The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has received a petition to probe the Controller-General of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), and his Deputy Controller-General in-charge of Administration, Mr Jaji Abdulganiyu and Agunloye Tesleem Oluokun respectively over their alleged involvement in N70million job racketeering at the Service.
The duo were alleged in the petition by an anti-corruption group, the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum (ACIF), to have employed one Alhassan Siaka Kabiru an Orderly to the DCG as a frontier in the job scam.
According to the petition signed by the Secretary of the Forum, Kelly Adediran and acknowledged by the commission, the said Kabiru obtained N70 million from 67 unsuspecting job seekers between May 6 and September 8, 2022 on behalf of the CG and DCG with the promise to get them jobs with the Service.
The petitioner claimed that appointment letters into various offices and ranks within the Service were also issued through the DCG’s Orderly, Kabiru and duly signed by the CG Jaji, who was at the time, the DCG Admin and as such, responsible for issuance of employment letters.
The petition partly read: “We have recently uncovered that the Federal Fire Service under the leadership of Jaji O. Abdulganiyu as the Controller-General has become a conduit pipe for high level corruption, fraud and employment scam running into millions of naira.
“Various complaints received at our office show that about 67 persons were defrauded between 6th May, 2022 till 8th September, 2022 by one Alhassan Siaka Kabiru to the tune of N70 million under the false pretense that those persons would be employed into the Federal Fire Service.
At all times material to this massive fraud, the said Alhassan Siaka Kabiru served as Aide De Camp (ADC) to Agunloye Tesleem Oluokun who was then the Assistant Controller-General.
“As it happened, Alhassan Siaka Kabiru sold the idea of ‘recruitment’ to one Ameh Comfort Ogbene who is an Assistant Inspector of Fire II (ASF II) and some other serving officers to harvest applicants for the purported available slots.
According to him, the 67 job slots were given to him for sale by his immediate boss named Agunloye Tesleem Oluokun and that Jaji O. Abdulganiyu who was then the Deputy Controller-General (Admin and Supplies) as well as the Civil, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board and the Honourable Minister of Interior, were in the picture of the entire recruitment process.
“Eventually, Ameh Comfort Ogbene believed Alhassan Siaka Kabiru and went about town telling interested applicants to pay and get recruited into the Federal Fire Service. She succeeded in gathering 44 applicants who paid total of N22.8 million through her for the job openings.
“The said sum was transferred to Account Number 0022990380 belonging to Alhassan Siaka Kabiru and domiciled at Sterling Bank Plc.”
The anti-corruption group further stated that the remaining 23 applicants paid the sum of N47,200,000 through Mr. Harry Augustine, which was also transferred to Alhassan Siaka Kabiru.
Accompanied the was the list of names of the victims of the job scam, adding that the said Kabiru in other to further deceived their victims, appointment letters were issued to them but they were not mobilised for capturing and training by the FFS. “This was because Alhassan Siaka Kabiru later concocted a story that the Federal Ministry of Interior refused to sign the approval for the said employment.
“In different telephone conversations made between Ameh Comfort Ogbene and Alhassan Siaka Kabiru it could be deduced that the signature on all the employment letters issued out to applicants is that of Jaji O. Abdulganiyu.”
While the forum urged the EFCC to urgently investigate the roles played by the CG and DCG in the N70m employment scandal and prosecute them if found guilty, it warned that should the anti-graft agency refuse to carry out a thorough investigation on the matter, they would have no other choice than to mobilise its members in large number to occupy the Federal Fire Service, National Assembly and other strategic locations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
