fake.
“Though, some of Ndiomu’s staff have constantly removed relevant contract execution reports from the company’s files, it will not remove the truth that the jobs were indeed executed, and the company deserves her payment for work well done. For this, I would like the Office (PAP) to invite the ICPC and or EFCC to investigate my assertion of a legitimate work done and to investigate my allegations and other allegations against the office with Gen. Ndiomu superintending.”
Continuing, he said: “While Ndiomu claims that there is no money to pay genuine contractors for work done, the office of the Accountant-General of Federation (OAGF) paid N10.2 billion to the PAP Office in December 2022.
“Can Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd) give account of his stewardship of these funds and the previous allocations for September, October, and November 2022 respectively? Bearing in mind that the office gets a monthly allocation of N5.4 billion.”
Ndiomu responds
When contacted over the allegations, Ndiomu directed his former special assistant on special duties Mr. Freston Akpor, to respond on his behalf.
Akpor described the claims contained in the petitions as frivolous and an attempt to blackmail the administration of General Ndiomu, adding that already, people in the know, especially former agitators in the Niger Delta, had faulted and condemned the petitions.
He said: “The claims are falsehoods couched in what looks like the truth. The petitions are of no consequence and nobody is taking it seriously. These things had been done in the past and such documents will continue to fly. We are focused on the mandate given by the President and the National Security Adviser.”
Debt portfolio remain unchanged
However, on his part, Owei insisted that since his appointment as the interim administrator, Ndiomu has allegedly misappropriated, laundered, looted and or embezzled over N5 billion directly and another N2.3 billion indirectly, whilst the debt portfolio of unpaid contracts remains nearly unchanged.
Giving a breakdown of how the sleaze was purportedly perpetrated, Owei alleged that in his first seven weeks in office, Ndiomu and the director of finance and administration (DFA), Mr. Ado Dikko, embezzled N2.5 billion and N2 billion respectively.
In addition, he claimed that Special Adviser on Logistics, Lieutenant Colonel S.S. Ringim, on the 13th of December 2022, allegedly authorised 13 different questionable payments totalling N420 million to the bank accounts of 13 staff, which was later withdrawn and the cash given to Ringim.
Owei also alleged that two days later, Ndiomu approved the payment of N594 million to Ms. Charity Vedelago, suspected of being the interim administrator’s cousin, for supplies that never took place, and which was awarded based on a forged award letter signed by a former coordinator of PAP, General P.T Boroh (rtd).
Contract splitting
Owei disclosed that the contracts were split into six and presented for payment in six files of N99 million each.
“Mind you, she had collected payments on eight such files in the like sums. These payments were earlier presented on the 5th of Dec,2022, but were returned due to insufficient funds in the coffers. The
Interim Administrator himself called the account department requesting that the payment voucher be raised in favour of these six files.
“Ms CV (Charity Vedelago) had earlier bragged that once Barry Ndiomu returns from his American travel, the account department will not be able to hold on to her payment, because he, Ndiomu, has a third of the stake on the payment as returns,” Owei claimed.
He further stated that between December 20 and 21, Ringim allegedly raised 26 advance payments in his own name, but at the point of payment, Ndiomu later directed the auditor and the director of finance and administration (DFA) to change the name of the beneficiaries of the payment to those of various staff members.
As a result, Owei said 10 staff in the audit department, were credited with various sums of money, totalling N463 million, while in the account department, 16 staff were credited with various sums totalling N895 million.
He said: “December 21, 2022, Barry Ndiomu allegedly misappropriated or stole the sum of N1.358 billion, with a clear instruction to the staff to transfer the money,, less their bank charges, to a bureau de
change – name and account details withheld in evidence and a voice note instruction on what to do.”
He added that two days to the last Christmas, Ndiomu allegedly approved N149 million advanced payments in two tranches of nine payments — payments to six different staff’s accounts totalling N119
million in the morning and payments to three different staff accounts in the evening, totalling N30 million.
Petition to Buhari
Furthermore, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, Owei alleged that Ndiomu, started poorly and displayed his depraved state when he asked his subordinates, two of his aides, Mr. Ado Dikko and Mr. Simone Omachoko, for ways of getting money from the office coffers by all means.
He claimed that Ndiomu purportedly stated that he paid to get appointed as the interim administrator and needed to recoup his money.
Owei further stated that: “at inception of this administration, there was N600 million in the coffers of the office. If not for graft or embezzlement, an interim administrator with a mandate to wind down an office in six months, should not be procuring new vehicles under any guise if not for the huge fraudulent mark-up masterminded by Major Gen. Barry Ndiomu (Rtd) and operationalised by Director of Procurement – Mr. Simone Omachoko and his team.
“This was the beginning of the fastest heist in the Presidential Amnesty Programme. (PAP). Returns were made from the vehicle purchase to over N150 million.
“The duo of Ado Dikko and Simone Omachoko advised him to appoint an independent aide to be in charge of the heist coordination, since they are civil servants, but they are willing to facilitate the process for him and look at other loopholes in the system he can take advantage of.
“The duo firstly advised the new Interim Administrator – to increase the security vote that had been newly reviewed upward by his predecessors – Lieutenant Colonel Dixon Dikkio (retd) from N30 million to N50 million. It was further reviewed upward by the Interim Administrator, Ndiomu, to N80 million without following any upward review process. The embezzlement dice was cast from the moment onward.
“On the duo’s advice, Barry Ndiomu appointed one Lieutenant Colonel S. S Ringim (retd) as special adviser logistics (SA Logistics), who now champions the heist and the act of facilitating the laundered funds directly to the bureau du change. That he, Ringim, facilitates and supervises the laundered funds directly from the account department in connivances with the DFA – Ado Dikko, raising payment voucher (PV) credit distribution into various account department officers.”
He noted that the accounting staff who participated in the sleaze were fully sponsored to attend a training programme in Kent, United Kingdom on the 21st of November 2022.
Owei further confirmed that Ndiomu was frustrating payments to contractors, especially those who have refused to offer him kickbacks and those who have also refused to forfeit a part of the money yet to be paid to them.
According to him, no staff under this current dispensation is allowed to call for files except the named person appointed by the interim administrator (IA) in the person of one Mr. Miebi, who under the instruction of the IA can process any file for an agreed fee by the chief executive.
He also warned that if the president failed to act immediately, the N10 billion allocated to PAP in December, for the settlement of contractors would be embezzled by the management of the organisation, if Ndiomu is allowed to supervise the payments.
To this end, he said: “We are calling on the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to suspend the interim administrator Maj.Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd), all the aforementioned accomplices, investigate and bring them all to book. The essence of suspending all aforementioned in the alleged fraud, is to ensure they do not tamper with or destroy all vital or important evidence(s).
“Mr. President sir, we know that his late father (Late Major General Charles Bebeye Ndiomu) was your associate but we believe that you appointed him on the basis of certain assumption at the time, but he has allegedly betrayed your trust and betrayed the oath of the rank of a retired Major General and has acted as a common criminal if these allegations are proven to be true.”
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