BY VICTOR BUORO
Since the assumption of duties of Mr. Uja Tor Uja as the Executive Secretary (ES) of the National Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), the hitherto quiet Agency of government responsible for Christian pilgrimage has taken a dive for anything other than transparency and accountability.
The agency, it was gathered by Forefront News presently oozes of sleazes that are bombarding the very essence of the establishment of the commission as well as public perception of the agency.
The ES Mr. Uja is being accused of all sorts of malfeasance ranging from misappropriation of millions of naira and dollars, maladministration, lack of adherence to the principle of Federal Character and distortion in the calendar of Christian pilgrimage, a development that led to a reduction in pilgrimages. He is also being accused of appointing unqualified staff into management positions to achieve a set objective as well as using offshore account domiciled in Israel to siphon money from the commission.
It was gathered that following series of petitions, the Presidency in December 2018, constituted an administrative panel of inquiry to look into the violations allegedly committed by Mr. Uja since he took over the mantle of leadership at the NCPC.
The 8-man panel drawn from the office of the offices of the Head of Service of the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor General of the Federation office, Bureau of Public Procurement, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), is saddled with the task of investigating financial impropriety, administrative impunity, and abuse of the Public Service Rules among others.
Checks by Forefront News indicate that the fact finding committee which was hitherto allotted ten days within which to submit its report, had its tenure extended to enable it carry out a thorough work with recommendations that would shape the agency.
One of the allegations for which Mr. Uja, as the ES of NCPC is being investigated for, is the alleged misappropriation of $229,000 which he said was spent on workshops in July 2017 as part of the state of readiness visit to Israel, Greece and Rome.
Similarly, Mr Uja is being questioned for another $103,000 allegedly spent on hiring of a hall during an education workshop for bidders in Israel in 2018, an event it was gathered that took place at the conference hall of the Nigerian Embassy in Tel-Aviv. Closely related is the $34,000 said to have been paid for adverts in two newspapers in Israel, which was discovered to be at variant with advert rates of newspapers in the state of Israel.
More worrisome was the N500 million onshore budget of the commission that was not paid to the NCPC in 2016 but later released in 2017 following the intervention of the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs, for which Mr. Uja transferred to the NCPC’s offshore account in Israel without the approval and knowledge of the Board of the Commission or any other approving authority.
Mr. Uja is also being accused by both members of the Board of the Commission and his team of management staff, of running a one-man show. For instance, once he is not on seat, every activity at the commission comes to a halt as he has denied every other management staff of keeping any impress account except his office.
The management staff are also questioning the rationale behind his use of the Commission’s funds in paying his large personal staff that he designated as Personal Assistants, in-charge of ICT, Liaison, Protocol, Registry as well as Special Assistants in clear violation of extant rules.
Another major worry of the Commission’s Board which Mr. Uja is being accused of refusing to cooperate with, particularly the Chairman, is what was described as the deliberate administrative lapses by Mr Uja that has so badly affected the NCPC’s calendar of activities. As a result, the Commission had to commence its main pilgrimage exercise on December 8, 2018 as against the usual October/November schedule that usually terminate at the end of December. This was why the 2018 pilgrimage to Israel was extended to end of January 2019.
Further checks indicate that trained staff that were usually required to carry out specific functions during pilgrimage have been discarded by Mr. Uja and prefers to nominate some of his kinsmen that do not have the requisite training for such an exercise. This, it was gathered has created room for an increased number of pilgrims absconding. The resultant effect impacted negatively on the 2018 pilgrimage as the state of Israeli through its ministry of Interior disqualified many intending pilgrims from getting visas in addition to the stringent conditions it placed before the NCPC to meet which included a guarantee bond for every pilgrim.
In the same vein, about 300 intending Christian pilgrims that were billed for pilgrimage to Israel through Rome in January were denied visas with the exception of only 20 persons that scaled through. The development led to the cancellation of the Rome pilgrimage which is the preferred choice of the Roman Catholic faithful.
Since his assumption of office, it was gathered that Mr. Uja introduced the collection of offerings from pilgrims in Israel as he usually tells the story of a proposed Nigeria Prayer House in Israel. Curiously, the money from the offerings collected are never accounted for neither is the account known to the commission’s Account department.
Specifically, in January 2019 while in Jerusalem, after a Prayer session that was attended by pilgrims from Adamawa, Plateau, Delta, Ekiti and Anambra states, the offerings that were collected in both Naira and dollars remain accounted for and the cash run into hundreds of thousand Naira and dollars.
Several attempts made to get the NCPC ES to respond to the allegations were fruitless as he never picked calls nor returned any.
Culled from Forefront news.
