Our attention has been drawn to a cheap and fake propaganda against Mrs Itohan Ehiede titled “When Desperation comes home to Roost at NBET” written by one Gbenga Ojo of Premiumnewsnigeria.com who made various false and negative accusations, some libelous in nature to defame her character.

The purpose of this rejoinder is to set the records straight and debunk all such false claims as the work of despicable characters with evil intentions to undermine the person of Mrs Ehiede, the Head of Corporate Services at the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc. It is such a shame that some people will descend so low to behave in such an unscrupulous manner.

Mr Ojo’s claim in his article that the movement of Mrs Ehiede was part of a comprehensive upgrading and re-posting of staff in the agency is a complete lie. This along with all the other claims he has made in his write up show that Ojo has perfected the art of twisting issues to meet his nefarious goals. For example, the case of the “magnificent movement to Project Monitoring Department” happened as a result of the report of a threat of physical attack and verbal assault made by Dr Marilyn Amobi on Mrs Itohan Ehiede whom she hysterically barked on in the presence of two other staff on Friday the 6th of December, 2019. Dr Marilyn Amobi stated to the hearing of all that she would slap Mrs Itohan Ehiede and does not care if she loses her job. This was not a one-off incident. On several occasions, she has verbally abused Mrs Ehiede, using very derogatory words which are better imagined.

On the particular day, the threat to slap Mrs Itohan Ehiede was made, Dr Marilyn Amobi was in her office berating Mrs Itohan Ehiede and another Executive Management staff of NBET. The reason for this outrage was the two days leave duly approved and granted to a member of Staff to enable him attend a relative’s burial.

With Mr Ojo reference to treasury bills, himself and his cohorts have displayed a high level of ignorance as those who understand the workings of Treasury Bills know how difficult it is to manipulate.

The so-called staff mentioned by Mr Ojo as being indicted by DSS has it on record that the MD is aware of his fraudulent activities and decided to play it down. He also has it on record that the MD promised to send him abroad and this record is contained in the report of the DSS investigation and forwarded to the MD by the DG, DSS.

In January, 2018, it was time to process the six years upfront payment for housing and furniture allowance duly approved by the Board and paid to staff on a first come, first serve basis. When it was time for the payment, Dr Marilyn Amobi using her official position made sure she was paid this mortgage, the consequence of which resulted in no one else being paid. The MD achieved this payment by striking off all the names of the eligible staff for that year and replacing their names with just hers. She simply instructed that all the staff be stepped down and herself be paid. This made some of the affected staff petition her (the MD) to ICPC who faulted the six years payment to a political appointee whose tenor was four years and who had already spent a year and a half on the position. Rather than honourably refunding the funds to the company, she asked for the restructuring. It is strange that before she collected her mortgage, there was no problem with the structuring of the mortgage request but till date that no one else has been paid after her. However, Mr Ojo claims in his write-up that the EFCC had a problem with the structuring of the mortgage loan. One wonders since when EFCC became involved in the structuring of mortgage loans of government agencies.

A brief mention of the work history of Mrs Ehiede is apposite at this start. She started her career in 1997 with Citizens Bank (Now Heritage Bank) where she held various positions for the nine years she worked there. Throughout the time she was in Citizens Bank, she never received any official query or letter of insubordination, indiscipline or act of financial misappropriation. After Citizens Bank, she worked in Intercontinental Bank (Now Access Bank) for 3-4 years where she was promoted twice and was even made the pioneer manager of their flagship Maitama branch which under her leadership was one of the most profitable branches in the Northern Region of the bank. Again, throughout this period, she never received any query or letter of insubordination, indiscipline or for any act of financial misappropriation. Rather she had several commendations and awards for service excellence.

Before coming to NBET, Mrs Ehiede worked for four years in Standard Chartered Bank, a British bank with one of the highest ethical standards in the Nigerian Banking Industry. She was the pioneer manager of the newly opened Garki Branch in Tswanya centre. Within this period, she never received any query, letter of insubordination or indiscipline, or any query for misappropriation of funds. Rather, she won various awards and accolades including but not limited to:

The Gulliver’s Contest for Wealth Management who deliver at least 150% of their performance target culminating in the entire team being sponsored on an all-expense paid trip to any international destination of their choice (2011)

Best Supporting Manager in the Northern Region

Professionally, Mrs Ehiede is a:

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Finance and Control (FCIFC)

Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM)

An Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) in which she won the award as the overall best student in International Trade and Finance (2016)

Member of the Institute of Service Excellence and Good Governance based on her exceptional customer service skills

Also, in all of her professional working life including the first three years of her time in NBET with the pioneer MD, Mr Rumundaka Wonodi and the first two years of Dr Marilyn Amobi, Mrs Ehiede did not receive any query. Her first query ever in her Professional Career spanning a period of 21 years was when Dr Marlyn Amobi gave her one.

•Johnbosco Bankong s an Attorney-at-Law.

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