Several individuals, organisations, companies were
indicted by Justice Obiora Nwazota Judicial Commission panel for their roles, which
includes the stealing of several millions of dollars, in the eventual demise of
Nigerian Airways, some persons received prominent mentions for their brazen and
unrestrained looting of the airline.
Many of them are still around today, free and enjoying
the proceeds of their alleged fraudulent act after killing a national icon.
Below is a list of these men.
1. Mohammed Joji
No single individual should be blamed as much as a former
managing director of the Nigerian Airways, Mohammed Joji, the judicial
commission found. In fact, the commission stated that Mr Joji, who owns
Skypower Express Airways and is the secretary general of Aircraft Operators of
Nigeria, was brashly corrupt and handled the affairs of the airline in such a
reprehensible manner that it recommended he should be banned from ever holding
public office in Nigeria.
However, last year, the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration allegedly appointed him to head a committee that supervised the
repair of the Abuja airport and the temporary relocation of international
flight to nearby Kaduna Airport. That alleged appointment was, however, not
publicly announced.
The Nwazota-led commission found that in 1993 Mr Joji
“collected and spent” N4.37 billion ($12 million) royalty from Swissair without
approval.
Also, in the same year, he diverted N3.57 billion
($9,800,000) to himself in a single transaction. According to the judicial
committee, Mr. Joji claimed that he paid N3.93 billion ($10.8 million) to a
defunct Belgian national airline, Sabena Airline, but he only paid N364 million
($1million), the panel discovered.
Further, the white paper revealed that in March 1993, Mr
Joji “unlawfully approved” N2 million to one Grace Hembah as imprest account.
In the same year, Mr. Joji outsourced the maintenance of
a Boeing 737 aircraft to Brazilian consultants paying them in full despite up
to 75 per cent of the maintenance was done by employees of Nigerian Airways.
The committee said the airline lost N1.28 billion ($3.53 million) in the process.
A year before, Mr. Joji had paid Nicon Insurance PLC
N896.43 million ($2,458,064) less premium due to the then government-owned
insurance company. Also, the judicial committee found that during the tenure of
Mr. Joji as the managing director of the airline, N813.38 ($2,230,357)
discounted from the premium accrued to the airline had vanished into thin air.
In all, the white paper revealed that Mr. Joji was
responsible for the diversion or siphoning of N11 billion ($30,018,421) in 24
months.
When contacted in 2013, when the story was published, Mr
Joji, told PREMIUM TIMES that his indictment was as a result of a witchhunt
against him by former aviation ministers, Bablola Borishade and Kema Chikwe.
He described Mr Nwazota as a mere consultant, adding that
the committee did not do a good job.
“There were several panels. Nwazota was just a
consultant. Is that what you call a panel? They didn’t do a proper job,” he
said in a telephone conversation.
“Do your research. The question you have to ask is who wrote
the white paper? Was it gazetted? Was anyone charged?”
He wondered why PREMIUM TIMES was interested in the story
10 years after.
“At that time, no newspaper wrote about it. The White
Paper was published 10 years ago, why are you just writing about it now,” he
queried.
When told we had just started publishing, he replied:
“You are starting on a bad note. They will charge you to
court. The White Paper is not gazetted. You’re playing a dangerous game. Ten
years ago, something was written, and you just came overnight and want to write
something about it.”
“It just a wishy-washy thing by Mr. Borishade and Kema
Chikwe. It wasn’t gazetted and I wasn’t charged,” he said.
2. Jani Ibrahim
The second biggest culprit in the demise of the Nigerian
Airways identified by the Nwazota commission of inquiry is Jani Ibrahim. The
chieftain of the Nigerian ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kwara State
was indicted for several fraudulent and illegal acts between 1996 and 2001 that
he was the managing director of the airways.
Mr. Ibrahim, who is now a director of Heritage Bank, was
so enmeshed in corruption that the investigating commission declared that
““every project and contract was conceived with fraudulent intent.” The white
paper specifically described him as “fraudulent and high-handed.”
According to the white paper, Mr. Ibrahim treated the
airline’s account like his personal wallet and summarily sacked those “he
thought were threats to his fraudulent practices.”
The judicial commission found that between 1997 and 1999,
Mr. Ibrahim collected rent valued at N1.47 billion ($4,052,234.00) due to the
airline and spent the money without recourse to laid down regulations.
He unilaterally paid $1.78 million without guarantee to
Alpine Aviation, a travel agency for the 1999 Hajj operation. The agency failed
to deliver. But only $560,000 was recovered from the agency. The balance of
N444.92 million ($1.22 million) could not be recovered, the commission stated
in the white paper.
Between 1997 and 1999 was the period Mr. Ibrahim was most
profligate, the report stated. In that period, he appointed and paid a
third-party company, Hak Air, N338.75 million ($928,895) to collect revenue on
behalf of the airline. After analysing the deal, the judicial commission stated
the Hak Air has no capacity whatsoever to carry out the job assigned to it.
Mr. Ibrahim also overpaid Hak Air (N529 million) $1.45
million for overhauling two aircraft – DC10-30 and B737, the white paper
stated.
During the first C-Check of an Airbus in Nigeria by
United Kingdom-based aircraft maintenance firm, Revilo Aerospace, Mr. Ibrahim
made an over-payment of N224.68million ($616,052.26). He also “single-handedly
signed and disbursed N379 million ($1,039,439.00) without the signature of the
airline’s financial director as regulation required.”
Mr. Ibrahim also unilaterally allotted 24 plots of land
belonging to the airline in the Ayobo area of Lagos to non-staff members of the
airline.
In keeping faith with what the judicial commission
described as Mr Ibrahim’s authoritarian approach to leadership, he went into a
Wet Lease agreement with Al-Mahfooz Aviation, a Gambian chartered airline, that
was to last for a year, but the venture collapsed because Mr. Ibrahim did not
consult Nigerian Airways technical department. The failure of the agreement
cost the airline N247.28 million.
In all, a whopping N3.63 billion disappeared as a result
of corruption and the highhandedness of Mr. Ibrahim while he was managing
director of the airline, the report stated.
3. Bernard Banfa and Patrick Koshoni
During his time as managing director of the Nigerian
airways, the judicial commission revealed that Bernard Banfa, a retired air
commodore, colluded with Patrick Koshoni, a retired admiral and the minister of
aviation at the time, to sell airworthy A310 aircraft at giveaway prices
against the advice of experts. The commission recommended that the duo should
refund N158.73 billion ($435.25 million) being the cost of an A310 aircraft.
There is no evidence that both men repaid the money as
directed by the commission. Despite his indictment by the commission, in 2016,
President Buhari appointed Mr Banfa, who was a member of the President’s
defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which later merged with other
parties to form the ruling APC, into the board of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC).
4. Afam Nwagboso
Afam Nwagboso, who was the director of finance of the
Nigerian Airways in 1992, with the approval of Mr Joji, designated a moribund
bank (Continental Merchant Bank) as the collecting bank for all cash taking of
the airline. Soon after the designation, the bank failed, and the airline lost
N40 million already collected by it.
5. Olu Bajowa and Alabo Graham-Douglas
The managing director of Nigeria Airways between 1988 and
1990, Olu Bajowa, a retired major general, gave CES Travels the exclusive right
to sell tickets for the airline in the United Kingdom and the United States.
During the period, CES Travels failed to remit N2.29 billion ($6.3 million)
worth of tickets it sold on behalf of the airline.
Commission recommended that Mr. Bajowa, Alabo Graham Douglas, a prominent Ijaw politician and member of the opposition Peoples democratic Party in Rivers State, M. Abdulsalam, T. Mgbhor and U.S.H Maigida, should refund the money to the airline’s account.
6. Mohammed Kari
The judicial commission also wrote in its white paper
that in 1993, a former managing director and chief executive of Nicon
Insurance, Mohammed Kari, colluded with other officials of Nicon Insurance and
Nigerian Airways to divert N50.82 billion ($13,935,956) to a phony company –
Alexander Services Limited in the Channel Island, an offshore tax haven.
In July 2015, Mr Buhari, in one of his first appointments
made after being sworn-in as president, named Mr Kari the commissioner for
Insurance and chief executive of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).
For days, Mr Kari failed to respond to questions about
his indictment sent to by PREMIUM TIMES through the spokesperson of NAICOM,
Razaq Salami.
7. Ibrahim Bala
Bala Ibrahim was an area marketing manager of the
airline. In 1993, he stole N860.50 million ($2,359,546.95) collected from the
Jeddah station for excess baggage and luggage allowance, the commission
revealed.
8. All-Well Brown
For two years, between 1995 to 1997, All-Well Brown, a
director, “kept some crew of the airline in Miami for five months for no
reasonable cause,” the commission discovered. Their stay cost the airline
N44.49 million ($122,000.00).
9. Alexandra Howden
Some officials of the airways connived with a defunct UK
insurance company, Alexandra Howden, and transferred N893.49 million ($2.45
million) to its account without rendering any service to the airline.
10. A. Olafisoye
According to the report, Mr Olafisoye, the Managing
Director of Fidelity Bond Limited, and other senior management officials, stole
millions of dollar from the airline. The report described Mr. Olafisoye as
“all-in-all [who] manipulated the operators of the company at will.” The report
said his involvement with the company “led to the looting of funds and other
fraudulent activities that brought the [airline] on its kneels.”
Fidelity Bond has vacated its only known address at
Elephant House, Alausa, Ikeja, in 2011, PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed.
Credit: PREMIUM TIMES
No comments:
Post a Comment