FCT minister and blind eye on water board

The unenthusiastic attitude of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, towards this Administration’s stance on the fight against corruption through the armour provided by the minister to Engineer Aliyu Ahmed Nahuche, the General Manager, FCT Water Board, is worrisome. Nothing can be more baffling than the Minister’s earsplitting silence on […]

The unenthusiastic attitude of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, towards this Administration’s stance on the fight against corruption through the armour provided by the minister to Engineer Aliyu Ahmed Nahuche, the General Manager, FCT Water Board, is worrisome.

Nothing can be more baffling than the Minister’s earsplitting silence on Engineer Nahuche’s alleged financial atrocities. In June 2019 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arraigned Engr. Aliyu Ahmed Nahuche, before an FCT High Court over an alleged N275 million fraud punishable under Section 12 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences

Act 2000.

Considering the gravity of the alleged offence, especially under the present administration, it beats all imaginations, how a supervising minister presiding over a ministry under President Muhammad Buhari, can explain why a chief executive fingered in an alleged corrupt practice, should continue to remain in office.

Presently, the monthly generated revenue of the Water Board has not only fallen, but crashed from the N250 million generated in May 2017 before he took over, down to N67 million in September 2019. If not urgently checked, this all-important agency will undoubtedly run aground. Equally damning, or even more damning, is the level of mutilation done to the revenue generating processes of the Board under his watch.

Thanks to the EFCC, which out of concern for the nation’s interest, waded into the embarrassing situation and patriotically saved the face of the Buhari administration by arresting Nahuche at the weekend.

After turning a blind eye to the heart-breaking duplicitous financial recklessness of Nahuche for over a year and the minister’s apparent lackadaisical attitude towards implementing the corruption fight mantra of the government of the day, the administrative Board under the able leadership of Engineer Abdul Kasim Ali took the bold step by recommending the immediate suspension of the General Manager from office.

Instead of implementing the board’s recommendations, the Minister was said to have minuted the file to the Legal Department for advice, an affirmative advice he could not implement until the Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC saved the face of Mr. President.

 

Raphael Imade, Nat. Gen. Sec., Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees (AUPCTRE)