NGF dismisses claim against helmsman by spokesperson

Director General of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), A.B. Okauru, has dismissed as “cheap blackmail,” allegations of financial misdeeds raised against him by the body’s Director, Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo.

Bello-Barkindo had in a letter addressed to the forum’s chairman and governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, drew attention to alleged abuses in the NGF’s finances which he said must be addressed urgently.

But in a brief telephone interview with The Guardian, Okauru said: “It is all blackmail. There is no iota of truth in it at all! He is no longer a staff member in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum because he has resigned. My lawyers are now sending a response on the matter.

“The contents of that letter are entirely false. That is why he could not produce the affidavit he claimed he got. Where is the affidavit now?”

Bello-Barkindo claimed that the NGF is not an agent of change but “a conduit pipe for a few individuals”, just as he sought a forensic audit of all NGF’s accounts including those that were opened during crises periods to avoid the “prying eyes of governors in the name of NIGOFO among others.”

He alleged that the NGF accounts had not been audited for more than 10 years, adding that a few individuals had turned the Forum and its finances into their personal fiefdom.

The letter reads: “The secretariat’s accounts have not been audited in the last decade to say the least, that even the phony auditors invited to mock the auditing process have at various times confessed that the job they are doing for the secretariat is a wash.

“Has anyone ever wondered why an institution that midwifed huge monetary deals like the Paris-London refunds does not have a qualified accountant? In an organisation that makes over three billion naira yearly, the total yearly income of its entire staff is 70 naira. Staff of the forum are always asking where all the money goes. There is a staff that earns N20,000 a month ($20.)

“There are instances. The N630 million deductions from the N5 billion infrastructure support fund which ended in a shouting bout among governors while you are chairman was a deliberate ploy to make you look bad among your colleagues.

“The secretariat did not brief you adequately. The instructions from their master’s house, across the street, were to set booby traps and obstacles in your path. I am a witness. On the Paris-London Club transaction which the NGF midwifed, the NGF made close to N19 billion, out of which the staff of the NGF were to be rewarded with N850 million by chairman of the forum, at the time Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar of Zamfara State.

“In my opinion, the NGF requires a forensic audit of all its accounts, including those that were opened during crisis periods to avoid prying eyes of governors in the name of NIGOFO, among others.”