Last May, the story broke out that an international investigating agency, Global Investigators United Kingdom had reported that a whopping $9.5million had been traced to the account of the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh.
The news media was awash with the story of the alleged fraud until it was quenched by another story that the person involved was not the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, but an Abuja based namesake, a retiree of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Hamza Ibrahim Jamo.
In a statement released to the media, Ibrahim Jamo had said t
According to Hamza Jamo, the two names are not the same person and should not be seen as one person. He reiterated that the name in question bearing Dr. BashirYusuf Jamoh, according to reports is being investigated on financial issues.
Mr. Hamza Ibrahim Jamo, said he is presently engaged with a training firm, Talent Expertise International (TEI) in Dubai as their representative in Nigeria, stating categorically that he has no connection with Dr. Bashir Jamoh and he is not related to him. Another statement from TEI claimed that the company had no business relations with NIMASA nor had executed any project for it or received any money from the agency. TEI is the company reports had alleged was set up by Dr. Bashir Jamoh to siphon money from NIMASA.
According to Pointblanknews.com that first published the allegation, and claims to have copies of a four-page document titled, “Due Diligent Report on Bashiru Yusuf Jamoh, the Director-General NIMASA,” the report exposed a lodgment of $9,557,312.50 into Access Bank account number 0710814478 belonging to Jamoh.
The publication alleged that investigation also exposed other infractions by the NIMASA boss which also include award of contracts to companies which he has interest in.
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“The investigation, according to the report focused on fraud, money laundering and breach of the Nigeria code of conduct act. This same investigation, it stated, spans across all the agencies under the Ministry of Transport, having started with the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.”
The news medium said, “GLOBAL INVESTIGATORS UNITED KINGDOM, the investigation agency that signed the report investigated the bank transactions of Alhaji Jamoh, focusing on inflows/Credit and Debits on his bank statements.
It claimed to found the transaction’s records of BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH showing the payment of $9,557,312.50 (Nine million, five hundred and fifty-seven thousand, three hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents) into his personal accounts from Central Bank of Nigeria in violation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
“Most baffling is that CBN transferred millions of dollars into the personal account of BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH.
“Records show the withdrawal of $5,425,200.00 (Five million, Four hundred and twenty-five thousand and two hundred dollars only) by CASH WITHDRAWAL from ACCESS Bank, Burma Road, Apapa, Lagos.
“BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH set up a company TALENT EXPERTISE INTL. LIMITED with RN: 1488830 to solicit for jobs from NIMASA. Being the director of a company and awarding contract to own company in violation of the code of conduct act section 3 part of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and code of conduct for public officers involved in procurement, Part X1, section 57, Sub-section (2) of the Procurement Act, 2007”. .Pointblanknews.com also made other allegations of payments and withdrawals from the account.
The reports reverberated across the length and breadth of the country, generating a statement from the PDP, the main opposition party in Nigeria, which called for the resignation or suspension of Dr. Jamoh. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decried what it described as another sad episode in the unending tale of stinking rot in the Buhari-led All Progressive Congress (APC) administration.
The spokesman of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in the statement said it was despicable that an administration that promised zero tolerance for corruption is watching as ministers, presidential aides, heads of parastatals and APC leaders are pillaging the coffers of ministries, departments and agencies and stealing trillions of naira.
“It is saddening that under President Buhari, ministries and agencies of government, including FIRS, NNPC, NEMA, NPA, NIMASA, NHIS, among others, are now Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) from which avaricious officials and APC leaders have stolen over N17 trillion in the last six years, while our nation wallows in poverty, economic hardship and infrastructural decay,” the statement said.
It added, “Now that the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Jamoh, had yielded to the demands of investigation by the EFCC, our party holds that he should immediately step aside so that the anti-graft agency will have unhindered access to vital documents on the matter.”
The party charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) not to “succumb to blackmails but commence a rounded investigation, including the reported movement of public funds from the Single Treasury Account to private individuals,” demanding that the NIMASA DG stepped aside “so that the anti-graft agency will have unhindered access to vital documents on the matter”.
To prove his innocence, Dr. Jamoh himself wrote a letter to the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Chairman, dated 24th May, 2021, urging the anti-graft agency to conduct a thorough and painstaking investigation into the fraud allegation which, he said, had put his integrity and family name at stake. He requested the EFCC to investigate the reports which had also demanded that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) be called to account how the huge sum of money was allowed into a private account in contravention of Treasury Single Account (TSA).
“In view of this weighty allegation and the insidious and pernicious damaging effect on the government and the country, I hereby request that a thorough and painstaking investigation be carried by your commission with a view to unraveling the truth or accuracy of the allegation. This is to put the record straight in the public domain,” Jamoh told EFCC.
Criously, almost three months after the NIMASA Director-General wrote this letter requesting the agency to investigate him, nothing has been heard from the anti-graft agency. It is not known if it even acknowledged the letter from the NIMASA DG as it did not issue any public statement to that effect.
One is, therefore, compelled to ask, what is stalling such an important investigation? Is it that the EFCC has its hand full that this one does not matter or even deserve a simple public statement? The EFCC has a responsibility to investigate this fraud allegation in order to live up to its expectation. It has a responsibility to ascertain if the alleged sum of money was actually missing from NIMASA, whether traced to Jamoh’s account or not.
Investigation by EFCC would also unmask the true identity of the Jamo who is alleged to have been mistaken for NIMASA’s Bashir Jamoh.
Observers find it curious that Access Bank which was mentioned in the case as having received the alleged proceeds of the fraud, thus standing accused for aiding money laundering, has not made any statement. It is the responsibility of the economic and financial crimes watchdog to draw the bank out of its shell.
Nigerians would like to know if such alleged amount of money actually entered its vault, and from whom. Moreover, it behooves the anti-graft agency to find out if the TSA regulation has been violated in NIMASA or not.
All these will help to clear the NIMASA DG, and put paid to speculations in some quarters that the investigation is deliberately being stalled, or that Nigerians are being treated to the more you look, the less you see tactics. A decoy most often deployed in Nigeria to sweep hordes of humongous financial malfeasance under the carpets.
The allegations, if found to be false will also not only expose Pointblank.com as merchants of fake news, but PDP as a drowning party that latches onto every story, no matter how flimsy, to keep its perceived corrupt tainted head above Nigeria’s murky political waters.