The Bayelsa State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has allegedly diverted to personal use a tanker loaded with 45,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, aka diesel, in the state.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the truck, with registration number: FGE,048XA, was impounded by the Nigerian military on Tuesday, June 21 and handed over to the state NSCDC command for further investigation on the legality of the product.
But months after the handover, the investigation was yet to be concluded.
Our correspondent, however, gathered that the command had since disposed of the product between June 21 and 25 and diverted the proceed to personal use.
A source at the Command told DAILY NIGERIAN that the state commandant, Lucy Fakoye, had conspired with some of her staff and took the truck somewhere in Edo State and sold the commodity and even the truck.
“Madam is fond of harassing people that refuse to offer her bribe, especially Northerners. She always boasts of being the boss and commandant of the entire state,” the source added.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the state Command, Solomon Ogbere, said Command had concluded its investigation and found the commodity to be illegal.
According to him, the commodity was forfeited to the Federal Government after the elapsing of a 14-day notice for ownership claim.
Meanwhile, the owner of the commodity, one Muhammad Umar-Idris, had petitioned the Commandant-General of the Corps, seeking redress.
The petition, dated July 28 and copied to the Federal Ministry of Interior, lamented the effrontery of the commandant in diverting the said commodity even after furnishing her with all necessary documents establishing the lawful means through which the product was acquired.
According to the petition, the ordeal began when the Commandant demanded for a bribe which was refused, “as there was nothing necessitating our client to give a bribe to recover property he lawfully acquired”.
“The icing on the cake is the stressful journey the commandant made our client to embark upon to provide the vehicle registration documents and other necessary vehicle papers in order to perfect her sinister motive of disposing our client’s tanker and the products conveniently without any potential cause of doubt on the part of the purchase,” the petition noted.
The petition, therefore, appealed for a thorough investigation into the matter, saying that the owner of the commodity, the breadwinner of his immediate family and extended families is now rendered nothing and reduced to a beggar by the heinous and desperation of Mrs. Lucy Fakoye to enrich herself from the unlawful disposition of our client’s property.
“Based on the foregoing, we humbly pray your good office launch an in-depth and holistic investigation into the matter, and recover our client’s property from Mrs. Lucy Fakoye, and make her face the full wrath of the law which will serve as a deterrent to other officers.”
