Regulatory Commission Must Wakeup From Slumber To Rescue EKEDC From The Shackles Of Dere Otubu By ADAPHAI

Our organisation, a leading Civil Society group in Nigeria with mandate for peace advocacy and propagation of non-violent culture is using this medium to call on relevant authorities, especially the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission as well as security agencies to quickly come to the aid of Eko Electricity Distribution Company and salvage the company from the manacles of its Chairman, Mr Dere Otubu, who have been leading a gang of dissidents in the company for selfish purposes.

Putting the record straight, Mr Otubu has been aiding and abetting fraudulent activities in the company to the tune of billions of naira through the use of ghost workers for the past three years as well as masterminding payment of salaries to exited staff coupled with several cases of misappropriation of funds and corporate theft, which compelled a whistle blower to raise alarm of this monumental fraud. Unfortunately, the whistle blower, who was a staff of the company was threatened and intimidated, forcing him to run out of the country with his family.

Mr Otubu was behind the campaign of calumny against the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Dr. Tinuade Sanda, who have proven herself to be an upright leader and a reformer, by exposing the issue of ghost workers in the company after thorough and painstaking investigations.

Another heinous act committed by Otubu is deliberate misrepresentation of the directives of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, where he gave a false information to the effect of removing Mrs Sanda and singlehandedly replaced her with his crony and collaborator, Mrs Rekhiat Momoh without the approval of the board.

It is very disheartening that in the desperate bid to continuing perpetrating his infraction and shenanigans in Eko Electricity Distribution Company, in utter connivance with certain members of Staff, the Chairman, Mr Otubu, deliberately manipulated the directives of Nigerian Electricity Distribution Company, and dangerously lied that Dr. Sanda, the Managing Director of the company who exposed the 36-month fraud should be removed.

More grevious of these illegalities as perpetrated by Otubu and revealed to our organization by one of the union members in the course of our investigation is that some of the recalled staff of EKEDC, who were supposedly recalled with Dr Sanda and who are cronies of the Chairman are still running the operations of the company, these exited staff are being used to process payments. It was reliably gathered from impeccable source that signatories to the company accounts are signing out funds from the operational account.

We further deduced that the Director/Chairman Legal &Regulatory Committee of the company, Mr Babor Egeregu, alongside other members of the board had severally cautioned Otubu on his recklessness and illegality, especially his desperate bid to provide cover for an embattled Chief Legal Officer of the company, Wola Joseph Condotti, who was recalled by her employer ‘West Power &Gas Ltd, to pave way for thorough investigation after being accused of several infractions, but who Otubu asked to disregard the directive of her employer.

That Mr Otubu remains an instrument of discord in Eko Electricity Distribution Company is an understatement, he has embarked on aggressive campaign of calumny and cheap blackmail against the Managing Director, to the extent of accusing the upright and performing woman of falsifying her academic qualifications, all in the bid of getting her pound of flesh for exposing financial crime orchestrated by Otubu’s gang in the company.

It is clearly verifiable that Dr. Tinuade Sanda has a resounding educational background. As a matter of fact, she has displayed uncommon brilliance at her undergraduate at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, by coming out with Second Class Upper Division in the Department of Management Accounting, a feat very rare to achieve by a lady in such prestigious Ivory Tower.

Without mincing words, Tinu Sanda’s further qualifications up till PhD level have been verifiable and authenticated in those reputable institutions she attended; so, calling a dog a bad name for the purpose of hanging it out of vengeance by Otubu and his co-travellers is completely out of place and criminal.

As it stands, Mr Dere Otubu has massacred corporate governance in Eko Electricity Distribution Company, and continues to drag the flourishing disco to the state of inertia at the peril of its shareholders, investors and thousands of staff, unless something is done fast to save the company.

Comprehensive interactions with the staff of the company regrettably indicate serious resentment against Otubu’s style of leadership and pattern of administration, most especially the seeming injustice and connivance, which have seriously and adversely affected the morale of these disenchanted staff and resultantly reduced their productivity and commitment.

We, therefore, call on the appropriate Regulatory Commission in the Electricity industry to wake up from their slumber and checkmate Otubu’s excesses before it is too late by removing him Immediately from that exalted position, as he lacks capacity, leadership acumen and requisite integrity to chair a sensitive organization of that size.

In the same vein, we are profoundly disappointed in the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the agency of government that represents the 40 per cent of the Federal Government’s shares in EKEDC for its failure to live up to its statutory obligations and clear laxity in fulfilling its duty of representing Federal Government’s interest.

It is utterly unbelievable that this agency of government can pretend as if all is well and dangerously keep mute when an individual is turning disco of that significance and prospects to a ‘Banana Republic ‘ with utmost impunity.

E-signed

Comrade Sulaimon Suberu (National Coordinator)
For: Advocacy for Advancement of Peace &Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI)

Disclaimer: This piece represents the opinion of the writer not that of CityMirrorNews