In the first Nollywood play pertaining to
crime titled ‘Rattle snake’, it was one of the characters named Peter that
referred the protagonist, Ahanna who happened to be his bosom friend to as
‘snake’ when the latter indulged himself in a certain criminal act.
The sobriquet was informed by a weird
behaviour displayed by Ahanna in order not to be apprehended. The play, which
was reportedly based on true life story, is reckoned to be a product of one of
the best scripts ever written in the Nigeria’s movie industry.
This
arguably implies that in some occasions, a human being could act not unlike a
living snake. I can’t concur less with the assertion that emanated from the
movie because I’ve personally come to realize that in our respective individual
endeavours, we sometimes prefer to conceal our real features; an attitude which
is similar to that of a snake.
As I dispassionately write on the above
subject matter that mentions snake, I can’t help but deeply recall the
aforementioned play that was produced over twenty decades ago. In the second
week of February 2018, precisely on the 10th, the news went viral
that some proceeds amounting to about N36 million were allegedly swallowed by a
‘snake’ in the office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)
situated in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
It would be recalled that in the past,
applicants had to purchase scratch cards from JAMB state offices and other
designated centres across Nigeria, to enable them gain access to the Board’s
website for either registration or to check their admission status. But the
reforms newly introduced by the current JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede put
an outright end to the use of scratch cards.
Hence, a team of auditors was recently
dispatched to different state offices of the JAMB to take inventory of the sold
and unsold scratch cards as well as recover whatever money that might have
either been generated or squandered during the period of the sale of scratch
cards. Intriguingly, on their visit to the Makurdi office, the sales clerk Mrs.
Philomina Chieshe disclosed that she could not account for the aforesaid
amount, which she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards
in 2016.
The clerk claimed that her housemaid connived
with another JAMB officer called Mrs. Joan Asen to ‘spiritually’ steal the
proceeds from the vault in the accounts office. According to her, Mrs. Asen and
her accomplices had confessed that they had been stealing from the proceeds
through a mysterious snake that usually sneaked into the vault to swallow the
money.
The bilious and actionable confession
angered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) just as it did to
other well-meaning Nigerians, hence the agency swiftly swing into action.
Just penultimate week – on Tuesday 6th
March 2018, which marked three weeks after the incident, the same Mrs. Chiesha
upon the EFCC’s interrogations, eventually made a u-turn, revealing that the
missing money was collected piecemeal by her coordinator Mr. Samuel Umoru.
She further tendered painstaking
statistics, with dates, on how the withdrawals were made by her in line with
the directives of the superior staff. The EFCC had reportedly verified the
alleged withdrawals and afterwards arrested Mr. Umoru. At this point, it’s
needless to state that every concerned Nigeria cannot wait to see how this
intriguing melodrama would end, especially as it is under the control of the
revered EFCC.
Whether the proceeds were mysteriously swallowed
by a snake or embezzled by a human being, the fact remains that some snakes
made away with the money. And in this case, Mrs. Chiesha ought to be regarded
as a first-class ‘snake’. Of course, for her to have initially cooked up the story
of a mysterious creature – be it in a sober mood or under the influence of
anything whatsoever – makes her the most culpable individual in the ongoing
melodrama.
This
indicted theatre involving the JAMB does not deserve any pity in any way if the
needful must be done. A holistic scrutiny needs to be conducted towards
ascertaining why in the first place a ‘feat’ allegedly recorded by a human was
credited to an animal. The opaque scenario must be unravelled headlong by the
anti-graft agency or anybody involved. I still strongly believe that there’s
more to the story than we can presently see.
It’s
now conspicuous that corruption is seriously fighting back as was earlier
alleged by the present government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. If not,
how on earth could a public servant in his/her right senses anywhere in Nigeria
think of squandering a whooping sum of N36m or thereabouts and when
interrogated, would summon the courage to get the whole story twisted in spite
of the ongoing war against graft?
It’s
noteworthy that barely a few days after the Benue saga, yet another N26m was
discovered missing in the JAMB office situated in Nasarawa State. It was
gathered that the former Coordinator of the jurisdiction was responsible for the
alleged embezzlement. The indicted officer whose name was simply given as
Tanko, having confessed to the crime, claimed that the unsold scratch cards in
his custody were burnt when he was involved in an auto crash.
All these, which reportedly transpired
prior to the emergence of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy, are strong
indications that the said financial measure fully implemented by the President
Buhari’s administration in the country’s public service is a welcome
development thus ought to be sustained at all cost.
As Prof. Oloyede’s audit team uncovers
these mysterious snakes that had long been hidden in various JAMB offices,
there’s a compelling need for each of them to be tactically caught with a
red-hot cage by the EFCC with a view to extracting their venoms without much
ado. Think about it!
Comrade Fred Nwaozor
Executive Director, Docfred Resource Hub (DRH) - Owerri
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Twitter: @mediambassador
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