Whistle blower petitions EFCC over fraud in Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron

In the two page petition to EFCC by Mr Adamu  Jibrin, a staff of the Academy, dated 6th April , 2021 through his Attorney, Michael Edet and Associates and made available to newsmen in Uyo on Tuesday titled, “Petition of Fraud, Embezzlement, Misappropriation, Criminal Conversion of Public Funds to Personal Use by the Rector of  Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron,” the petitioner alleged that millions of Naira have been siphoned out from the treasury of the institution.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as well as the Minister of Transportation have also been served with the petition.

In an 18 paragraphs ” Statement of Facts” made before legal counsel, Michael Edet and Associates by the petitioner, Mr. Jibrin stated inter alia that: “. . . about a year after assumption of Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (Rtd), as Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron in 2018, there was a fraudulent scheme put in place by the office of the Rector, Bursar, Head of Procurement and Cashier to siphon public funds using me and other willing staffers of the academy in the scheme.

“That the above dubious practice involved payment of money into selected staff accounts and asking the said staff to retain a little fraction or small part of the sum, and thereafter asked to return the bulk sum to the Finance/Bursary Department through some select staff via cash including Onnoyom Etebong (Cashier), Ezike Nkemdiri Anthony, Clement Ukoyonoh, Patrick Boco Archiving and Egwu Divine and several other staffers.

“That the scam and fraudulent practice involved the use of three deceptive methods which include; purported Your Duty Allowance, DTA, Workshops and Training and Accommodation for government officials from ministries, Auditor General Office, Account-General, National Assembly, Presidency etc which are all scam and phantom lies as staffers involved including me never attended any training or workshop anywhere.

“That on October 23, 2018, the amount of N1, 406, 000. 00 was paid into my account under the fraudulent scheme and on the same date I was made to withdraw the sum of N1, 305, 000. 00 and give it to Me, Onoyom Etebong, the Cashier for onward remittance to the Bursar, Acting Registrar, Rector and some other members of the cartel of the management team of the academy.

The petitioner explained that money of various amounts were transmitted through his personal account till September 2020, when he met with the Academy’s Cashier, Mr Onoyom Etebong for financial assistance to pay medical bills of his mother and he (the Cashier) referred him to other members of the syndicate.

According to him, “I protested to Mr Onoyom that after using my account to divert over N62m between 2018 and 2020 that it was unfair for management and the cartel not to assist him in time of need.”

Jibrin said the matter was reported to the Rector, Commodore Efedua, who later called and begged me to calm down but later queried me why I should mention his name in the scam and sent his Personal Assistant to call me with phone number 08168579888 assuring me that management would assist me.

He said the following week, the sum of N200, 000 was given to him by the Bursar of the Academy, Mr. Okon Bassey in the office which money was grossly inadequate to offset his mother’s medical bills.

Mr. Jibrin noted that because of that, he reverted to the Rector through an SMS on November 23, 2020 and the following day, the Rector called him to his office and demanded explanation why he involved him in the matter.

”I told the Rector my predicament and showed him a copy of my bank statement with the sum of N62, 471, 786. 12 that had fraudulently passed through my account and the Rector asked me to go and sort myself with Mr. Okon the Bursar.

”The following day, I was issued a query by the Acting Registrar, Mr Nelson Mukadas and I replied the query conscientiously but, when he read through it he advised me to write a fresh one under his guidance so that, he would not have problem since both of them are from the North Central region of Nigeria.

Unfortunately, that was not the case as Mr. Jibrin said, he was redeployed to the library department on November 30, 2020 and on December 14, 2020 he was invited to appear before a kangaro panel headed by the Head, Quality Control Department, Dr. Lawal to spuriously investigate him on alleged money laundering.

He said, after he protested the sudden invitation they bundled him into a waiting official bus of the Academy and took him to his house, where they ransacked and took away various certificates of attendance of training, workshops in my presence on grounds that he accused the management of fraudulent activities.

Mr. Jibrin added that, after the unfortunate incident, he was served with a letter of termination of his appointment on February 17, 2021.

The EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, when contacted on the matter said, he was not aware of the petition saying, it may have been sent to the Chairman of the Commission.

However, the Rector did not answer to his calls nor respond to text messages on the matter but the Acting Registrar, Mr. Nelson Mukadas said on the telephone that, ”The Rector is not afraid of any investigation by the EFCC on anything anybody would say about MAN.”

He added that, as civil servants, they follow due process of government in all their activities in the institution.”

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, is under the supervision of the Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki.