The Coalition Against Corruption and Electoral Offences and Malpractices (CCEOM) has faulted what it called concoction of blatant lies, raising false alarm on corrupt practices within the leadership of the North East Development Commission (NEDC).
The group explained that all allegations against the Managing Director, NEDC, Mohammed Goni Alkali are concoction of lies , envy and mischief.
It would be recalled that recently, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisation Against Corruption in Northern Nigeria (COCSOCINN), petitioned President Bola Tinubu over N13 billion corruption allegation levelled against the Managing Director of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Goni Alkali.
The Coalition in the petition signed by its National Spokesperson, Pastor (Dr) Sani Abdullahi entitled, “Urgent Petition for Dismissal of the Managing Director of NEDC and Advocacy March on June 4, 2024,” dated May 23, 2024, the Coalition called for the immediate sack and prosecution of of Alkali.
Copies of the petition were sent to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
“This petition seeks your immediate dismissal as the Managing Director of the NEDC due to serious allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and direct threats to the life of one of our members Reverend Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa of Center for Justice on Religious Ethnicity Nigeria “As a whistleblower and an advocate for justice,
Rev Dikwa had uncovered substantial evidence indicating that the Vice President, with the assistance of the Managing Director, illicitly withdrew N13 billion from the NEDC as alleged.
However,in a swift reaction by the National Coordinator of the Coalition Against Corruption and Electoral Offences and Malpractices. (CCEOM) Honourable Lawan Abdullahi flanked by executives of the association addressed a press conference at Chartwell Hotel in Bauchi Monday.
He said, “this falsehood allegations against the managing Director NEDC as being perpetrated is an indication of a ploy to misinform the public in a bid to distract the Board or to cause confusion due to envy and mischief.
According to him, “All these mischievous allegations and blatant lies was nothing and farther from the truth. Even though we don’t want to join issues with anybody, we are, therefore, constrained to respond to the false story about an imaginary allegations of corruption against Alkali.
“We urge members of the public to disregard the story which is obviously a mischievous concoction of lies designed to sow seeds of discord among members of the Board who are united in their resolve to make a difference in the North Eastern State.
Abdullahi described “the naysayers as enemies of North East making false allegations to distract Alkali from consolidating on the good work, he has started by repositioning the region and changing the narratives through execution of physical and non physical laudable projects and different interventions to bring succour to the people of the north east region”.
He said “the unwarranted attack on Alkali and the false threat by the faceless group was mischievous and based on hatred, malice, envy and ignorance.
He said “the people behind the statement were feigning ignorance on how the commission operate in order to sway unsuspecting public to their ploy to cause crisis. Out of hatred ignorance the group want to blackmail the respected distinguished Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima who is always working day and night to ensure the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu renewed hope initiatives”.
The Coordinator said “the petitioners from their false allegations proved that they don’t know the procedures of removing money from government coppers and the limit of the amount of money the MD will approve and any amount above the limit of the MD will be approve by higher authorities”.
Abdullahi said “ we wish to appreciate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim.Shettima for their support to the board. We are proud of Alkali; he has a humble political pedigree, sagacity, and versatility in all fields of human endeavour.
“We outrightly condemn the sponsors of the false and imaginary write up, we are sad that this self-centered faceless group did not see anything good in the physical of hundreds of developmental projects being executed by Alkali which was spread a cross the 112 local government areas of six states in the region , but chose to malign and cast aspersions on the managing director, its a shame and unfortunate.
“Consequently, we urge relevant respected citizens to ignore all forms of unholy antagonism against Alkali, we called on the security agencies to unravel this faceless group trying to sow seed of discord in the country and to bring them to justice.
He said “the Vice President did not and will never ask for a withdrawal of a kobo .from NEDC or anywhere in Nigeria, the allegations are nothing but mischief paddling and falsehood. After a thorough investigations by our group,from.our findings It seems the petitioners doesn’t know what they are talking about or they don’t know that the commission was created by law and there are laws guiding their operations including procurement laws , withdrawal of funds for projects which from our findings Alkali followed it strictly”.
All the allegations are fiction ,malicious and imaginations of the petitions to achieve their selfish aim of blackmailing the commission through cheap publicity”
He said “The writers were ignorant on how government agencies operates , they don’t know that all government agencies ministries and department have edicts that guide their establishment, including the mandate giving to them and clear guidelines on how they operate and they don’t know rules and regulations guiding their activities, and operations, they have the appropriate place to report all their activities, not to the unidentified agencies, but If they can walk on to the commission and seek to know the information about the project they will know the position of everything once they agree to listen to them” .
“Let the petitioners allow NEDC to develop the region. It is unfortunate some people want to bring the commission down with false claims and false accusations and these people are not from the region even from their names”.
Abdullahi said “Pastor Dr Sani Abdullahi and Reverend Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa are well known for blackmailing respected Nigerians when ever they look for something they didn’t get they result to cheap blackmail , Its on record that in 2015 they did same allegations to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and some state governments, we want Nigerians to know them.as habitual blackmailers, unpatriotic citizens who are bent on promoting hatred, fracas and disunity among the citizenry”.
He advised the security agencies to be aware of them as trouble makers who want to forment trouble and cause disharmony and disunity in the country.
” we are appealing to the Inspector General of Police to arrest the two trouble makers and their cohorts who are agent of blackmail and trouble makers and bring them to justice. END
