Information available to 247ureports.com through sources in the Presidential villa in Abuja indicate that all might not be well with the former sports minister in the person of Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman. This is as the source revealed that Presidential orders may have been given for the arrest of the former Federal Minister of Sports over allegations of financial crimes committed while he served as the Federal Minister of Transportation prior to being reassigned to the sports minister desk.
As gathered, sources in the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, confirm that the President was concerned by the nature of allegations against Yusuf Suleiman and as a result, had ordered for security operatives to begin collation of the financial crimes. The order, according to the source at the NSA, was given before the sack of Yusuf Suleiman on December 2, 2011 by the President. It was revealed that the abrupt sack by the President was result of the compilation of financial crimes committed by the federal minister.
Specifically, 247ureports.com gathered that the troubles of the former Minister began when he clashed with one of the Managing Directors [MD] at the Federal Ministry of Transportation in mid-July of 2011. The MD who was staged at one of the maritime ports [NIMASA] – was said to be a front for one of the ex-militant popularly known as Tompolo. The clash between the Minister and the MD immediately resulted in the removal of the Transport Minister to a lesser influential Ministry [Sports Ministry] – and according to available information, the deposed Minister saw his removal from the Transport Ministry as an embarrassment – and was reportedly unhappy with President Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan.
Yusuf Suleiman’s redeployment to the Sports Minister’s desk was marred with inefficiencies, gross neglect and sharp practices – on the part of the new appointed minister. Sources indicate that the Minister was particularly unhappy to be at the sport ministry – and that he started to plot for his exit from the first day of his arrival to the Ministry. Yusuf Suleiman’s activities and demeanor at the sports ministry did not hide his feelings towards the ministry.
Just a few months following his redeployment, he was asked to submit his resignation to the President. He did and then joined the gubernatorial tussle for Sokoto State under the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]. Man within the presidency indicated that his folly into the gubernatorial race was to seek possible avenues of avoiding an arrest at the hands of federal security agents in the near future – through the immunity clause. But he was not able to obtain the PDP ticket to contest for the race.
Following the failed bid at the Sokoto race, the security officials has since upped the bid to arrest the former Minister – based on a petition penned by a group, Arewa Transparency & Accountability Forum, submitted to the Charmain of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC]. The petition detailed the financial crimes committed by the former minister as ranging from operation of foreign accounts [$1.9million in overseas UBA Bank Account number 03540131001727; N519million in overseas UBA bank Account number 00120020018111] – the deposits were made between the months of May and November 2010.
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See Petition Below
Arewa Transparency & Accountability Forum
104, Morocco Road,
Wuse 11 Abuja
January 31, 2012
The Chairman
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
Abuja.
PETITION OF SHADY DEALS AT THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND NIMASA AGAINST ITS FORMER MINISTER, ALHAJI YUSUF SULEIMAN
We write to intimate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC of some shady deals perpetrated by the former Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman at NIMASA.
These include available embarrassing details of his past as Minister of Transport in respect of his secret foreign accounts, his secret deals with Intels Nigeria Plc.
In the process of committing these shady deals, the former Minister, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman breached the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Code of Conduct Law with impunity
WHEREAS the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, Part 1 Section 3 states that “The President, Vice -President, Governor, Deputy Governor, Ministers of the Government of the Federation and Commissioners of the Governments of the States, members of the National Assembly and of the Houses of Assembly of the States, and such other public officers or persons as the National Assembly may by law prescribe shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria,” Yusuf Suleiman contravened the provisions of the Constitution by lodging the sum of $1.9million in his domiciliary dollar account number 03540131001727 with United Bank of Africa, UBA. Similarly in the same bank, he lodged another sum of N519million in account number 00120020018111 between the months of May to November 2010.
And WHEREAS the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Chapter 56 LNS 1990 gave the Bureau the mandate to establish and maintain a high standard of public morality in the conduct of Government Business to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform with the highest standard of public morality and accountability. More so that Section 3, part 1 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution has provided that the Bureau to receives declarations by public officers under paragraph 11 of part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution, this has not been complied with by the former Minister.
The NIMASA/INTELS dirty deals
The former Minister single-handedly gave approval to several mid-stream discharge in the sector against the law that established NIMASA, due to his alleged partisan-relationship with Intels Nigeria Plc and its masked owner, for emphasis it is a leading oil and gas company in Nigeria.
It remains an incontravertable fact that at several times Yusuf Suleman flouted the honest directive of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who had declined to grant Intels the right to collect various levies on behalf of the Nigeria Ports Authourity, NPA, Suleiman overturned the presidential directive few months after he became a Minister.
It is a known fact that the maritime industry witnessed retrogression since Suleiman became Minister of Transport because most of his flight tickets for foreign trips were purchased by his personal assistant, one Akeem who liased with Intel’s management for funds.
Top officials of INTELS have confirmed that “We have the receipts and soon we shall tell the whole world how this man has ruined the enviable reputation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
His controversial exit at the defunct Nigeria Maritime Authority, NMA, as Director of Administration & Personnel was put in secrecy to avert barrage of attack from the press. He imposed pressure on the chief executive officer for ‘kick-backs’, which led to why maritime laws like Procurement Act, Fiscal Responsibility Act were suppressed then. It was when the information reached the Board of the Maritime Agency, that a panel was set up, which eventually found him allegedly guilty for incompetence and financial malpractices.
An indictment by Audit Report
Report of a private firm of Auditors, Akin Omoriodion & Co, later termed ‘government audit report’, exposed the excesses of the Agency Board, which was supervised by the former Minister, indicted the former Minister, Yusuf Suleiman for circumventing due process in the operations of the Agency through splitting, over-pricing and awarding contracts worth billions of naira beyond their approving powers.
The report accused the Board of awarding contracts in local currency worth $1.863million between January to June 2010 with traces of fraud in refunds, cash advances and supplies. The former Minister commissioned the project and claimed that “NIMASA awarded 451 contracts during the period at a total cost of N5.4billion.”
£26,666 only against £300,000 Presidential approval for IMO seat
When President Goodluck Jonathan ordered former Transport Minister and Foreign Affairs to support the candidature of Mrs. Monica Mbanefo to be the next scribe of the International Maritime Organisation which campaign cost was to be borne by NIMASA board, a formal request of£300,000 from NIMASA main account in Barclays Bank as directed by the agency’s board based on Mr. President earlier order was approved but only the sum of£26,666 was paid ,on the strength of this we implore the EFCC Chairman to recover the missing sum from Suleman and his cohorts.
NIMASA Board’s Conspiracy and contravening of Section 11(4) of NIMASA Act 2007
Envious that Omatseye was becoming the first Director General in the history of NIMASA to surge the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund from $11 million to over $80 million and had released the Primary Lending Institution for onward disbursement to Nigerians, the former Minister on prompting by some aggrieved board members through a petition, summoned an emergency meeting and had Omatseye ‘suspended’ contrary to Section 11, sub-section 4, NIMASA Act of 2007.
We urge EFCC to investigate these and bring the former Minister of Transport to book for these financial attrocities that he committed when he was Minister.
Yours faithfully,
Alhaji Maina Isa Danmallam
For Arewa Transparency & Accountability Forum
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