House of Reps committee orders recall of suspended NEMA directors
- The House of the Representatives has continued its spotlight on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
- The lower house has ordered that the suspended directors of the agency be recalled
- The House had earlier accused the director general of NEMA, Engineer Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, of corruption
The House of the Representatives has ordered an immediate recall of directors of NEMA suspended by the governing council of the agency on a purported recommendation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Legit.ng gathered that the affected officers recalled are director of finance and accounts, Akinbola Gbolahan; Ag. director, special duties, Umesi Emenike; and director, Risk Reduction, Mallam Alhassan Nuhu.
Others are pilot in charge of Air Ambulance and Aviation Unit, Mamman Ali Ibrahim; the Chief Maintenance Officer, Ganiyu Yunusa Deji; and the Director of Welfare, Kanar Mohammed.
The House while ordering that the officials be immediately reinstated back to their former offices posited that Nigeria's civil service rule was grossly abused, and natural justice turned upside down in the way and manner the directors were placed on suspension.
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Deputy chairman of the House committee on emergency and disaster preparedness, Honourable Ali Isa gave the order today, Thursday, April 12 during the continuation of an investigative hearing on breach of public trust brought against NEMA and its boss, Engineer Maihaja.
The House committee agreed that the affected officers have been denied fair hearing as required by law before they were sent out of their offices.
Meanwhile, for the second time in 24 hours, the House uncovered another contract scandal involving a whopping sum of N3.1billion in NEMA.
The money was said to have been approved and released for the agency by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation for procurement of rice for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the north-east region of the country being ravaged by the deadly activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
At the continuation of the alleged breach of public trust in NEMA by the House committee, the NEMA boss was found to have expended the huge sum on companies that have no legal qualifications to get contract awards from the federal government.
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Two of the companies Olam Limited a foreign firm and Three Brothers Rice Mill were said to have been award huge rice supply contract without meeting the pre-qualification conditions.
Apart from the contract scandal, the House committee also uncovered that only 110 containers out of 271 containers of rice donated to IDPs by the Chinese government have so far been cleared at the port since July last year when the donation was made.
The committee specifically took a swipe at the NEMA DG for paying over N400 million as demurrage on 110 rice containers due to the delay by the inefficiency of NEMA.
The committee members were visibly upset with the NEMA boss over his claim that documents relating to the rice donation by the Chinese have been scattered and tampered with by unknown persons.
The committee was also angry with Maihaja that he expended as much as N400 million taxpayers fund on the demurrage on the rice due to the long delay in clearing the containers by his office.
The committee therefore ordered Maihaja to go back to his office and get all relevant documents relating to the rice donation and bring them to the committee to enable the lawmakers take appropriate steps that would facilitate the evacuation of the huge quantity of rice from the Lagos port to the north-east where they are needed to feed the IDPs.
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The committee had on Wednesday, April 11, accused Maihaja of mismanaging N1.6 billion released to the agency by the Federal Government in July 2017 for relief intervention to flood victims in 16 states.
According to the lower house, the huge sum was expended on contracts awarded to 216 companies that were not qualified for contract awards in the country.
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Source: Legit.ng
