by Fejiro Oliver
If there is one man who will be cooling of his feet in jail when General Muhammadu Buhari resumes office as the President of Nigeria, then the DG of the DMO will wear the prison uniform.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) is saddled with managing the debt profile of the Federal Government and even as far as securing bond for the nation, but the Dr Abraham Nwankwo led leadership has succeeded in converting some of the bonds taken to personal cash while wasting our collective wealth by diverting into private pockets.
Investigations carried out revealed that Nwankwo lives a very discreet life, so as to cover the wild alleged corrupt life his currently lives. The agency who has the Vice President Namadi Sambo as its Board Chairman has raised a bond of $2 billion but ironically spent over $200 million or 10% of the bond secured to pay faceless consultants and to secure it, when they ought to have these people working inside the office.
We gathered that whenever they go to the International Capital Market (ICM) to raise bond, they pay a lawyer outside the agency, a whooping sum of $700,000 as consultant fees for issuance. This money according to our sources within DMO actually goes to the DG’s purse. Ironically, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who supervises the agency approves money for the ICM without checking to see if the money approved is actually used for its purposes, such as the inflation of legal and consultancy fees.
THE DG PROMISCOUS LIFE
Nwankwo is not just an alleged fraudster within the organization, but also a philanderer who sleeps with the staff and rewards them with the goodies of life, all from the proceeds of the illegal wealth gotten from the country’s coffer. The man who was appointed the DMO DG in 2007 currently has a lover in the person of Patience Uboma from Cross River State, a Level 10 officer in the agency. As a reward for her expertise on bed, she was posted to the department of Sovereign Debt Unit (SBU), a money making department that handles the fuel subsidy fund.
The lady who was known to be very poor and even ‘begs’ for lunch from her colleagues has suddenly made it big as a bed warmer to the DG. She has currently bought one of the latest brand new leaf green Rav 4 Jeep worth N4 million last year.
MORE AND MORE FRAUD
The DG who lives at Maitama we also reliably found out donates millions in church while he has a transport company which we are currently tracing to get the name. The burial of the Father In-Law turend to a conduit pipe to siphon money as a budget of N18 million was approved for adverts on AIT and few newspapers to announce the burial programme. The burial which comes up on the 16th of April is mandatory for all staff as the emperor will deal with anyone who does not attend, while sacking some.
Sources within the agency revealed to us that Nwankwo salary is not above N600,000 as a DG while Directos earn N450,000, but he has properties worth multi million Naira. One of such is a mansion built in his Obowo village of Imo State which allegedly cost over N70 million, with a brand new Lincoln Navigator Jeep worth over N10 million.
Against FG policy, he has various official cars like Pajero Crusier, two extra jeep and the number series of the Peugeot brand all fueled by government. He also has his 3 children, 2 girls and a boy all schooling in the US.
A particular staff, Mantakari Loveth made redundant by the DG and was sacked dragged the agency to the Industrial High Court, court and corrupt as ever; the DMO paid a lawyer outside the eye popping sum of N6 million to handle the case which is yet to begin. Mantakari is now living in the USA.
We can also reliably report that there are no staff union in the agency, as the dictatorial DG has no tolerance for such. One of the top management staff noted that it will take years for the new Board of Directors Chairman, Yemi Osibanjo who is the Vice President to find out about the corruption going since, as it has become a norm within the system, with secrecy as its watchword.
Calls put across to Mr Abraham Nwankwo were not answered neither message replied.
*** To be continued