Dear Sir/Madam: The "Great Train Robbery" is the name given to the 2.6 Million Pounds Sterling Traveling Post Office Train robbery committed in August 1963 in England. This was the biggest robbery by value in British history until the Securitas Depot robbery of 2006 in Kent. The British Police were successful in the relentless pursuit, arrest and successful prosecution of the 15 thieves involved in the robbery though the robbers were treated like folk heroes by the press and the public.
A similar scenario is playing out in Nigeria where the public, fascinated by the lures of the GSM technology is treating the thieves involved in the GREAT NITEL ROBBERY as folk heroes and the Nigeria Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other Law Enforcement Agencies who should arrest the "GREAT NITEL ROBBERS" regardless of public sentiments are indifferent. I say without any fear of contradictions that, between 2001 and now, NITEL has lost not less than 500billion Naira due to the actions of the NITEL robbers and consequent serious adverse effect of their action on the Nigerian Economy as will be shown later.
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I am not a fan of el Rufai, or any of the other indicted or convicted public officers, be they Federal or State Officials, but their offences pale into insignificance when compared to the Great NITEL Robbery committed by Earnest Ndukwe led Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and their collaborators in the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. (NITEL).
The published extracts of the Police report on El Rufai’s actions on NIPOST land in Abuja as published by This Day Newspaper of Monday, 4th January 2009, states “From the above mentioned findings it is obvious that government parastatals’ lands were revoked and laundered at a premium, this pattern of abuse of office and manipulation of the Abuja land reforms by private interest is an affront to equity, justice and transparency’
Permit me to plagiarize that extract for the Great NITEL Robbery to read “From the foregoing it is obvious that when Ndukwe was appointed EVC of NCC he REVOKED the existing EQUITABLE Interconnection Agreement between NITEL and Other Operators and LAUNDERED AT A PREMIUM a new but fraudulent Interconnection Agreement. This pattern of ABUSE of office and manipulation of the Interconnection Agreement by PRIVATE Telecommunications Operators is an affront to equity, justice, and transparency.” Where then is the equity when el Rufai is being indicted on all fronts and Earnest Ndukwe who destroyed NITEL for the benefit of his foreign friends, which investigations will show that he did at a premium, is being glorified. Let me stress once again that I am not a fan of el Rufai and I am on record as having criticized some of his actions in the privatization of NITEL.
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Wikipedia, the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet, defines Money laundering thus; ““Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of money, and is a main operation of the underground economy.
In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government regulators (such as the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) to encompass any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act, which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting.”
I wish to humbly draw your attention to the fact that Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, the Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) abused his office by revoking the Interconnection Agreement in place when he was appointed Vice Chairman of NCC. The agreement he revoked is fully in compliance with International Standards and took Rtd Gen Olanrewaju over three years of research and negotiation to arrive at. Ndukwe replaced it in 2001 with the deliberate intention of diverting NITEL Financial Resources to Private Telecommunications Operators which is a classical example of FALSE ACCOUNTING and amounts to deliberate Money Laundering worthy of your urgent attention as this, over the years has diverted not less than 500billion Naira of Nitel financial resources to GSM and other Private Telecommunications Operators and resulted in the Virtual Liquidation of Nitel.
MTN, a major GSM operator in Nigeria, has taken Nigerian Telecommunications Engineers as uneducated or highly incompetent and Nigerians in General for fools. About the same time that MTN was signing the sell out of NITEL Networks to them for free in Nigeria by Ndukwe led NCC and their NITEL collaborators, the same MTN and Vodacom were signing the Amendments to their Interconnection Agreements with Telkom SA (the South African equivalent of NITEL) whose financial conditions were premised solely on discounts exactly like the Original Interconnection Agreement in place in Nigeria before Ndukwe was appointed VC of NCC. I have a copy of the MTN Interconnection Agreement with Telkom SA but it is 167 pages long which I downloaded from the internet and cannot attach it to this petition. I was the first Nigerian to be assigned Interconnectivity issues in Nigeria by Engineer Iromantu led NCC and I patterned the first draft on British Telecommunications and Mercury of UK Interconnection Agreements.
The greed and corruption of Ndukwe led NCC and Malice against NITEL owned by the Nigerian Government that appointed Ndukwe as EVC of NCC are clearly manifested in other ways.
To achieve seamless interconnection with emerging Private Telecommunications Operators, NITEL invested hundreds of millions of Naira in setting up an Interconnection Center at their Victoria Island Lagos Exchange to ensure that ALL Telephony Traffic between NITEL and the PTO can be properly captured for billing purposes. One of the first things Ndukwe did as soon as his gsm pay masters were licensed was to decree that Interconnection should take place at any point in the network knowing fully that NITEL does not have the capacity to capture Interconnection Traffic properly at other points in the Network other than at the VI, Lagos Interconnection Exchange. This resulted in NITEL settling spurious bills submitted by many unscrupulous operators which it is not in a position to verify. Many PTOs including gsm Operators seized this opportunity to defraud NITEL of billions of Naira. The same Ndukwe, the VC of NCC however betrayed himself when, for a premium, he Licensed a private company to set up an Interconnection switch, to perform the same function as the NITEL Interconnection Center at VI and blackmailed ALL operators INCLUDING MTEL to Interconnect through that center using as reason the same traffic verification to facilitate bill settlement.
Termination component of traffic in value terms represent not more than 7% of telephony cost and many administrations ignore it in determining Interconnection cost. But Ndukwe made this the only parameter in his fraudulent Interconnection Agreements making NITEL whose network performs the remaining 93% of telephony cost RECEIVE NOTHING. When this was challenged Ndukwe changed Termination component to near-end or far-end “Handshaking” to further confuse the undiscerning especially accountants and make analysis of billing data more difficult and to further achieve his paymasters diabolical robbery of NITEL. Interconnection Charges are based on simple reciprocal discounts where both parties have composite Networks or just one way from composite Network Provider to local access provider as was in the Original Interconnection Agreement which Ndukwe REVOKED on the very FRAUDULENT argument that a Local Access Provider (most PTOs) is EQUAL to a COMPOSITE NETWORK PROVIDER(NITEL).
Ignorant Nigerians are sold on Ndukwe’s $12billion investment in the telecommunications sector; it is nothing more than the largest money laundering scam in Nigeria. An investor brings in telecoms equipment that will perform 7% of telephony connection cost. NITEL is made to perform the remaining 93%, The so called Investor rakes in unbelievably huge sums in a very short time and repatriates the proceeds on inflated investment invoices and brings in additional equipment in the name of expansion that will perform only 7% of work while NITEL is made to continue performing the remaining 93% The windfall becomes so great he starts adding components similar to NITEL network because he Knows that the intricate Money laundering chain that Ndukwe has set up for a premium will end up in the bankruptcy of NITEL and his continued investments in the 7% segment will become SCRAP when NITEL goes bankrupt! It is only in Nigeria that a Nigerian Government appointee will abuse his position to serve private interests at a premium and get away with it.
The moment the price of crude collapsed, Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange reserve fell by a whopping $billion Naira in just one month. Nigerians should not be surprised to discover that the single segment of the economy that consumed a big chunk of the $6billion is the money laundering telecommunications sector.
The New Minister of Communications, Prof. D. Akunyili, is commended for her concern on the digging of Nigerian roads by all manner of Telecommunications Providers for the reason of laying optic fiber cables. The Hon Minister should have directed that question to Earnest Ndukwe. It is the greed of Ndukwe and his cabal at NCC that is responsible. National security makes all nations of the world limit the number of telecommunication carriers in their countries. Under the NCC euphemism of Universal Access any telecom service provider that can pay Ndukwe led NCC becomes a carrier. So the Hon Minister should expect as many service providers as have paid Ndukwe’s universal access fee to be digging the roads. What Ndukwe refuses to realize or does not care about is that the cost of repairing the roads which are daily being dug up by his licensed private interests is much more than what NCC is collecting as license fees and the economic impact of good network of roads far outweighs the impact of a good telecommunications network. The wanton destruction of major cities’ landscapes in Nigeria by indiscriminate installation of eye-sore steel structures called gsm masts with the full encouragement of Ndukwe when there are alternative technologies to drastically reduce the eye-sores shows the type of love Ndukwe has for his country, Nigeria.
The purpose of this petition is to ensure that all those responsible for the sell out of NITEL network and laundering of NITEL finances to private interests be investigated and charged for Money Laundering and Economic Sabotage. For a thorough investigation and the computation of the financial loss to NITEL, any investigating body will need to demand the following documents:
1. Copies of ALL Interconnection Agreements signed by NITEL especially the Financial Agreements from 1997 to date.
2. Copies of Interconnection Agreement of MTN with Telkom SA or British Telecommunications with other operators especially the Financial Agreements
3. Audit of NITEL Telecommunications Network from 2001 to date to Identify segments or leased circuits dedicated to other telecommunication service providers which the operators should have been paying for outside the Interconnection Agreement since these serve the internal network of the operator and not any known Interconnection functions.
4. Records of ALL National Trunk and International Switched telephone calls fro
m 2001 to date. Accounting Rule of NITEL mandates that all financial data be kept for ten years
5. All billing invoices submitted by NITEL to Private Operators for settlement from 2001 to date and protocols used for verification before settlement.
6. All billing invoices received by NITEL from other telecommunication operators for settlement from 2001 to date and protocols used for verification before settlement.
From the documents listed above a team of telecommunications and accounting experts should be able to compute the amount of financial loss to NITEL by NCC designed money laundering of NITEL Finances to Private Operators for a premium from 20001 to date.
While NCC is the main planner of the Great NITEL Robbery there are other participants such as the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE) and other individuals especially some very unscrupulous and unpatriotic Principal NITEL officials who, for a premium, were willing tools in Ndukwe led Great NITEL Robbery or in other scams of their own design,
The Punch Newspaper edition of Saturday 9th September 2006 carried the report filed by Emeka Mbadunagu and captioned “Ex-Telecom Manager admits bribing NITEL official, others with $0.266m” The NITEL official alone received approximately $166,000 for allowing, at a personal premium, the connection of an equipment to divert NITEL revenue on International calls to the private company. This was a proposal that was persistently rejected by NITEL Management for several years before the corrupt official became the Chief Executive officer of NITEL. Just like in Ndukwe’s case nothing happened to the official till date after the public exposure and conviction in the United States of Yaw Osei Amoako who gave the bribe. If $166,000 was given for the small scale ITXC scam the amount of bribe given for the very large scale Interconnection fraud would be in Millions of Dollars.
The disposal of NITEL assets especially those approved to go into NITEL Staff Pension Trust Fund is another component of the Great NITEL Robbery. It is already in public domain that a single asset, the 32-storey NECOM house at the Lagos Marina valued at 824 million naira in 2001 was sold in 2006 for a paltry 100million Naira when the value should have risen to more than 1billion Naira. Meanwhile NITEL pensioners who are to benefit from those assets are languishing in penury.
The Law enforcement or anticorruption agencies need to tell Nigerians the reasons why they appear powerless to probe the money laundering and other crimes that have resulted in the virtual liquidation of NITEL, a major public asset. Much lesser crimes of little or no value when compared to NITEL are being celebrated daily as Major Anticorruption battles.
My concern with the Great NITEL Robbery is the poverty, penury, and hardships the Great NITEL Robbery has thrown thousands of NITEL pensioners and existing workers, when private companies are still enjoying monies that legitimately belong to NITEL and the thieves in NCC or NITEL who facilitated the robbery are enjoying their PREMIUMS!
It is the Earnest Ndukwe phenomenon which I regard as the UGLIEST FACE of the so called NIGERIAN FACTOR that is most painful. Most Nigerians do not know the severe damage Ndukwe’s Company did to Telecommunications during Muritala Mohammed contingency plans for the defunct department of Posts and Telecommunications (P&T). Development of Telecommunications was seriously crippled in Northern Nigeria because of the defective materials used by the company where Ndukwe was a principal officer in executing the external plant network in Major cities of Northern Nigeria. It was so bad that I, as the contracting officer refused to sign the Acceptance Tests and Works Clearance Certificates or the Payment Invoices presented by the company because the expatriate consultants have advised that defective materials were used. Still Ndukwe’s company collected all their monies through their accomplices in P&T. I was seriously victimized by these accomplices. I am still being pursued, harassed, victimized, intimidated and my personal safety in jeopardy till today by the ATTACK DOGS especially since I again refused to allow the Interconnection fraud Ndukwe deliberately pursued to succeed until the Nigerian Factor made Ndukwe the Vice Chairman of NCC. By this time former President Obasanjo has been misled and those of us not cooperating in giving NITEL Networks free to Private Operators have been compulsorily retired. Interestingly enough it is the political block from the region seriously affected by Ndukwe’s company’s shoddy execution of the telecommunications contracts that must have enabled Ndukwe to clinch the NCC job. Ndukwe must have presented the shoddy contract to them in his Curriculum Vitae as the best thing that ever happened to the North! In Nigeria you really have to LAUGH TO CRY!
The leader of the ATTACK DOGS on me, Mr. Washington Nwachukwu, a former Security Manager with NITEL, even went to the extent of intercepting and stealing my correspondence with the Ministry of Communication falsified them and initiated a libel action after ensuring that my lawyer was compromised. Unfortunately for him I refused to obey the Misleading Instructions of my Lawyer. When the criminal implications dawned on Mr. Nwachukwu and his collaborators, Nwachukwu quickly dropped his own case by the withdrawal of his lawyer. Anybody can request the proceedings of Re NWACHUKWU Vs OGUNDELE SUIT NO: CV/554/05; M/2059/05 in court 6 of the Abuja High Court before Hon. Justice (Ms) Orji-Abadua. Possibly to intimidate me of the Ndukwe connection, Mr. Nwachukwu first filed this case before Justice U. I. NDUKWE-Anyanwu who exhibited high level of integrity and did not hesitate to strike out the case for incompetence. Mr. Nwachukwu then reopened the case with Justice Orji-Abadua.
I will be expecting the acknowledgement of the receipt of this letter failing which I will assume that this petition has been intercepted by the agents of Mr. Ndukwe, the BPE or the former corrupt and unpatriotic CEOs of NITEL. It was the court case that made me realize that most similar petitions to which I received no acknowledgement may have been intercepted by friendly agents of those affected.
Yours faithfully,
Engr. Solomon. Ogunjide Ogundele
7, Alabiamo Street, Bodija, P. O. Box 7689,IBADAN
E-mail: [email protected]; Tel: 0805-4068903
Petition addressed to:
Hon. Michael Kaase Aondokaa, (SAN) Attorney-General & Minister of Justice
Hon Prof. D. Akunyili, Minister of Information & Communication
Mrs. Farida Waziri, Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
CC: President Umoru Yar A’dua,
Vice President, Jonathan Goodluck, CC: Senate President, Hon. David Mark;
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole;
You may wish to note the observations and comments above and bring to the attention of the Honourable Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives please.
Dated: January 11, 2009
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