*Other palliatives ‘missing’
By Chuks Akunna
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is currently investigating how the Mandate Secretary in charge of Area Council services of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Bitrus Lawrence Garki, allegedly directed the council’s accountant to divert N70 million meant for palliatives into his personal account.
The Commission is also investigating how Garki allegedly distributed 44,656 bags of assorted grains the Federal Government released to the FCTA in July, to ameliorate the economic hardship facing residents.
The Authority gathered from ICPC sources that, aside the “diverted” N70 million, most of the grains released to the FCTA, of which Garki was in charge, allegedly ended up in grains’ markets around Abuja.
Whilst inaugurating Garki and his colleague-mandate secretaries last September, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike charged them to live above board in the discharge of their duties, tasking that “transparency, efficiency, and accountability must become the cornerstones of our administration.”
Charged Wike, “As mandate secretaries, your role in this journey of transformation is pivotal. You are not only advisors but also leaders and implementers of our policies. You must translate our vision into tangible actions that will shape the future of the FCT.
“Our President has entrusted us with the monumental task of rebuilding and developing the FCT into a world-class city.o T achieve this, we must address several key areas that are essential for the progress of our city and the well-being of our residents,” tasked the minister.
ICPC investigators told The Authority that Garki had in June penned a memo to the FCT minister requesting N125 million for his Secretariat’s committee on palliatives’ distribution, but that Wike approved N70 million.
“No sooner had the N70 million been released than Garki (Mandate Secretary) directed the accounts officer, one Ms. Victoria Bande, to transfer the whole money into his personal account. In fact, when she refused to, as revealed in their WhatsApp chat, the mandate secretary threatened to deal with her,” offered one operative.
“From our findings, this is not the first case of fraudulent transactions in his Secretariat. Aside the over 20,000 bags of palliative grains the Mandate Secretary couldn’t account for, it was also discovered that he has been tampering with the secretariat’s overhead. He would knife the overhead, converting the rest to other uses.
“There was this case where he tried to force the accounts people to release N15 million to enable him go represent Minister Wike in Kano. He would request millions of Naira to enable him pay for VIP protection from security agencies, including hordes of aides and protocol officers. They eventually had to coerce contractors to raise the N15 million,” the operative disclosed.
The Authority checks revealed that Bitrus Garki is the protege of a very powerful political figure in the Presidency, and that this figure is mounting pressure on the ICPC to “bungle the investigation.”
Contacted, Bitrus Garki confirned to The Authority that the accountant indeed paid N70 million into his personal account, but said he don’t know his it happened.
“Yes, N70 million was paid into my account. When I saw the alert, I quickly called the accountant. She said she didn’t know what happened,. That it must have been a mistake on her part. Anyway, I’ve paid back the money, and I told the ICPC so. It must have been a set-up by my political detractors,” he claimed.
The Authority, however, gathered that no such N70 million was paid into the secretariat’s account. Several attempts to get the Auditor, Mrs Zainab Suleiman-Ali comment on the matter weren’t successful. She failed to respond to inquiries on how N70 million could so easily be transferred into a personal account without the knowledge of her department.
