Centenary City Scam: PDP Chieftain Asks Buhari, EFCC to Probe Anyim

Protesters call for sack of Ojougboh Anyim: I’ve sued him for defamation

The National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for South- south, Dr. Cairo Ojuogboh, has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari demanding a probe of the role of the immediate former Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, in the multi-billion dollar Centenary City project.

He said he has also sent a copy of the petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further action.

In another development however, a group of protesters yesterday stormed the PDP secretariat over the continued stay of Ojougboh as the party Vice Chairman of the South-south zone.

Also responding to the issue yesterday, Anyim said he had already sued Ojuogboh to court for defamation of his character.

Ojuogboh said he had reasons to believe that the former SGF may have connived with the sponsors of the project covering over 1,500 hectares of land in the Federal Capital City, Abuja, to perpetrate fraud.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, the PDP stalwart lamented that the free trade zone status granted to the centenary city project is a colossal loss of revenue to the country.

According to the party scribe, the land whose size is equal to Maitama, Asokoro and Guzape districts put together did not meet the criteria of a free trade zone as is being ascribed.

He also accused Anyim of deceiving the Nigerian people that the centenary is a synergy between the federal government and the organised private sector.

Ojougbo he xplained that though the former President Goodluck Jonathan approved the project and did the ground breaking as part of activities of the nation’s centenary celebration, he was apparently unaware of the scheming and fraud of top officials of the federal government.

“Yes, the former president signed the papers as was presented to him by the former SGF, he was not properly briefed because of vested interests, I can defend him, he was not part of the fraud.

If Jonathan had been properly briefed he would not have approved the project let alone going to perform the ground breaking of the project.

“The former president thought that the Centenary City was for the good of all Nigerians because of the centenary spirit, unknown to him, it was the private project of the former SGF and his cohorts, I am calling on President Buhari now to revisit the centenary project and he will be shocked at the findings that the project was owned by a private individuals buts procured with government funds.

“It would be interesting to note that the land owners demanded compensation in line with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration resettlement and compensation programme from the federal government but the sponsors of the project used a private firm to pay the sum of N1.2 billion to the land owners. Where did they source that money from?

“How can an individual still serving in the government get such a huge sum to pay compensations without government knowledge, who is the owner of Mullark? All these President Buhari should direct the Department of State Security Services, the Nigeria Police, even the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) to look into the matter as well as EFCC,” Ojuogboh queried.

He described the project as a scheme used to defraud the federal government in taxes, stressing that the free zone status given to the multi-district estate was non-consistent with the extant laws of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as the rules guiding the granting of a free trade zone by the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA).

Giving details, Ojuogboh, who said that his life was in danger due to the scam, stressed that: “During my tenure at as Chairman of the Board of NEPZA, I can categorically attest to the fact emphatically and unequivocally that the board did not approve the grant of the status of free trade zone to Centenary City.

“The president must insist that each of these security agencies carryout independent investigation so that the depth of the matter would be reached. I am available to offer the much I know from my independent quests on the matter.”

The PDP stalwart said his attention was first drawn to the scam by the Anti-Corruption Network led by Senator Dino Melaye, which drew the attention of his board to the matter that the “idea of certifying the Centenary City as a free zone was to give import duty to the owners through the back door.

“The sole reason that the Centenary City project has been declared a free zone is to allow for a custom duty waiver in order toevade payment of import duties for cement, construction materials and machineries which otherwise would have generated huge sums in revenue.

“The consequence was to rob the Nigerian masses of their land, revenue and retard the industrial growth of the nation therefore for every one Job the projects creates today it robs the nation of over 10 jobs in taxes and industrial development,” he said.

Meanwhile, the anti-Ojuogboh protest which came as a backlash of the Ojuogboh-Anyim face-off saw some party members under the auspices of the New Peoples Democratic Party Reformation Coalition (NPDPRC) storm the party national secretariat in Abuja last Monday continued demanding the removal of Ojougboh as the party South-south vice chairman.

The National Coordinator of the groups, Danelsi Momoh, said they were at the secretariat to protest against the activities of Ojougboh.

Momoh called on the party national leadership to curtail the activities of Ojougboh, which according to him was aimed at hijacking the party for his personal interest.

He said if the activities of Ojougboh in the South-south was not checked, it would not only weaken the operations of PDP, but also send the party to oblivion.

He called on President Buhari to investigate politically motivated killings in the country especially in the South-south.

“While we salute President Buhari’s commitment to bring corrupt politicians to book, it is apt that all past cases of politically motivated killings are also investigated.

“The characters responsible for running the armed gangs that carried out the killings must be brought to book,” he added.

The group, according to Momoh also called on Ojougboh to step aside from his position until he is fully investigated.

Addressing the protesters, Chinwe Nnorom, the PDP Head of Publicity, commended the protesters for their peaceful conduct, but promised that their protest message would be presented to the party secretariat.

The former SGF who responded to the charge of illicit dealings, through his media aide, Sam Nwaobasi, noted that as far as he was concerned the matter was now in court, adding that Ojuogboh should spare Nigerians the trouble of peddling allegations and go to court. He also denied sponsoring any group to protest against Ojuogboh.

“The issue is already is court. Senator Anyim has gone to court to sue him for defamation on the previous press conference and interviews that he granted in which he accused him of almost all these things you said he is saying now. So the matter is already in Court and senator Anyim does not wish to join issues with him on matters that are already in court.

“The senator did not send people to go and protest against Ojougboh. There is no need for such thing. What he thinks and what he knows is very civilised. Since he feels aggrieved by what Cario has been saying and writing against him, he is pursuing a very civilised cause of going to the court to plead his case and that offers Cairo the same opportunity to defend himself.”