NEWS: EFCC Set to Prosecute Moro, Others, Prepares 11-count Charge against Them

NEWS: EFCC Set to Prosecute Moro, Others, Prepares 11-count Charge against Them

  February 24, 2016    Unknown

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Adebiyi Adedapo in Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has prepared charges against  the former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro.
The 11-count charge likely to be proffered against the former minister all borders on obtaining by false pretence, procurement fraud and money laundering.

Moro, Anastasia Daniel Nwobia, F. O Alayebami, Mahmood Ahmadu (at large) and Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited allegedly defrauding a total of  676, 675,000 Nigerian applicants to the tune of N676,675,000 representing N1,000 per applicant through e-payment for their online recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service on 17th March 17, 2013.

The accused are alleged to have contravened the Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 in the contract awards by not following the necessary procedure laid down by the government.

The award of the contract to Drexel Tech had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement plan was not carried out before award of the contract.

The contract was awarded through selective tendering procedure by invitation of four  firms without seeking the approval of the Bureau for Public Procurement contrary to sections 40, 42 and 43 of the Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 and punishable under section 58 of the same act.

Drexel Tech, the company that provided the online enlistment and recruitment services is said to be unregistered and had no legal capacity to enter into the said contract.

The ministry had claimed that there was no budgetary provision for the exercise in the 2014 federal capital budget hence the applicants were made to bear the responsibility of funding the project without approval of the board contrary to section 22(5) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000.

One of the accused Mahmood Ahmadu, now at large,  in connivance with Drexel Tech, allegedly lavished the total of N423,800,000, part of the N676,675,000 realised  from the applicants on the following: the sum N202,500,000 in purchase of a property in a choice area of the Federal Capital Territory, N120,100,000  used in upgrading a property in Abuja, while the total of N101,200,000  was converted to United States dollars for personal use.

Moro alongside   former Permanent Secretary and a director in the ministry were arrested by operatives of EFCC on Monday in Abuja.
THISDAY gathered that Moro and others were held in connection with the N650million immigration recruitment scandal.
They were re-invited by the EFCC ahead of their arraignment in court.

About 6.5million  persons applied for the 5,000 immigration jobs in March 2014, but the conduct of the test led to the death of several applicants during stampedes in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Minna and other states.

Each applicant was said to have paid a non-refundable application fee of N1,000.
All efforts by the National Assembly to compel Moro to refund the N1,000 to the applicants fell on deaf ears.
To complicate the process, the shoddy manner in which the test was conducted led to the death of about 20 applicants in various recruitment centres across the country.

Many Nigerians had demanded for the sack of the former minister and the then Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, as well as their criminal prosecution for manslaughter.

The anti-graft agency had also quizzed Parradang on the same matter.
Although the former minister initially blamed the applicants for being “disorderly”, he later took responsibility, expressing regrets that his desire to eliminate favouritism through a competitive recruitment process had ended in a tragedy.

Calls by many Nigerians to sack Moro were rejected by former President Goodluck Jonathan who later offered jobs to the families of the victims.