By Emmanuel Obisue
Coalition of civil societies under the auspices of Civil Society Groups for Good Governance, CSGGG, Integrity Advocacy for Development Initiative and Other Allied Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria have dismissed allegations of N3billion contract racketeering levelled against the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed.
At a World Press Conference attended by Nigerian Pilot at the Nigerian Union of Journalists Secretariat, Abuja at the weekend, the group argued that on the issues raised by one Jackson Ude on X with a “mischievous and intentionally misleading tweet captioned “CONTRACT RACKETTEERING: NEMA BOSS, AHMED, LOOTED N3BILLION IN ONE MONTH”, it had gotten clarification pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2011. “We were presented with detailed documents that showed that all the companies, had met statutory eligibility requirements and the supplies were duly carried by the numerous companies that executed the SNELEI project,” it said.
The group accused the claimant of spreading “conspiracy theories, disseminating fake news, and weaving conjectures without a shred of evidence or in-depth credibility”.
“Jackson Ude is quite ignorant of the activities of the agency judging from his skewed narrative. NEMA is an interventionist organization which’s major mandate is to address issues that require urgent and prompt responses. In doing so, the agency most times carries out emergency procurement in line with the stipulations of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and other extant regulations.
“Kindly note that, the jobs awarded to the aforementioned companies were merely supplies, not contracts pertaining to construction or works that require experience and professionalism.
“The aforesaid companies are well registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and had all met their Bureau of Public Procurement compliant requirements, hence were all captured in the Federal Contractors database of the BPP, and as such eligible to do business in Nigeria,” a statement jointly signed by comrades Ogakwu Dominica, Chris Ofomhi, Splendour Agbonkpolor stated.
“The allegations that the DG of NEMA looted over N3 billion between January and February 2023 is baseless, unfounded, malicious, and highly misleading. How do payments made to companies for supplies made, amount to fraud just because the companies are new?” the group added.
The CSOs said the tenure of the NEMA DG has been marked by “a series of commendable achievements, commitment, leadership showmanship, dedication, strategic and sterling vision in handling emergency response and disaster management in Nigeria”.
