The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has waded into the allegation of multibillion Naira contract scam levelled against the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Sidi, by an amorphous group in the social media and has disclosed that an interim report of her investigation for now has dismissed those allegations as laughable, outrageous and puerile.

In a media release jointly signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said it launched a discreet probe of the allegations which originated from a little known source online and has gone viral on the social media because of our background knowledge as reputable observers of the government procurement processes with requisite recognition by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) over a period of many years.

“From our background of experience as an organisation that has observed public procurement mechanisms since the emergence of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), we view these allegations as bogus and substantially vacuous and if available facts before us are anything to go by then it is safe to dismiss these allegations as dubious and politically motivated.”

HURIWA said: “At first when these range of allegations hit the social media we investigated to ascertain the credibility of the source of the information but it is clear that the source can't be traced since there's no valid physical or cyberspace address and the names cited as signatories of the allegations of multibillion Naira contract scandal can’t be identified since they are unknown to most credible stakeholders in the organized civil society and human rights community. Secondly, our preliminary investigations show that the documents paraded as proof of evidence for these sensational allegations against the Director General of NEMA looks forged and heavily superimposed and therefore can’t be trusted for now. Again, as a long standing public officer, the DG of NEMA is abreast of the provisions of the BPP Act and has never been in confrontation with the relevant law enforcement authorities since assuming office over half a dozen years ago and as a public official who is aware of the anti graft posture of the current administration and a good public officer at that it is doubtful if he will embark on this suicidal mission of contract scam running to this obscene amount of money been peddled by rumour mongers.”

HURIWA said it will by the end of the week publish her final report but stated that the DG of NEMA is one of the few public officials with a lot of goodwill because of the efficient and effective ways he has piloted the affairs of NEMA alongside his professionally competent management team.

HURIWA recalled that earlier this past week what was erroneously seen as a re-enactment of the hurricane going on in the Arms purchase scandal or another monumental fraud scandal was alleged to be brewing in the nations National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). But this sensational social media report appears superfluous and lacks verifiable substance.

In the unconfirmed report those who anonymously uploaded the allegations online alleged that it stumbled on a report with several incriminating documents on what it called the monumental fraud perpetrated by the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Sani Sidi with the Head of Procurement, Abdullahi Usur.

Specifically, one of the documents from the untraceable investigators stated that a contract for landscaping was awarded at a whopping cost of N3 billion to V&Q Concepts Limited. Also, a contract for car park canopy was awarded allegedly to ELLISS & TRUDY LTD for an outrageous contract price of N1,350,000,000.

But the investigations initiated suo moto by HURIWA has so far revealed that there appears to be no concrete evidence to confer credibility to these allegations.

“Our team of trained private investigators are combing all nooks and crannies of NEMA and in the interim the allegations can't be substantiated with physical and/evidence based proofs.”

•Photo shows NEMA DG Sani Sidi.

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