11th February, 2013
Seventeen employees curiously booted out of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, after training and receiving salaries, cry for justice
At least, going by the usually well ironed uniforms of its officials, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, presents an outward appearance of an organisation concerned with its public image. Contrary to this, however, the organisation has, for sometime now, been enmeshed in different, dirty allegations of underhand dealings in its recruitment process. Thus, when the National Assembly recently discussed the issue of rampant allegations of money-for-jobs scam, now prevalent in federal ministries, departments and agencies, NSCDC featured prominently.
Two weeks ago, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, submitted a petition on behalf of 17 indigenes of Ekiti State who had been kicked out of the organisation after spending between two and three months there. Ojudu brought to the notice of the Senate the case of 17 indigenes of Ekiti State, who allegedly paid about N250, 000 each to one Olufemi Ajao before they were offered employment into NSCDC. The money was paid into a Skye Bank account with the number 1740582592. Ojudu tendered the lodgment voucher with which the money was paid as evidence. The Senator added that the 17 Ekiti indigenes were recruited and trained and had received salaries for three months before they were directed to bring their letters of employment to Abuja. He, however, said matters took a dramatic turn when they were summoned to Abuja and sacked.
In the petitions, all the victims claimed to have paid N250, 000 each to the Skye Bank account of Ajao, alleged to be an officer in NSCDC. The petitioners revealed that after the payment, they underwent six weeks training to become officers of NSCDC after which they were deployed to various duty posts.
However, after three months during which they had been receiving salaries and other allowances, they were thrown out of the job unceremoniously. The 17 who said they got in touch with Ajao through different third parties narrated how they were instructed to pay N250, 000 into the Skye Bank account after they had been directed to forward details of their qualifications to a particular telephone number.
One Ajisafe Matthew Adelaja, one of the 17, who was employed as an Inspector of Corps, IC, for instance, narrated that in September 2012, he was introduced to Ajao who was described as an officer in the NSCDC, National headquarters, Abuja through a friend he identified as Kehinde Ojo. “Mr Olufemi Ajao sent his Skye bank account number 740582592 to me for the payment of three hundred and fifty thousand naira only (N350,000)…” said Adelaja. He, however, said he discovered at the point of documentation that the name on his letter was spelt Ajisaje Mathew Adela instead of Ajisafe Mathew Adelaja. Despite this, he said the officer in charge of documentation he identified as one Shade Adewuyi, documented him while promising that the mistake would be corrected. He was subsequently directed to Ekiti Command of NSCDC where he was documented.
Another victim who identified herself as Oke Yinka Elizabeth said he was employed on 22 Aug 2012. He said after paying N250,000 into the Skye Bank account, he was directed to Kogi State to collect his appointment letter. After collecting the letter, he said the officer in charge asked him to go and document it in Ekiti state after which he proceeded for six weeks training. After the training, he was posted to Ekiti South West division of NSCDC and had received two months’ salary before he was asked to report to Abuja where the appointment letter he was given was collected from him.
This magazine investigation however revealed that the 17 were asked to go after they were invited to face a panel which verified their credentials and appointment letters. Their letters were collected for what the authority described as further screening after they had faced the panel.
This magazine was in possession of a memo to a Commandant, possibly that of Ekiti State NSCDC Command by one Mrs. Obiajulu Obiageli, Commandant Administration, NCSDC, Abuja. In the memo in which the names of the 17 victims were also listed, Mrs. Obiageli directed the Commandant to recover the original appointment letters issued to the above stated people, remove their names from the payroll and “send them away quietly and peacefully”. She further directed that all the recovered letters should be forwarded to the Commandants’ Admin office.
Emmanuel Okeh, the Public Relations officer of NCDSC told this magazine that Obiageli is a member of staff of the para-military organisation. But he said there was nobody with the name Olufemi Ojo, the name of the account in which the 17 Ekiti State indigenes paid money in the organisation. He also insisted that the 17 complainants might have fallen victims to numerous fraudulent people who are using the name of the organisation to defraud people across the country in the guise of offering them employment. But his attention was pointed to the fact that the 17 complainants had indeed received salaries of between two and three months before they were asked to leave- which means that their names were indeed on the payroll of the organisation as staff.
But Ojudu noted that the damning directive allegedly written by the Commandant, Administration of the NSCDC, Abuja suggests that bribe for government jobs is rmpant now.
—Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja