Abba Moro: How N675million Realised from Immigration Applicants was Shared - Perm. Sec Confesses

 

Two prosecution witnesses appeared before the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday, narrating how the sum of  N675,675,000 realised from 675,675 applicants who applied  for job placements at Nigerian Immigration Services during the ill-fated recruitment in 2014, was shared.

 

According to Punch, a former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; and a deputy director in the ministry, Mr. Femi Alayebami while testifying as the fifth and sixth prosecution witnesses in the ongoing trial of the then  Minister of Interior, Abba Moro,  and others on charges of recruitment fraud relating to the NIS gave details how the money was shared.

 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had instituted the 11 counts against Moro under whose care the money went missing. The other defendant is Drexel Tech. Nigeria Limited, a firm that carried out the NIS recruitment exercise on behalf of the ministry.

 

A former Head of Finance of Payforme Services Nigeria Limited, Mr. Augustine Ugorji, and an employee of Keystone Bank, Mrs. Bilikisu Mohammed, testifying as the fifth and sixth prosecution witnesses, respectively.

 

Ugorji narrated how Payforme, an e-commerce licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, was engaged by Drexel to provide online platform for the collection of application fees from the job seekers.

 

Ugorji, who said he worked for Payforme from 2010 to 2016, said, “Drexel had a contract with Ministry of Interior for job recruitment.

 

He listed the banks engaged by Payforme to be Union Bank, United Bank of Africa, Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Ecobank, and Enterprise Bank.

 

He said Interswitch was engaged to provide card as means of payment by interested applicants.

 

He said from the N1,000 paid by each applicant, Payforme was paid N150 out of which N70 went to the receiving bank.

 

He said, “The agreement between Drexel and Ministry of Interior was for each applicant to pay N1,000 and Drexel agreed to pay Payforme N150 from the N1,000.

 

He said after the banks deducted their N70 commission from the N1,000 paid by each of the applicants, the following amounts were remitted by each of the banks: “Zenith Bank: 22,425,396;

 

He said Interswitch realised N10,879,115 from the applicants who paid through cards.

 

He said at the end of the day, “We remitted 574,327,500 through Keystone Bank” to Drexel.

 

The judge then adjourned until November 7 and 8 for further trial.