Exposed: Iliya Garba Abubakar, Former MD Chad Basin Development Authority In Forgery And Falsifying Scandal

• Details of how documents Are Suppressed To Ensure he returns To Water Resources Ministry
• How Documents and Files Were Backdated by Him
• The cover up from the office of the Vice President

One of the herculean task the incoming administration led by Gen. Buhari will face is sanitizing the country on the issue of corruption. Since winning the election on March 28, there has been a lot of issue on tackling corruption, for instance the President-elect has said that one area he will sanitize is the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), an agency seen by many Nigeria as cesspool of corruption.

However, with information available to this medium, the NNPC may not after all be the only place the incoming administration needs to look into, this is because the Civil Service which is regarded as the engine room of every government is heavily and massively embedded in massive corruption and frauds, which also includes scandals being perpetrated by the civil servants themselves.

Information available to this medium indicates that the civil service in Nigeria is where the biggest fraud is perpetrated and that the sector has been bastardized with corruption. The Federal Ministry of Water Resources one place where they are trying by all means to cover fraud by ensuring their stooges are appointed as Directors in Operational Departments as was earlier done to cover up fraud when the wife of President Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan called the Minister and instructed her to appoint a junior staff as a Director over his senior to take over from a retiring Director. The retired Director has just been recently rewarded with an appointment as the Executive Director of Water Resources Institute, Kaduna, an agency under the Ministry.

There are various projects in the operational departments that payment is 100% made and little or no work was done on site, for example, the Gurara Dam Project which was awarded at a cost of 36 billion Naira is this medium learnt that as at now over 150 billion Naira has been spent on it, while Shagari Dam which constructed at a cost of 700 million Naira, universalreporters247.com gathered that an outrageous sum of 2.3 Billion Naira was used for compensation, which an insider in the ministry told this medium that the said amount is too outrageous as he ask; “where in this world will the money for award of contract will be less than the money used for compensation.”

Many irrigation projects including Gurara Irrigation project are also paid way ahead of works done on site.

Another illicit action caught up by this medium, is that the office of the Vice President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engr. Abubakar is putting pressure to subvert the civil service rule in the appointment of the next Director of Irrigation to cover up the fraud perpetuated in that department.

The case in question is the brazen and open falsification, forgery, and suppression of facts being carried out one Dr. Garba Iliya Abubakar who recently retired in December 2014 as Managing Director of the Chad Basin Development Authority, CBDA.

According to information and documents available to this medium, the said Iliya Garba Abubakar, a Geologist has been making attempt to smuggle in himself into the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as a Deputy Director (Hydrology) through falsification of records and suppression of facts.

As gathered, the letter of transfer of service of Dr. Iliya Garba Abubakar from CBDA, Maiduguri to the mainstream Federal Civil Service in the FMWR was issued on 23^rd July 2010, but was submitted and received by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, FMWR, 0n 17^th February, 2015 five (5) years after it was issued by the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC. The letter for the transfer of service has a reference number FC: 139479/77, however needs authentication.

It is a fact that the guidelines on “Appointments, Promotion and Discipline” issued by the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC 2004 states, inter alia, “officers transferred or seconded to the Federal Civil Service shall assume duty within two (2) months from the date of notification of the approval of the transfer or secondment (in this case between 3^rd August, 2010 and 3^rd October, 2010) otherwise the offers shall be regarded as having lapsed.”

In this case as learnt by this medium, the transferee, Dr.Iliya Garba Abubakar, didn’t report until 17^th February, 2015 despite the purported Letter of Deployment of 3^rd August, 2010. According to information obtained by this medium, he could not have resumed in Ministry as during this time, he was Managing Director of CBDA.

A brief profile of his carrier as a boss at CBDA shows that, Dr. Iliya Garba Abubakar was politically appointed as the Managing Director (MD) of CBDA in 2006. He served for the maximum two-term period of four years each. Having served for the maximum period of eight years, without any break, he completed his tenure in December 2014. It may be noted that he was appointed as the MD of CBDA from the service of Yobe State Government where he was General Manager of the State Water Board.

However, it was learnt and from the information available to this medium, that Dr Iliya Garba Abubakar has already began the falsification and suppressing of figures all in a bid to make return as a Deputy Director. As learnt, he was recently assigned File No P.6300 in the Ministry, which is out of sync with other officers who joined the Ministry around the period he was supposedly transferred to the Ministry.  He also was not registered under the IPPIS, whereas officers appointed about the same period when he purportedly resumed were registered under IPPIS.  Curiously, his name has hitherto never appeared in the Departmental Nominal Roll.

A co-conspirator in the forgery game, Mrs S.T. Chuku, Deputy Director (APD), this medium learnt that she was the signatory of the purported letter of deployment of Dr. Iliya Garba Abubakar to the Department of Irrigation and Drainage dated 3rd August, 2010, but curiously she was not yet a staff of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, as of the time she ostensibly issued the said letter.  Mrs. S.T. Chuku was actually deployed to the FMWR in 2012 as an Assistant Director. It may be noted that throughout 2010, Federal Ministry of Water Resources had only one Deputy Director in the Human Resources Department, namely, Mrs. Sabina A. Ofoegbu, who was also the Acting Director.

Universalreporters247.com learnt that the vacancy position in 2015 has changed from what it was in 2009 when the Ministry wrote the FCSC vide Ref. No. MW/S/80/XII/191, dated 9th June, 2009 which formed the basis of approving the initial transfer by the Commission of Dr. Iliya Garba Abubakar to the Ministry as Deputy Director (Hydrology).  Since he did not report, the Ministry had filled all the existing vacancies by the FCSC promoting additional Deputy Directors in 2014.

This resulted in the Department of Irrigation and Drainage having eight (8) substantive Deputy Directors as at February 2015 when the Ministry received the Commission’s letter of transfer of Dr. ILIYA GarbaAbubakar dated 23rd July, 2010 for the first time.  The letter was apparently kept away from the Ministry because Dr. ILIYA GarbaAbubakar was still serving as Managing Director of CBDA.

However, the letter was now brought to the Ministry after his eight (8) years tenure as Managing Director, had ended, even the purported letter of deployment by Mrs. S.T. Chuku dated 3rd August, 2010 this medium learnt, is alleged to have been backdated. This is because as at that date, the letter of transfer from the Commission had not been received in the Ministry.

Moreover, Mrs. S. T. Chuku – the signatory to the purported letter had not even been posted to the Ministry. She was at this time still serving as an Assistant Director at the Federal Ministry of Health.

Furthermore, in an attempt to mislead the Commission into accepting Dr. Iliya Garba Abubakar’s eligibility for promotion to the post of Director (Irrigation) in the scheduled 2015 promotion exercise, records are being altered to show that he reported in the Ministry since 2010 so that he would now be eligible for the exercise.

Universalreporters247.com learnt that the Commissioner of the commission on Federal Ministry of Water Resources might be the fraudsters insider within the commission for the propagation of their activities as has been done over time in suppressing facts and forgeries from the commission in furthering the interests of his financial friends on promotion matters.

Findings by this medium, shows that Dr. Iliya Garba Abukakar was the MD of Chad Basin Development, Authority, CBDA as at the time he was purported to be Deputy Director (Hydrology) in the Department of Irrigation and Drainage according to the purported letter of deployment signed by Mrs. S. T. Chuku, Deputy Director (APD).It should be noted that the transferee is a Geologist and not qualified (as the scheme of service specified) to be in the particular deployed Department.

However, this medium learnt that one of the conditions of promotions by the FCSC is the rendering of APER on prospective candidates. It will be interesting to know how this officer could have an APER rendered on him having been the Chief Executive of CBDA for the eight years (2006-2014) and has never worked as a core staff of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.it is evident that he cannot even identify most staff members in the Directorate cadre not to talk of other staff in the deployed Department.