Why the cabal is after Dikko

However, Alhaji Yusuf Yarsanta Funtua, a public commentator, replied Dangiwa in an interview with Daily Trust, where he accused him of selective reading of  the Dikko affair. The Comptroller General, he had argued,  was  chosen on merit and not based on seniority and,  in military and paramilitary circles, competence  is more paramount in making such […]

However, Alhaji Yusuf Yarsanta Funtua, a public commentator, replied Dangiwa in an interview with Daily Trust, where he accused him of selective reading of  the Dikko affair. The Comptroller General, he had argued,  was  chosen on merit and not based on seniority and,  in military and paramilitary circles, competence  is more paramount in making such appointments. In particular, appointments of Comptroller-Generals are often made from outside the service. In any case, Dangiwa lacks the moral standing, Yarsanta had argued, to criticize Dikko’s appointment because as a Major in the Nigerian Army, he was made a military governor over his superior officers. Similarly, at various times, Alhaji Abubakar Musa, the first civilian governor of Kebbi State, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed, the present deputy national chairman of PDP and Brigadier Samuel Ango, all of them from Dangiwa’s Kebbi state of origin, had headed the Customs Service. At that time, the social critic neither cried foul nor complained about federal character, Yarsanta pointed out.

Significantly, with that response, the floodgate of criticisms abated for a while but in recent times, the critics have devised a more damaging strategy, bordering on character assassination. To this end, they have dredged up one Ibrahim Oyewole Olajide and the new point man is smearing mud on Dikko’s reputation. Deposing to an affidavit, Olajide claimed that  he helped the Comptroller General to get a fake secondary school certificate from Government College, Kaduna, faked a National Institute of Management(NIM) certificate for Dikko and arranged for someone to write an ANAN examination for  the customs boss. Significantly, Olajide has briefed Festus Keyamo, a media savvy human rights lawyer and before long, the media was awash with the alleged crime. Dikko, in the court of media opinion, has been  tried and prosecuted by hack writers, hired pens and lopsided reportage.

   By his own account, Olajide knew Dikko in 1995, while undergoing his National  Youth Service Corps at NIM, located at 32, Idowu Taylor street, Victoria Island Lagos. Dikko, then a superintendent of customs, was living in the same neighborhood and somehow, the two men hit it off. Their friendship blossomed and Dikko, according to Olajide, asked him to sneak out blank NIM certificates on finance and accounts for the customs officer  in order to enhance his promotion. At that time, Olajide was in the  officer in charge of training at NIM and he obliged his friend’s request. Thereafter, the institute discovered the certificate theft and denied Olajide, according to his affidavit, a permanent employment at NIM.

Olajide’s tale by moonlight is difficult to believe. First and foremost, a sensitive programme like training, with due apologies to his intellect, is beyond the scope of a corps member, more so a HND holder who studied marketing. A credible institute like NIM should have a surfeit of more qualified personnel for training. Secondly, pilfering is a criminal offence and  if NIM’s certificates had gone missing and the institute found the culprit, the logical thing to do was to hand the alleged criminal to the police and not to merely  deny him permanent appointment. The police, through interrogations, would have fished out Olajide’s accomplices and Dikko would have been arrested and possibly tried in court. Nothing of such happened so Olajide’s claim flies in the face of simple logic.

  Similarly,  in 1999, the accuser alleged that he  helped the CG to get a fake GCE result, “bearing the name of Government College, Kaduna and with the date of issuance as 1980.“ Like the NIM tale, this story is straight from Olajide’s fertile imagination. Pray, if Dikko had a defective GCE, how did he get into University of Dimitrov Apostle Tshenov, Bulgaria to study Economics? How did he join the customs with a defective certificate? Was he discovered? When? If not, why did he need to correct the defect?

As for the allegation that Dikko hired someone, on the advice of  an ANAN exam officer, to ghost write the exam for him, I can see the association or the indicted officials going to court, especially to clear their names as Dikko is trying to do owing to a suit filed by Olajide himself.

  Significantly, Dikko met Olajide, then an unemployed graduate, in Lagos  when the former was a superintendent of customs. Desperately looking for a job, Dikko promised to assist the applicant but not long afterwards, he was transferred to Kaduna. Dikko, like a good Samaritan, took Olajide along and when a job proved elusive, he asked the young man to manage his wife’s supermarket. In no time, Olajide was sent packing  over an alleged fraud and the young man, once again, went back to the labour market. Personally and through friends, colleagues and other contacts, Olajide pleaded with Dikko and the customs officer, in spite of initial resistance, not only forgave him but gave Olajide N30,000 as seed money to start business. However, the business venture failed but in 2004, when Dikko was made comptroller, Olajide resurfaced.

Two years later, a lawyer called Dikko, complaining that his client has a case against him. That client happened to be Olajide and his main grouse was that he had work for the customs boss without being paid. Curiously, instead of  going to court, the lawyer advised that the matter be settled out of court but Dikko refused. Rather, he briefed his own counsel, Barrister Chucks Nwanna who took up the matter. Olajide, at this point, apologized to Dikko in writing and the customs officer accepted the apology. Later, when the dust of that allegation had settled down, Olajide again approached Dikko for financial assistance in order to start a business. Yet again, the CG obliged him and gave Olajide N400,000 but  the sum was duly receipted. However, like an  unrepentant blackmailer, Olajide went to court again, seeking N100 million as damages from Dikko for allegedly threatening his life. Olajide, according to reports, was at the same time threatening the customs boss and demanding for money. Unmoved, Dikko refused to be intimidated and Olajide devised another strategy by sending another writ of summons to him, accusing him of certificate forgery. Meanwhile, the same Olajide had been pestering Nwanna, according to reports, to settle out of court but Dikko is determined to pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.

Mohammed wrote this piece from Kaduna.