Monday 11 March 2013


Fresh trouble for Ezekwesili as aide faces trial on corruption charges today

In what seemed like fighting back over a claim by former educaiton minister, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, that the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations squandered $67 billion foreign reserves, the government will in Abuja today arraign the former minister’s aide, Mr Tom Chiahemen. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) described Mr Chiahemen, who was a Media Consultant for the ministry, as a conduit pipe to siphon government funds.
Ezekwesili made the allegation of squandering the $67 billion left by the Obasanjo administration at a lecture organised by the University of Nigeria Nsukka(UNN) last year. Chiahemen, Publisher of National Accord newspaper, is being investigated by the ICPC. In a statement detailing his ordeal at the corporate headquarters of ICPC, Chiahemen said he was arrested and detained for over seven hours by ICPC operatives at its headquarters in Abuja on March 6, 2013.
“I was also asked to report back at 10 am on Thursday and was kept for over three hours before a lawyer-friend arrived to seek my bail forms,” he added. He alleged that he was being interrogated by ICPC over his involvement in some adverts placed in some national newspapers. “In summary, I would say that I was questioned over the advertisements placed in several Nigerian newspapers by the Federal Ministry of Education during the tenure of Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, between August 2006 and May 2007,” Chiahemen said. He said in a letter addressed to him by the ICPC, dated March 4, 2013 that they are investigating “allegations bordering on the violation of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.”
He said he was kept in a tiny room and was questioned by a female interrogator “Without any preamble, she asked me to say all I knew and/or did with the Federal Ministry of Education between 2006 and 2007 while I was a staff of Daily Independent newspaper. “I explained to her that a company in which I owned majority shares, Cattigan Communications Limited, was appointed in August 2006 by the Federal Ministry of Education to handle media buying and placements (of advertisements) for the ministry.
In that capacity, I explained to the ICPC official that Cattigan Communications Ltd was expected to handle the placement/payment of all public notices, announcements and other publicity/promotions materials from the ministry for public/broadcast in the approved national dailies and electronic stations. “I told her if I searched my house, I could still locate the letter appointing Cattigan Communications Ltd and other receipts/acknowledgements of the payments.
I was then given 10 minutes to produce the above documents from my house, which is not far from ICPC headquarters,” he recounted. According to him, “to my utter surprise, when I presented the original copy of the said letter dated August 24, 2006 and other documents, the ICPC officials changed their posture. First, they excused me from the Interrogation Room for about 10 minutes, during which the lady and three others went over my documents and discussed inaudibly among themselves.
“When I was invited back into the Interrogation Room, I was handed an entirely different form which indicated that I was under arrest and that the statement I was going to make from thence would be used against me. I sought to know if I could call in my lawyer to guide and bail me, but they chorused: “no,” that they don’t allow lawyers to bail people.
Then, I asked them to explain why I was under arrest.” He said ICPC officials claimed that Cattigan Communications could be one of the companies used as conduit pipe for siphoning government funds and that pointedly, it was possible the whole advert jamboree during the tenure of Mrs Ezekwesili as education minister could be a hoax. “They insisted, I must tell/show the ICPC what each of the adverts was about (the content), and where the adverts were published.
This is something that took place as far back as between September 2006 and May 2007,” he added. The ICPC has, however, debunked the claims made by Chiahemen, accusing him of making a political statement out of it. Head of Media of the commission, Mr Folu Olamiti, said no sane person should take any allegation made by Chiahemen seriously.
“We are even charging him and no one has detained him. Why is he making a political statement out of this whole thing?”, Olamiti queried. Mr Chiahemen is expected to report to the commission today, for further enquiries.
Culled from The Sun

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