The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency, Engineer Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, has a lot of explanation to make to his superiors, anti-graft agencies and the general public as to how 37 bank accounts are linked to his BVN, reports thegazellenews.com.
Documents in possession of thegazellenews.com have revealed that Ahmad’s BVN 22266427052 is linked to 37 bank accounts opened either in his name, that of a supposed relative, companies or an amorphous non-govermental organisation.
Investigation conducted by thegazellenews.com revealed the startling discovery and for now the REA MD/CEO has offered no tangible explanation for this discovery.
This medium discovered that two of such accounts are opened in Standard Chartered Bank with the name, Needle Technology, and five in GTBank in the same name.
Using a smart rearrangement and variations of his name: Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, to beat investigation, the REA boss opened six accounts with GT Bank, four with First Bank, one with UBA and three with Fidelity Bank.
Thegazellenews.com also discovered that another account linked to his BVN was opened with IBTC with the account name, Salihijo Ahmad Foundation.
Others in his name are: one in Jaiz Bank, two at Access Bank, four at First Bank and two at Eco Bank
Further investigation showed that: two GTBANK accounts of a non-governmental organisation, Flexisaf Foundation, two in Jaiz Bank with name, Flexisaf Edusoft Ltd, another, Velocity Group Ltd in Keystone Bank, one En Consulting And Projects Ltd in First Bank are all linked to the BVN of Ahmad.
The others are: two under the name, Bilikisu Ahmad Salihijo are domiciled in Zenith Bank and Jaiz Bank with all the aforementioned accounts criminally opened with varying dates of birth of the operator.
The surreptitious undertaking, insiders said the accounts have come in handy when the owner desired to conceal his shares of proceeds accruing from monkey businesses, he has hands in, in the agency created in 2006 as part of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.
Lately, the REA boss have had series allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds hanging on his neck.
Last year, a Civil Society Organisation, Stop Corruption in Nigeria Foundation called Engr. Ahmad and the REA’s Executive Director, Technical Service, Engr. Barka Sajor Joda out.
This was done by a petition against them to Minister for Power, Abubakar Aliyu in which the CSO accused the duo of N2 billion misapplication.
In it, Ahmad and Joda were alleged to have awarded supervision contracts to the tune of N2 billion to 37 companies, most of which have no background in engineering to oversee jobs contracted out to engineering firms.
The report added that both sidestepped due process and bypassed over 150 engineers in REA’s employ to award the supervision to their ill-qualified cronies with each receiving N49 million.
By that account, many of the beneficiaries of the imprudence eventually engaged the services of some REA engineers with peanuts to do the jobs on their behalves.
The petitioner’s application dated March 10, 2022 and entitled, Corruption Alert in Rural Electrification Agency (REA) Again, reads in part, “We have it on good authority that some unwholesome activities have been going on unabated at REA since February 2021 till date. Hon. Minister Sir, it would interest you to learn that the Managing Director and Executive Director Technical Service have turned your agency into personal business ventures where they now award what they tag ‘Consultancy Service” almost on a weekly basis!. ‘Consultancy Services’ contracts were awarded by the duo without due process. A breakdown of details of the consultancy services used to siphon funds from the coffer of REA is attached as Annexure.
“We discovered that the Agency has expended at least Forty Nine Million Naira (N49 million) on each ‘Consultancy Service’ contract and close to total of Two Billion Naira (N2bn) in above regard in the last one year. The funds expended in this regard do not constitute line budget of the ministry, instead, same is diverted from the funds meant for Monitoring and sundry projects and consequently shrinking the budget and limiting the effectiveness of Monitoring Unit and projects mainly because some officers are hellbent on embezzling the funds of REA. These are verifiable facts and we urge you and the relevant bodies, authorities and agencies to investigate every shred of our petition.”
In a similar fashion to that of his MD with whom Sajor is accused of wheeling and dealing together in the agency, the latter has fourteen bank accounts to his BVN: 22169699916, seven in GTBank, six of which are in his name while one is under the name of Estate of Joseph Joda Sajou.
Three are in Standard Chartered Bank, same number in Ecobank while two are in Access Bank.Additional reports from The Eagle Online
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