When TheNEWS (18 April 2005) published a cover story, entitled, “Änti-Corruption War: N85 billion Scam At The Ports. Bode George’s Board Indicted”, the retired navy commodore went to town, claiming that it was concocted. George, who was then deputy national chairman, South, Peoples Democratic Party, and former Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, board chairman, even accused us of being sponsored by former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
At a press conference, Chief George told the world that the board was never in a position to authorise expenditure independent of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Executive Council. He added that the board only met quarterly and had no powers to award huge contracts independently. He argued: “I was part-time chairman, how could I, or my board have incurred so much billions of naira, except in the wildest imaginations and machinations of these detractors and political turncoats?” Yet, minutes of a board meeting chaired by George which EFCC got hold of showed that he, infact, presided over the award of contracts. The voluble politician continued to grandstand, even claiming that he blew the whistle on corruption at NPA and so could not possibly be involved in it!
The former NPA board chairman went ahead to slam a N500 million libel suit against us.
However, we have been proved right on every front. We wrote the story initially, based on the Engineer Mustapha Bukar panel report set up just because an earlier one submitted by Abiye Sekibo, one time Minister of Transport, fell short of mentioning names of culprits.
To further get at more facts, the federal authorities asked another committee, headed by Nuhu Ribadu, the immediate past chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to “conduct an indepth investigation on all contracts awarded by NPA from 2001 to 2003”. Ribadu literally stumbled on a drum of worms at NPA and the report formed the basis of EFCC’s charges against George. In this week’s cover story, we chronicle how the whole drama began, details of fraud committed by the George-led NPA and how, since 2005 when we published our story, the old sailor has evaded justice. The story, written by General Editor, ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, is a must-read.
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Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, granted TheNEWS an exclusive interview, explaining why corruption thrives in Nigeria and how it can be curbed. It is indeed a thought-provoking interview.
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