Alleged NBET fraud: Berekete family seeks Osibanjo’s intervention

The alleged fraudulent practices under the Marilyn Amobi-led Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), has further attracted the attention of the human rights community.

Specifically, Berekete Human Rights Family, a reality radio programme aired on Human Rights Radio in Abuja, accused the NBET boss of high handedness, and urged the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, to intervene and probe the agency’s operations under her watch.

The programme anchor, Mr. Ahmed Issa, popularly called ‘Ordinary President,’ also accused the NBET Director-General, of witch-hunting some staff members of the company, “for daring to follow due process in the conduct of the company’s financial affairs.”

Blueprint recalls that some groups namely; Abuja Muslim Forum (AMF), Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG), and Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) among others, had in October this year, also called for the probe of transactions of NBET.

 Similarly, the groups accused NBET’s DG of witch-hunting two management staff of the company for their refusal to process claims of N37.5million, being her travel return ticket and fees to two legal firms respectively.

In a report co-signed by the National Coordinator of MMWG, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, Amir of AMF, Barrister Lukman Ahmad, and the President of MURIC, Professor Is-haq Akintola, the groups alleged that Amobi suspended salaries of the two embattled management staff, Mr. Waziri Bintube, Chief Finance Officer and Mr. Abddullahi Sambo, the NBET’s Head of Internal Audit since November, 2017.

But when the case was brought before the Berekete family for mediation by the embattled staff, the NBET DG was reported to have shunned the invitation extended to her for her own side of the story.

In a recent programme downloaded on you tube by our reporter; Issa claimed Amobi vowed that she was not “answerable to anybody, including the Vice President because he was not the one that appointed her.”

To this end, Issa, who said he would give the NBET DG another chance tomorrow, to state her own side of the story, called on Osinbajo to intervene in the brouhaha “to save the image of the Buhari administration and its anti-corruption fight.”

This medium can report that the office of the vice president has one Mrs. Tokubo, an assistant director in the Office of the Vice President, as the VP’s Liaison on the programme.

Although, effort to contact the embattled NBET chief proved abortive yesterday, Amobi, had in a recent response to our reporter’s inquiries, defended herself of any malfeasance.

Specifically, she said a committee set up by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abukakar III, who is the Chairman of the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), did not find her wanting.

She further told Blueprint that the Independent Corrupt Practice and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had equally investigated the allegation, claiming that nothing incriminating was found against her.

Besides, the NBET boss insisted that as the helmsperson, she has the right to re-organise her office for efficiency.

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