The Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG) and Integrity Advocacy for Development Initiative (IADI), has condemned reports emanating from controversial journalist, Jackson Ude that the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), looted 3 billion naira via contract racketeering in one month.
Reacting to this allegation during a press briefing, at the weekend in Abuja, the coalition led by Comrade Ogakwu Dominic, and Chris Ofomhi, described the allegation as unfounded and highly misleading.
While providing detailed explanation to the issue, they said one had to have a deeper understanding of how NEMA operates, adding that “NEMA is an interventionist organization whose major mandate is to address issues that require urgent and prompt responses and in doing so, the agency most times carries out emergency procurement in line with the stipulations of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and other extant regulations.”
They, however, said the DG should be commended for initiatives he had brought to reshape the agency.
They said: “The allegations that the DG of NEMA looted over N3 billion between January and February is baseless, unfounded, malicious and highly misleading.
“Mustapha Habib Ahmed’s tenure as the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has been a tenure marked by a series of commendable achievements, commitment, leadership showmanship, dedication, strategic and sterling vision in handling emergency response and disaster management in Nigeria.
“Overtime, he has played a pivotal role in raising public awareness about disaster preparedness and mitigation whilst through commitment to innovation and collaboration, positioned NEMA as a key player in disaster management not only within Nigeria but on the global stage.
“The DG deserves much better than to be placed on twitter if not a social media grill. Under his leadership, the Agency developed solutions to emerging challenges that will enable performance of its functions in line with international humanitarian standards.
“In a world where integrity and sincerity can, at times, be scarce, it is crucial to note that the expository in question lacked detailed facts and credibility, as it heavily relied on hearsay and not absolute fact.
“It therefore poses on the readers and digesters of such cancerous reportage to pose crucial questions before accepting false information as infallible truth.”
In a related development, the coalition also frowned at a recent publication on one of the online news outlets on calls to probe NEMA over alleged failure to refund $4.8 minion unspent after Nigerians’ evacuation from Ukraine.
“What is unknown to them is that NEMA actually refunded unspent balance of the approved fund to the tune of $648,600 USD in two batches of $450,300 and $198,300 respectively to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“From the above finding, it is obvious that the allegation is frivolous and baseless. Instead of the frivolous allegations, the National Emergency Management Agency deserved to be commended for being diligent in carrying out the national assignment of safely bringing stranded compatriots back home, and also being prudent in the application and expending of the allocated fund for the project”, the coalition said.
