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| Usani Uguru |
The presidency has decided to keep mum on a minister who was indicted for fraud when he held office in a different capacity.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani, was indicted for
financial impropriety for his role when he held office during the
military era.
A government white paper indicted Mr. Usani’s after he was found guilty of fraud in
2000 by a panel established by the Cross River State Government.
Mr. Usani, who had just finished serving as the Cross River State
Commissioner for Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development,
appeared in 1999 before a government committee set up to investigate
financial impropriety among officials of the preceding military
administration in the state.
The committee, officially known as Financial Impropriety/Verification
Standing Committee, was inaugurated in 1999 by the then governor,
Donald Duke.
It was chaired by Orok Oyo, and had Andy Ikpeme, Ekpe Ita, Otu Oka and Akomaye Adie as members.
According to the document, Mr. Usani, because of his alleged intent
to defraud the government, was said to have refused to apply government
approved scales, when he paid out some money as fees to Gersh Henshaw
& Company, a firm of estate surveyors and valuers, which handled the
contract for the valuation of vehicles, workshops and equipment
belonging to the Cross River State Water Board.
The valuation was said to be part of the African Development Bank water project in the state.
Gersh Henshaw & Company was paid a lump sum in dollars, the document said.
The committee said the state government lost N16.323 million because of Mr. Usani’s “deliberate” action.
Mr. Duke’s administration, apart from accepting the committee’s
report, directed that the N16,323,150 be recovered from Mr. Usani, and
that he should be prosecuted.
The government, according to the document, accepted to forward
particulars of the transaction to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, with a
complaint of financial impropriety and abuse of office against Mr.
Usani.
It also accepted to blacklist Gersh Henshaw & Company from getting further patronage from the government.
It has not been verified as at the time of publishing this
report, if the state government recovered the money from Mr. Usani, and
if it also handed over the case to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Mr. Oyo, the chairman of the committee which indicted Mr. Usani, said
the minister never went to court to challenge the indictment.
Cross River keeps mum
Like most other white papers by various tiers of government, which
some analysts have blamed for the impunity among public officials on
corruption matters, Mr. Usani’s indictment appears not to have been
followed through by the Cross River government.
The current Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Cross
River, Joe Abang, declined to be interviewed by this newspaper when he
was contacted on phone.
His counterpart in the Ministry of Information, Rosemary Archibong, said that, “You can talk about government white paper if
you have it. I am not in the position to comment on the criminal aspect
of it, because it is only the court that can decide on that”.
None of them would comment on whether the state planned to take any further action on the indictment.
Mr. Usani, who served as commissioner from 1997 to 1999 under the
military administration of Colonel Umar Ahmed, did not pick calls nor
respond to text messages sent to his telephone line.
The 55-year-old politician, who is also a pastor, was Chairman of the
All Progressives Congress in Cross River before he was appointed
minister in 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Before then, he contested for governorship in the state in 2003 under
the National Democrats (ND) and again in 2012 under the Action Congress
of Nigeria, ACN.
It is unclear how Mr. Usani was able to scale through the usual
thorough background and security checks when he was slated for a
ministerial appointment.
Presidency keeps mum
For an administration whose major mantra has been the war on
corruption, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has kept mum on the
minister’s indictment.
Should the presidency decide to shield Mr. Usani, he may not be the first to enjoy such privilege by the administration.
The administration has received a lot of criticisms from Nigerians
for its treatment of corruption allegations levelled against the current
Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, and the Minister of Interior,
Abdulrahman Dambazau.
Mr. Usani’s case is, however, unique as his indictment has been made official by a government gazette
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