After stunning revelations on how former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, a Sokoto prince and his co-travelers in crime diverted and stole public funds budgeted for arms purchase in his desperation to accumulate enough wealth to bribe his way to become the Sultan of Sokoto, another Prince of Katagum Emirate in Bauchi State, Baba Umar Farouk who was recently sacked as Federal Permanent Secretary from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, is alleged to be navigating in the same boat with Dasuki in the race for illicit wealth to ascend to the exalted throne of Katagum despite his alleged cases of scandals including indecency and poor morals.
247ureports investigation on the stewardship of the said Baba Umar Farouk in the federal civil service shows that his only qualification to becoming a permanent secretary at the time he was appointed was through extensive lobbying from his ailing father, HRH Alhaji Umar Farouk.
A source close to the late Head of State, Sani Abacha revealed that at the time other communities were mounting pressure and extensive lobbying to have states created for them ostensibly to bring government closer to the people. In his own style and mode of operation, the Emir of Katagum led a group supposedly of lobbyists to meet the late Head of State to possibly convince him on the desirability for a Katagum state out of the present Bauchi state. On meeting Abacha, it was alleged that the Emir instead of requesting for Katagum state, chose to hand over his son (Baba Umar) to Abacha as the Katagum state they desperately needed. In his character of doing things, Abacha accepted the request and denied Katagum a state despite the strategic position then occupied by the late Aminu Saleh (Wamban Katagum) as Secretary to the Government of the Federation in the Abacha regime. Baba Umar Farouk was then given a plum position in the presidential villa which catapulted him to be a permanent secretary within a short period.
As permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources before he was sacked by President Buhari, Baba Umar Farouk was alleged to have institutionalized sharp corrupt practices in all facets of administration in the ministry.
A senior staff of the ministry on condition of anonymity said, “The man was too corrupt. He was a dictator and very arrogant unlike a civil servant. He was administering the ministry as his personal estate. Let the on-going probes reach our ministry. There are so many cases of corruption and stealing that are to be exposed. Several contracts were awarded to fronts, not executed but paid. Several diversions took place of funds and materials including vehicles and even aids from the international communities. The ministry was rotten under Baba Umar Farouk”.
Meanwhile, the embattled Katagum prince has confided to his loyalists that he is ever ready to face a probe, “I stole nothing and I’m prepared for a probe. Buhari is not God. In the EFCC, we have our friends. We are ready to confront any challenge”.
