FOR BETTER TRADE DEALS...
authority or responsibility over ‘public funds’ since its name indicated ‘public property’, or power to issue instructions or directives to the Accountant General of the Federation. This resulted from a letter from the Panel directing the Accountant General of the Federation to:
"Furnish it with details of a purported withdrawal without proper authorisation from the Treasury Single Account of the sum of Ten Billion Naira (N10,000,000,000.00) belonging to the National Health Insurance Scheme; and for the Accountant General of the Federation to complete and return, within 30 days, Declaration of Assets Form to the Chairman of the Panel.
"Petition dated 1 March 2018 from Alhaji Tijani Musa Tumsah, Vice President of both the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative and Victim Support Fund to the HAGF alleging harassment and malicious prosecution by the Panel, which he attributed to his refusal to influence contracts in favour of its Chairman and refusal to donate towards the public presentation of his book titled 'All progressives Congress, the Making of a Change Agent' because of factual inaccuracies," the release said among several others.
The release also stated that Unity Bank Plc submitted a petition detailing the panel's alleged order for reconciliation exercise following a request on September 7, 2018 by the panel requesting for hard and soft copies of statements of accounts of both naira and domiciliary accounts of 16 departments and agencies of the federal government with the allegations that there were arbitrary/excess bank charges on their accounts.
It listed the departments and agencies as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and National Examinations Council (NECO).
Others were Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
It added: "The bank alleged that none of the above listed agencies were aware of the investigation and although the reconciliation was ongoing with the NNPC, NPA and NCS, the Panel has issued demand notices and demonstrated unwillingness to admit further evidence."
Furthermore, the presidency said Obono-Obla, in a letter dated March 19, 2019, directed the bank to refund the sum of $15,561,769.99) and N1,488,255.55 to the federal government through the panel's recovery account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It also said another petition by one Adejo-Ogiri D. Owoicho, solicitor to Alhaji Adamu Teku, on June 13, 2019, reported how his client’s house at Gwarimpa, Abuja, was marked for seizure and reallocation by the panel, "for failure to give a bribe of Twenty Million Naira (N20,000,000.00) to a certain Professor Kester."
According to the release, the bribe was meant "to facilitate the interception of an investigation report to the panel and prevent a letter of complaint/invitation from being issued as a result. He had claimed that the money would be shared on a 50/50 basis with Mr. Obla."
It also said in an email correspondence on June 18, 2019, the Solicitor General of the Federation submitted some documents revealing how Obono-Obla engaged the services of Omojay Limited as auctioneers, using the Federal Ministry of Justice as a cover.
It added that Omojay Limited was instructed by the panel to auction several houses, landed properties and automobiles, highlighting various categories in which the assets were meant to be sold.
It respectively highlighted the total value of the properties to be sold at N2.364 billion, N885million, N583 million, N382 million, N294 million and N235 million adding that the value of two categories of automobiles to be auctioned were valued at N172.4 million and N308.05 million respectively.
The presidency said the alleged criminal acts were perpetrated by Obono-Obla's panel in addition to some individuals that were beaten to stupor and hospitalised.