NIMASA, Jamoh and $9.5million Fraud Allegation: Awaiting the EFCC Report

Dr. Jamoh had considered the allegation against him too weighty and too damaging to be ignored. He therefore requested the EFCC in a letter he wrote to the agency on 24th May, 2021, to conduct a thorough and painstaking investigation into the fraud allegation. This is because, according to him, the fraud allegation had put his integrity and family name at stake. He also considered the allegation “insidious and perniciously damaging on the government and the country”.

He urged the anti-graft agency on the letter that was made public, to conduct a thorough investigation “with a view to unraveling the truth or the accuracy of the allegation” and to put the record straight in the public domain.

Jamoh also requested the EFCC to investigate the reports which had also demanded that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) be called to account how the huge sum of money was allowed into his private account in contravention of Treasury Single Account (TSA). The last paragraph of the letter emphasized:

“In view of this weighty allegation and the insidious and pernicious damaging effect on the government and the country, I hereby request that a thorough and painstaking investigation be carried out by your commission with a view to unraveling the truth or accuracy of the allegation. This is to put the record straight in the public domain.”

One is really perplexed that Dr. Bashir Jamoh’s letter to the anti-graft agency seemed not to have received any attention one year after. It is not even known if the agency acknowledged the letter from the NIMASA DG. This raises the questions? Did EFCC receive or not receive Jamoh’s letter? If it received the letter, why has there been no response, and why has the agency refused to investigate the allegation? What is actually staying the hand of the EFCC from investigating Jamoh?

It can be recalled that in May last year an organization that claimed to be an international investigating agency, Global Investigations United Kingdom, had reported that a whopping $9.5million had been traced to the account of the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. BashirJamoh.

This news story made rounds in the media, especially the social media, until another story broke that the person involved in the alleged fraud was not the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, but an Abuja based namesake, a retiree of NNPC, Hamza Ibrahim Jamo.

In a statement released to the media, Ibrahim Jamo had said that certain individuals had sought to blackmail his person whom they assumed was Dr. Bashir Jamoh.

According to Hamza Ibrahim Jamo, the two names are not the same person and should not be seen as one person. He said that the person in question bearing Dr. Bashir Yusuf Jamoh, according to reports was being investigated on financial issues.

Mr. Ibrahim Jamo, a retiree of the NNPC, said he is presently engaged with a training firm, Talent Expertise International (TEI) in Dubai as their representative in Nigeria, stating categorically that he has no connection with Dr. Bashir Jamoh and he is not related to him.

Another statement from TEI claimed that the company had no business relations with NIMASA nor had executed any project for it or received any money from the agency. It is his company the reports had alleged was set up by Dr. Bashir Jamoh to siphon money from NIMASA.

According to Pointblanknews.com that first published the allegation, and claimed to have copies of a four-page document titled, “Due Diligent Report on Bashiru Yusuf Jamoh, the Director-General NIMASA,” the report exposed a lodgment of $9,557,312.50 into Access Bank account 0710814478 belonging to Jamoh.

The publication alleged that investigation also exposed other infractions by the NIMASA boss which also included award of contracts to companies which he has interest in.

“The investigation, according to the report focused on fraud, money laundering and breach of the Nigeria Code of Conduct Act. This same investigation, it stated, spans across all the agencies under the Ministry of Transport, having started with the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.”

The news medium said, “GLOBAL INVESTIGATORS UNITED KINGDOM, the investigation agency that signed the report, investigated the bank transactions of Alhaji Jamoh, focusing on inflows/Credit and Debits on his bank statements.

It found the transaction’s records of the said BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH showing the payment of $9,557,312.50 (Nine million, five hundred and fifty-seven thousand, three hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents) into his personal accounts from Central Bank of Nigeria in violation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA.

“Most baffling is that CBN transferred millions of dollars into the personal account of the said BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH.

“Records show the withdrawal of $5,425,200.00 (Five million, Four hundred and twenty-five thousand and two hundred dollars only) by CASH WITHDRAWAL from ACCESS Bank, Burma Road, Apapa, Lagos.

“BASHIR YUSUF JAMOH set up a company TALENT EXPERTISE INTL. LIMITED with RN: 1488830 to solicit for jobs from NIMASA. Being the executive director of a company and awarding contract to personal company in violation of the Code of Conduct Act, section 3 part of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and code of conduct for public officers involved in procurement, Part X1, section 57, Sub-section (2) of the Procurement Act, 2007.” Pointblanknews.com also made other allegations of payments and withdrawals from the account.

The reports reverberated across the length and breadth of the country, generating a statement from the PDP, the main opposition party to the ruling party which called for the resignation or suspension of Dr. Jamoh. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decried what it described as another sad episode in the unending tale of stinking rot in the Buhari-led APC administration.

The then spokesman of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in the statement said it was despicable that an administration that promised zero tolerance for corruption is watching as ministers, presidential aides, heads of parastatals and APC leaders are pillaging the coffers of ministries, departments and agencies and stealing trillions of naira.

“It is saddening that under President Buhari, ministries and agencies of government, including FIRS, NNPC, NEMA, NPA, NIMASA, NHIS, among others, are now Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) from which avaricious officials and APC leaders have stolen over N17 trillion in the last six years, while our nation wallows in poverty, economic hardship and infrastructural decay,” the statement said.

It added, “Now that the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Jamoh, had yielded to the demands of investigation by the EFCC, our party holds that he should immediately step aside so that the anti-graft agency will have unhindered access to vital documents on the matter.”

The party charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) not to “succumb to blackmails but commence a rounded investigation, including the reported movement of public funds from the Single Treasury Account to private individuals,” demanding that the NIMASA DG stepped aside “so that the anti-graft agency will have unhindered access to vital documents on the matter”.

EFCC’s silence over the fraud allegation and the letter by Jamoh requesting for a probe leaves the anti-graft agency in bad light. What could be responsible for the EFCC not acting one year after? Conversely, why has Jamoh and NIMASA kept quiet since then? Why did they not follow up the letter?

The deafening silence by both the commission and NIMASA can be blamed for the resurgence of the allegation on social media. Currently, the allegation is trending again, and producing the same ripple effects as it did one year ago.

Unfortunately, both on the side of EFCC and NIMASA, what one hears is deafening silence. It must be said that this silence is not healthy for Jamoh, NIMASA or the administration of Muhammadu Buhari. That the allegation has resurfaced one year after shows that Nigerians are getting smarter and can no longer be taken for granted. Though the allegations might look flimsy, it is becoming a weapon in the hands of the opposition to impugn the anti corruption credentials of the government, especially in this current electioneering dispensation.

NIMASA’s statement last year to the effect that the whole matter was a case of mistaken identity no longer holds water for some people. A clear position of the issue must be established by both the NIMASA DG and the EFCC. The era of sweeping allegations under the carpet or keeping mute for the heat to cool off and forgotten is apparently over. Nigerians want to, and deserve to know, the truth. And truth is expected from the investigation report by the EFCC, if they have actually investigated the allegations.