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DESOPADEC Sacks Finance Director Over Fraud, Corrupt Practices

October 26, 2016

Mr. Ogieh lost the exalted position to become mere Director of Social Services, SaharaReporters learnt, owing to the alleged monumental fraud and corrupt practices he is linked with.

The board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) has booted out Mr. Askia Ogieh as Executive Director of Finance and Administration. He has been given a few days to hand over to Mr. Chris Ochor Ochor, who until his new portfolio was Executive Director of Project. Mr. Ogieh is of Isoko stock, while the new office holder is from Ukwuani ethnic nationality.

Mr. Ogieh lost the exalted position to become mere Director of Social Services, SaharaReporters learnt, owing to the alleged monumental fraud and corrupt practices he is linked with.

SaharaReporters also gathered that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has already given nod to the demotion of Mr. Ogieh, following findings that several billions of naira that accrued to DESOPADEC within the last year has been misappropriated.

A union leader at the commission who pleaded for anonymity said Mr. Ogieh, who is widely suspected of fraud and corrupt practices, had engaged in kickbacks from contractors, among other sharp practices, since taking office as Director of Finance. 

"Do you know that DESOPADEC as a commission does not have a nominal register of its workers? The commission does not have payment voucher that they use to pay their workers’ salaries and allowances, a situation that has made it easy for fraud to be perpetrated. There are several dubious financial documents, some of them are prepared sometime after the transactions took place and money collected.

"There are some questionable accounting records and suspected false accounting, as well as illegal rackets in which huge sum were pocketed without any project done in the commission. Many of the major frauds in the commission are traced to Mr. Ogieh in particular, and this prompted Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to give his nod to the action of the board to immediately sack him as the Executive Director of Finance and Administrator and demote him to mere Director of Social Services.”

The source added: "Do you also know that the debt profile of DESOPADEC regarding contractors is over N10 billion naira? Supplies and Maintenance contractors alone are owned over N100million. Mr. Ogieh was startled when confronted with  documented evidences of how hundreds of millions of naira were fleeced away by him. Because of this, a meeting of the board was held and members settled for a reshuffle of  the four Executive Directors making up the management team, and this affected Mr. Ogieh who is the main target."

A Government House source who confided in SaharaReporters said Governor Okowa is embittered over Mr. Ogieh's conduct as 'de facto governor' in the commission, his financial recklessness, indiscriminate use of siren and collection of kickbacks from contractors before signing their payment papers, as well the use of about N150 million to clear grass.

"The appointment letters issued to the various appointees didn't contain their positions, they were allotted positions after their appointments as Executive Directors, and so, statutorily the board reserves the right to sack and demote and even reshuffle the Executive Directors as it deems fit, with the Governor’s approval. And that was exactly what happened to Mr. Ogieh," our source said.

Impeccable sources in DESOPADEC disclosed that the Delta State House of Assembly is set to probe the commission’s finances, with documented records of fraud running into several millions of naira allegedly traced to Mr. Ogieh.

SaharaReporters reliably learnt that the Isoko apex socio-cultural organization, Isoko Development Union led by its President-General, Chief Iduh Amadhe, Ogieh's kinsman, as well as the monarch of Ellu kingdom and a group known as Isoko G7 visited Governor Okowa in Government House last week Sunday, pleading with him weeping to reverse the decision. But he refused.

Contacted on the issue, the embattled Mr. Ogieh debunked the story of his sack and refused to answer questions put to him.

Commenting on the DESOPADEC issue, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okowa, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, condemned those attacking the governor over his attention to the commission. Addressing members of the Indigenous Newspapers/Magazine Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Asaba, he said the governor settled for a drastic action to correct mistakes of the past and ensure accountability.

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Corruption