| Tension in EFCC over
Tunde Ogunsakin’s removal
By Murphy Ganagana
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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•Waziri
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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An interesting drama is unfolding at the EFCC as mind-bogging
details are emerging on how a clash of interest at the top
echelon of the anti-graft agency created deep gullies of bad
blood which eventually consumed the Mr Ogunsakin.
Ogunsakin, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), was removed
last week Tuesday and redeployed to the Force Headquarters
following allegations that he contracted a student to sit
for an examination on his behalf at the Law faculty of the
University of Abuja, where he is currently undergoing a programme.
Reports had further alleged that Ogunsakin paid the student
a hefty sum of N500,000 to write the examination for him in
proxy, just as he was said to be enjoying the support of a
Deputy Dean of Faculty, whom he bought an expensive Toyota
car to curry his favour when necessary.
Interestingly, when the scandal blew open, the EFCC moved
swiftly to investigate the incident even when the authorities
of the University of Abuja were yet to commence inquiry on
the matter.
During its investigation, the EFCC operatives reportedly attempted
to take possession of Ogunsakin’s unmarked script for
the Equity course, an examination he wrote on April 29, 2009,
three weeks after the scandal broke.
The operatives also took the bank account of the student,
who allegedly wrote the examination for the erstwhile EFCC
boss.
However, the confessional statement of Bright Edobor, the
500-level Law student at the centre of the alleged examination
scam, has introduced a new twist into the saga, claiming that
he had been under pressure by some EFCC officials with a promise
of a soft-landing and other juicy offers if only he could
testify to implicate Ogunsakin.
Similarly, Kwara State-born Yinka Afolayan, a 400-level student
of the Department of Public and International Law, who admitted
being a close friend to Ogunsakin, said he takes full responsibility
for the incident, which he said, resulted in his bid to assist
a friend without his consent.
Edobor said he is therefore at a loss as to why some top officials
of the EFCC want him to nail Ogunsakin, with a promise of
adequate security protection as well as sponsorship to a school
of his choice outside the shores of the country.
In a confessional statement dated April 30, 2009, Edobor denied
either meeting Ogunsakin or being contracted by him to sit
for an examination.
But he admitted writing a test for continuous assessment in
the name of Ogunsakin on the request of Yinka Afolayan, whom
he described as his close friend.
Part of his statement reads: “…On the 24th of
April, 2009, I was told my name and matriculation number were
on a newspaper over an allegation that I wrote an exam for
an EFCC boss, a Director of Operations. I found out that a
lot that were written were not true. I was never taken to
the Dean of Student Affairs after I was caught. I was only
taken to the school security. I never confessed that I was
involved in such an act on several occasion or ever before.
I have been receiving strange calls from private numbers,
some claiming that they were EFCC officials, and that if I
knew the extent of my act, that I should try to see them or
testify against the EFCC boss with a promise that they will
make sure I get out of this peacefully.
“They went further promising to sponsor my schooling
abroad if I am afraid that their boss (Ogunsakin) will deal
with me if I lie against him.
“Some others spoke about helping me with finances, but
I out-rightly refused to see any of them. I told some of them
that my conscience will not permit such an act of false witness…As
a result of the pressure I was getting from the people who
claimed to be EFCC official, I sensed that they were trying
to use me to blackmail him [Ogunsakin]. I wish to state categorically
that I was never offered money by Yinka to write the test,
and I have never set my eyes on the EFCC boss before this
incident.
“It is important to note that it was a test I wrote
for the said Tunde Ogunsakin and not examination though, without
his consent, and I have decided to make this fact public because
of the attitude of the EFCC officials who came to interrogate
me on April 29, 2009, as they tried to make me say that DCP
Tunde sent me, but I couldn’t do that because my conscience
could not let me”.
Evidently, Bright’s revelation suggested that all had
not been well at the top hierarchy of the EFCC since the present
leadership assumed office, and Ogunsakin may have fallen victim
of high-tech conspiracy and power-play, which eventually saw
him being eased out last week. In fact, Sunday Sun findings
revealed that that the removal of Ogunsakin was the hallmark
of a sustained game of distrust, intrigues and suspicion between
him and the Commission’s chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri.
Sources close to the Commission confided in Sunday Sun that
since her assumption of office, Waziri had barely tolerated
her Director of Operations, whom she reportedly told some
of her close aides, was not her choice, but imposed on her.
Waziri, according to sources, had nursed this feeling even
before she was cleared by the Senate to assume duties, as
she reportedly attempted to stop Ogunsakin from assuming his
office after his appointment had been announced.
It was further gathered that signs of cracks in the house
became more glaring barely three months after assumption of
duties of the present EFCC leadership, as Mrs, Waziri was
said to have summoned Ogunsakin into her office where she
accused him of leaking information to the presidency to the
effect that she was in love with money, and was therefore
prone to bribe-taking.
Thus, she reportedly moved to clip Ogunsakin’s wings,
first, by creating three parallel investigative teams comprising
her close loyalists who reported directly to her rather than
through the Director of Operations as required in the chain
of command. Besides, she also created a monitoring unit which
she directly assigned duties, especially cases in which she
allegedly had interest. Unwilling to bear the degrading treatment,
Sunday Sun gathered that Ogunsakin had once confronted her
on the issue, and she promised to reverse the situation. Sources
close to the EFCC said she never did.
In fact, the frosty relationship was said to have taken a
turn for the worse on a daily basis to the extent that operatives
were sent out on some special assignments without the knowledge
of the Director of Operations. One of such cases is the arrest
of former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Chief Olabode George, whose arrest over the NPA contract
scam was said to be made without the knowledge of DCP Ogunsakin.
Sunday Sun learnt that it took a phone call by the Attorney
General and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoaka, for Ogunshakin
to know that George had been arrested.
Besides operational differences, Sunday Sun further gathered
Ogunsakin may have fallen out of favour with his boss following
his show of displeasure on her manner of handling some sensitive
investigations, especially those involving some ex-governors,
top politicians and some members of the National Assembly.
Again, her decision to contract the services of security consultants
some of whom engaged in blackmailing in the name of the EFCC,
was also said to be a source of ripples at the Commission.
A case in point is one Mr. Victor Nwanze, allegedly commissioned
by Mrs. Waziri to fish out top public officers and politicians
who owned posh houses and fat bank accounts abroad.
According to impeccable sources, Nwanze had, in the course
of his assignment, even approached the Minister of Information
and Culture, Professor Dora Akunyili, with a request that
she play ball, for the concealment of a property in London,
which he claimed, ownership had been linked to her. Akunyili
was said to have called his bluff, and he scampered out of
her office.
Remarkably, there seem to be more revelations pointing to
the fact that an hurricane may soon sweep across the office
of the EFCC chairman, as fingers point towards that direction
in the leakage of the examination scandal involving the erstwhile
Director of Operations to the media through Times of Nigeria,
an online news outfit. Reports indicated that the information
on the alleged examination scam was sent to the online medium
through the official email box address of the PSO to Mrs.
Waziri, Mr. Bala Sanga.
Ironically, Sunday Sun gathered that Ogunsakin had, indeed,
written a letter of resignation which he was yet to present
to President Umaru Yar'Adua, before his sudden removal. He
was also said to have repeatedly complained of the goings
on at the EFCC to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro,
who has been reportedly calming his frayed nerves.
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