A pressure group in Rivers State, Concerned Coalitions for Rivers Intrests, CCRI, has accused the Head of the State’s Revenue Service of involvement in monumental fraud.
The Revenue Board is headed by Mrs. Onene Osila Obele-Oshoko.
Though Governor Nyesom Wike had dissolved the Board of the Revenue Service, which incidentally was chaired by Oshoko, she has remained at the helms of affairs.
She claimed that the dissolution only affected her dual role as Executive Chairman and not that of Head of the Revenue Service.
A strong worded statement made available in Port Harcourt by the CCRI’s Chairman, Comrade Cromwell Mazi, lamented that Mrs. Oshoko has been fretting away the state’s revenue with reckless abandon.
The group urged the Justice Omereji panel of Inquiry into the state’s economy to extend its probe to the Revenue body.
“It beats all our imaginations that at this particular period of time when most state governments are lamenting dwindling and short fall in revenues, a supposedly Head of the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service in the person of Mrs. Onene Osila Obele-Oshoko, is seriously busy milking away the state’s hard earned Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
“This fraud that the CCRI is complaining about is massive and mind boggling. For instance, she (Oshoko) has been using an ICT Firm, SA Technology, that is basically hers to defraud the state of between fifty and two hundred million naira monthly under the guise of maintenance cost and in some ludicrous instances for Training and Seminars ,” a part of the statement reads.
The CCRI also accused the Revenue Boss of preferring nepotism to meritocracy.
“As at this moment of releasing this statement, the height of Mrs. Onene Osila Obele-Ochoko level of nepotism has beclouded all reasoning and assumed an alarming and frightening state. Her blood brother is her Personal Assistant. While we, as a group, cannot begrudge her over what is purely her prerogative, we are however worried that she is using her brother as front to run all contracts available to the Revenue Service in clear deference and violation to extant laws.
“She has also proven to be highly autocratic with a high distate for any form of criticisms as evidenced with the high rate of employment she gives to the people of her clan and outright sack given to those opposed to her style of leadership,” the statement further explained.
The pressure said it was worried that the Revenue Boss has been justifying her unholy practices by insisting ‘that she has a deal with the governor that has been wrapped,sealed and delivered.’
“Just a little over a fortnight ago at her birthday party that included a representative of the governor, Mrs. Oshoko told a stunned audience that she had an unholy alliance with the governor where a certain amount of the state’s IGR will be remitted to the governor and in return she will remain at the helm of the revenue board. Just like many,we are stunned by this revelation as we refuse to believe that the governor will belittle his office and himself by involving himself in such practices.
“It is on this premise that we urge the Justice Omereji panel of inquiry investigating the state’s economy to beam their searchlight to the leadership of the state’s revenue service.
“This investigation will not only put to rest the long and continuous plundering of the state’s resources through the Revenue Service and under the reign of Mrs Onene Osila Obele-Oshoko, but also clarify the questionable manner her appointment was carried out by the out-gone administration of former governor Chibuike Amaechi, where she was hurriedly placed on Level 16. You would recall that she was formerly engaged to Afribank in Lagos before that spurious appointments and attendant secondment to the State’s Ministry of Finance, Treasury Department,” the statement added.
Oil: 10 Suspects Arrested For Vandalism
The leadership of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSDC) in Bayelsa State says ten suspects have been arrested in the vandalization of crude oil pipeline owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in the creeks of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area (LGA).
The suspects were arrested over six months for alleged involvement in pipeline vandalization and oil theft.
Anikan Udeoyop, the Deputy Commandant of the NSDC, confirmed the development in a meeting with the State Commissioner of Police, the Department of State Security (DSS), officials of the Agip Oil Company and leadership of the Southern Ijaw Communities of Ondewari, Okputuwari, Umbugbene, and Kemebiama.
Mr. Udeoyop, who commended the state security outfit known as Door Akpo for the working partnership between them and the NSDC, also announced that the latter group has approved the registration of additional private security guard companies in the state, bringing the total number to fifty.
In reference to the noticeable increased attacks on bank customers in Bayelsa State, the NSDC confirmed that screening and approval of security companies is meant to assist the present security agencies on security issues. “The Corps is already packaging a three-month security training program for physical self-defence and for bank personnel in the state.”
