Posted by By Daniel Alabrah on
Fraudulent transactions amounting to over N600 million has been uncovered at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, with the Acting Director-General, Dr Yakubu Sankey, reportedly at the centre of the mind-boggling sleaze.
Fraudulent transactions amounting to over N600 million has been uncovered at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, with the Acting Director-General, Dr Yakubu Sankey, reportedly at the centre of the mind-boggling sleaze.
In his former position as Secretary to the NIPSS Board/Director of Administration and Finance (SDA), Dr Sankey was said to have acted in concert with the former Director-General, Major General Martin C. Osahor, to launder money as well as corner juicy contracts for themselves, family members and cronies.
Some of the contracts were reportedly awarded to front companies, with two of them sharing the same address in Lagos.
The Presidency was said to have ordered an investigation following petitions from various quarters on the illicit deals in the foremost training institute for high-level manpower in the military and the civil service.
Sunday Sun can reveal that a report recently submitted after the investigation claimed millions of naira was illegally vired to other uses, against strict government budgetary regulations and practices.
It was also discovered that through the twisting (and deliberate confusing) of supervisory and overseeing function, approvals were obtained from the President for upgrading of roads, and the funds were collected directly from the Ministry of Finance while another approval was obtained from the SGF (Secretary to Government of the Federation) to alter the project name.
Among other misdemeanor, the SDA (Sankey) was said to have ridiculed due process…by advertising for ‘Invitation for Expression of Interest from Travel Agents' while running a ticketing racket in cohort with a Jos-based tour company (name withheld).
Both the DG and the SDA also embarked on trips suspected to involve the laundering of illegal gains (cuts) from NIPSS participants' estacode on foreign tours. For instance, the SDA travelled to Poland in 2006 and Senegal in 2007 days before the actual official trips of NIPSS participants and was suspected to have opened foreign accounts in those countries.
He (Sankey) also undertook a private visit (without government permission) on Passport No. F0024234 to Dakar, Senegal, on June 7, 2007. It was believed that he was received at the Dakar Airport on arrival and assisted by one of the Nigerian Embassy staff to "open an account where he lodged stolen ‘Tour Funds of SEC 29/2007."
When Sunday Sun spoke with the NIPSS boss on telephone on Saturday evening, he refused to confirm or deny any of the allegations. Rather he said he was in possession of several documents from previous investigation that had exonerated him and that he would make them available to us.
However, when asked if he gave out contracts to cronies, Sankey flared up, saying: "My friend, I'm not ready to speak on this matter again. You can go ahead and write whatever story you want to write. I'm through with you."
Sunday Sun sources informed that the police might again step into the matter and that Sankey would be quizzed soon.
The inquiry might just be a prelude to his replacement by the Presidency, which is said to be embarrassed by the report of the panel that investigated the institute.
Already, a professor from the northern part of the country, who is currently based in the United States, is being tipped to replace Sankey.
But the Acting DG is reportedly pulling all the strings, including lobbying some prominent Emirs, to save his job.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA) has accused Sankey of embarking on ethnic cleansing in the institute, targeted at Niger Deltans.
In an online statement mailed to Sunday Sun and signed by its spokesperson, Annkio Briggs, the group claimed Sankey "schemed out the former DG (Osahor) by blackmailing him" and was trying to do the same to an Assistant Director in the institute, Mr D.A. Briggs, who is also a Niger Deltan.
"Dr. Sankey has disrespected both the office and the person of the Vice President by using his office and position as acting Director General of NIPSS to attack the integrity of the Vice President, by his numerous publications on the Briggs matter.
"Ijaw people in and out of the civil service are convinced that this is one of the ways (their people) have been dismissed from the civil service and the military in the past," she said.