Skip to main content

Former IG Okiro Appoints Top Police Administrator Dogged By Fraud Allegations As Police Commission Secretary

SaharaReporters has learned that former Inspector General of Police, Mike Mbamalu Okiro, last December ignited a quiet storm within police circles by appointing Emmanuel Ibe as acting Secretary to the Police Service Commission (PSC). Mr. Okiro, an appointive of former President Goodluck Jonathan, is the chairman of the commission.

Image

The new acting secretary is the target of a petition to the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in which Mr. Ibe is accused of selling police appointments for cash. The petition, which SaharaReporters obtained, also accused Mr. Ibe of masterminding a phony land deal when he served as the Director of Administration and Finance at the Police Service Commission. 

Despite the petition, Mr. Okiro, in December 2015, appointed Mr. Ibe as the PSC’s acting secretary. Like Mr. Ibe, Mr. Okiro is also dogged by allegations of corruption rooted in his days as IG of Police. 
 
A lawyer knowledgeable about the promotion of Mr. Ibe told SaharaReporters that it was “improper,” adding that the appointment by Mr. Okiro “violates the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which entrusts such appointments with the Nigerian President.” 

Dated January 25, 2016, the petition against Mr. Ibe urged the EFCC to investigate his reported embezzlement of N725 million in 2012. The petition alleged that some of the funds were procured via a bogus land sale, claiming that Mr. Ibe defrauded several people whom he tricked with various falsified documents to buy land. Some of his alleged victims, according to the petitioners, were family members and friends. 

Mr. Ibe was also accused of pocketing funds he obtained through the illegal sale of police appointments, said the petition. Mr. Ibe’s long time associate, James Nzerem, was also named as his accomplice in the scheme.

The petition also contained a 13-page report, dated July 12, 2012, written by the Commissioner of Police Al Amodu, a member of a special task force that investigated the recruitment scandal. 

Mr. Amodu’s report detailed an extensive criminal conspiracy organized by Mr. Nzerem and Mr. Ibe in order to receive illegal payoffs by applicants seeking recruitment as police officers. 

The report concluded that the two men collaborated to defraud numerous applicants into paying cash for appointments as cadet inspectors. The report explained that the illicit payments, totaling N1.6 million, were transferred through various bank accounts in order to avert detection by police authorities.

When investigators uncovered Mr. Nzerem’s role in the sale of cadet inspector positions, he reportedly unmasked Mr. Ibe as his accomplice. 

Investigations revealed that Mr. Nzerem worked as an accounts officer at Tuec World Ventures Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Mr. Ibe. Investigators also found that Mr. Ibe served as a guarantor for his former employee when Mr. Nzerem sought new jobs elsewhere.

Mr. Amosu’s report disclosed that Mr. Ibe attempted to derail his investigation by issuing a misleading memo to another department to investigate the recruitment scandal, all in an effort to sow confusion amongst the investigators.

The report concluded that there was enough evidence to try Mr. Ibe on criminal charges of fraud and abuse of office.

Even though Mr. Amosu’s report was published more than three years ago, no action was ever taken against Mr. Ibe. The petition lamented that Parry Osayande, a member of the PSC, was suspended after he exposed details of the land fraud deal. Meanwhile, Mr. Okiro saw to it that Mr. Ibe was reinstated and promoted.

One of the authors of the report, Philip Ezeagbulam, was fired after he wrote a petition questioning the promotion of Mr. Ibe and the role of the permanent secretary of the Police Service Commission.

Topics
Corruption