Over the past two weeks, I’ve attended every day of the
court case that ICPC brought against Pinnacle
Communications Ltd and the Director General of the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Modibbo
Kawu. From the beginning, I had very strong confidence
that the case was a travesty of justice, and one that was
set up as part of an elaborate politically-inspired,
persecution agenda. That much was what I concluded in
the first piece that I wrote, a few weeks ago, about the
plight of the NBC DG.
I have read several responses to my article. Some even
made the laughable assumption that I was a non-existent
writer. But we will not be bothered, by such labored
responses, because the truth of the piece couldn’t be
faulted. The past two weeks in court, only deepened my
skepticism about the elaborate hoax that was put into the
public space, by those who had put together the ridiculous
accusations, against Nigerians who are working honestly
and honorably, to help deliver Nigeria’s Digital Switchover
(DSO).
The events in court last Thursday gave the game away.
The ICPC Star witness, Charles Adama, confessed in
open court, that there was no petition against Pinnacle
Communications Limited, and in the course of their
“investigation”, they did not find any sum of money
traceable from the accounts of the company, in the
account of the NBC DG, Modibbo Kawu. The court room
was stunned to discover that the petition that ICPC had
received was actually against Integrated Television
Services (ITS), the Signal distribution company that came
out of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
The trail from ITS to Pinnacle Communications Limited,
and the arraignment of the Pinnacle Chairman and
Managing Director, as well as the DG NBC, went through
the carefully and obviously, mischievous route, of an
elaborate media trial, that was relentless, as it was vicious.
Charles Adama told the court, that his boss, Hakeem
Lawal, directed them to go after Pinnacle Communications
Limited. From what we have heard in court so far, the
political forces behind the persecution agenda, knew that
there was no case against these individuals; but a plan
was hatched, which was to damage their characters as
much as possible in the media, the conventional and
social media, ever before they appeared in court. The idea
was to have sufficiently damaged their characters, by a
repeated statement of the kicker: “N2.5 Billion DSO
FRAUD”, which was pushed relentlessly by Rasheedat
Okoduwa of the ICPC, and was particularly repeated by
PREMIUM TIMES, SATURDAY SUN and THE PUNCH
newspapers.
The character damage was only the first salvo in an
onslaught. The second leg of the agenda was to get the
arraignment carried out, and then push for Modibbo Kawu
to be forced out of the NBC. We heard that it was the
assurance that they gave to the NBC staff members that
they procured as prosecution witnesses. They were
assured that by the time the case opened, Modibbo Kawu
would no longer be the Director General. The individuals
concerned bought the assurance line, hook and sinker.
Unfortunately for them, the authorities probably saw
through their subterfuge, and they refused to remove
Modibbo Kawu from his position.
That became their first strategic defeat. They had banked
on that as their main joker, and the truth, from
investigations that I carried out inside the ICPC itself, was
that those behind this case, only wanted Modibbo Kawu
out of the NBC; they were really not interested in a court
case, that was likely to end up exposing them to the
ridicule that is beginning to manifest in court, especially
with the revelations that came out last week Thursday. We
now know, thanks to the cross examination of the ICPC
witness, especially by Lawyer, AV Atuwewe, that ICPC did
not receive any petition against Pinnacle Communications
Limited.
The petition received was against ITS, and as Charles
Adama confessed, it was when they checked NBC’s
Account, that they discovered that Pinnacle
Communications Limited was also paid a “Seed Grant”, by
the Commission. They threw caution to the wind, went
against the law which set up their own organization, and
decided to pursue an unsolicited investigation against
Pinnacle Communications Limited. They were in a
desperate search for a smoking gun against the
individuals concerned.
An ICPC insider confided to this reporter, that they
checked all bank accounts that the DG NBC owned; they
even checked those of his wife, children and relations,
hoping to be able to smoke out a scandal. The more
frustrated they were, the more angry they became, and
the more desperate became their plan to damage the
character of these innocent, hardworking and patriotic
Nigerians. When Lawyer Atuwewe asked Charles Adama
if they found any trail of money, from Pinnacle
Communications Limited to the NBC DG, Modibbo Kawu,
he answered NO; but to uphold the delusion that has been
at the basis of their wild geese chase from the beginning,
he said that in 2015, another company owned by the
Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, called
Puretec, had paid some money into the account of Word,
Sound and Vision, where Modibbo Kawu worked, before
his appointment as NBC DG. Yet, the same man
pretended that he didn’t know when Kawu was appointed
NBC DG; in the same manner that he feigned ignorance
that the Pinnacle Communications Limited transmission
center was commissioned by the Vice President, Yemi
Osinbajo, on behalf of President Buhari in 2016.
Charles Adama said that ICPC did not visit the Pinnacle
installations in Abuja and Kaduna, because that was not
their interest. What mattered to them at the ICPC, was the
scandal that they can create around the N2.5 Billion that
was paid to Pinnacle Communications Limited, and how
the money was spent. He mentioned that the Chairman of
Pinnacle Communications Limited paid charities, churches
and mosques, golf clubs and other individuals. How these
constituted a crime, would still be determined by the court.
But going by what legal analysts were saying after the
cross examination of the first four prosecution witnesses,
the ICPC has bungled its own case, even before it really
got underway. It became clearer, that the ICPC knew that
the case was a most useless witch hunt, that was why it
went for a media trial, since about October last year.
Rasheedat Okoduwa, who lives a scandalous love tangle
with the ICPC Head of Operations, Hakeem Lawal
(Hakeem Lawal was said to have abandoned his family for
Rasheedat Okoduwa), has repeatedly used the complicit
media, especially PREMIUM TIMES, THE PUNCH and
SATURDAY SUN, to malign the names of Modibbo Kawu
and Sir Lucky Omoluwa, especially.
But the threads in this unfolding case have several
strands. The ICPC told a blatant lie in court, that ITS was
investigated and found to have used the N1.77 Billion it
received from the NBC judiciously. They lied. This reporter
spoke with people connected with ITS operations and
installations, in Enugu, Jos, Ilorin and Osogbo; and I was
informed that ITS is using the transmitters of STAR TIMES
for its Operations. Yet the money collected from NBC was
meant for acquisition of digitally compliant broadcast
equipment and for human capital development. Where are
those digitally compliant equipment? None of these was
ever procured by ITS. Did ICPC trace the alleged transfer
of N200million by ITS into the account of Jimi Muhammed,
Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed’s son, in Lagos?
What about the Jeep that was allegedly purchased by
former NTA DG, Sola Omole for Minister Lai Muhammed,
and delivered in his Lagos residence, from the same
N1.77 Billion? Have they investigated the stories carried in
hushed tones, inside the NTA Headquarters in Abuja,
about payments to former NTA DG Shola Omole? And is
there an effort to get to the root of sums of money running
to Millions, allegedly transferred from the same ITS money
into NTA? Are these the examples of the “judicious
spending” that Charles Adama was talking about in court
last week? The NFIU should be very interested in these
allegations to determine their veracity.
The ICPC duped everyone, by hiding the petition it
received until it was forced by the court to reveal the truth.
It was a most unacceptable abuse of its powers, position
and responsibilities as an anti-graft agency. It was also
clear to all, that the agency is being press ganged into the
ludicrous duty of destroying the character of these hard
working Nigerians, to serve the dirty political agendas of
certain political forces, located within an ethno-regional, as
well as religious nexus. Related to this point, is the
cowardly and irresponsible position of Lai Muhammed, the
Minister of Information and Culture, in the entire saga. The
ICPC investigator, Charles Adama revealed in court, that
they “interviewed” Lai Muhammed as part of their
investigation, but the Minister refused to give a statement,
until he got clearance from the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation (SGF). He was however
reported to have informed them, that he ‘merely signed’
what was presented to him by the DG NBC. This the ICPC
interpreted as the Minister having been “misled” by
Modibbo Kawu. From the inquisitional mentality of ICPC
officials, the person who “recommended” an action is to be
blamed, not the person that did “approval”. So Lai
Muhammed that approved payment to Pinnacle
Communications Limited, had no case to answer. And in
the many months that the case has been deliberately kept
in the media, Lai Muhammed, who is said to enjoy
ascribing all successes in every agency under him, as a
reflection of his personal ability, has refused to say a word,
either to affirm the truth about the payment he approved,
or support the position of the ICPC, that the DG NBC
“misled” him, to give the approval for the payment. Yet,
We all heard the speech that Lai Muhammed gave at the
launch of the Pinnacle Transmission Center in Abuja; We
also saw him on television, visiting the site while under
construction; and the interview he gave to the press about
progress of work; as well as the live television shots of him
holding tape for the Vice President to cut, while declaring
open the Pinnacle Communications Transmission Center
in Abuja.
There are a few theories that people in the Ministry of
Information shared, about Lai Muhammed’s attitude, to the
N2.5 Billion Pinnacle Communications Limited payment.
The first one was that Lai Muhammed saw the ICPC
issue, as an opportunity to get rid of Modibbo Kawu, as
DG NBC. Lai Muhammed is said by many observers, to
have a visceral hatred for Modibbo Kawu’s independence
of thought and action as DG, NBC. This is tied to the fact
that he was not instrumental to Modibbo Kawu’s
appointment in the first place; and the Lagos political
group that Lai Muhammed belongs to, has always been
unhappy that they lost the chance to get Dele Alake into
the position in the first place. Their hope was to use the
ICPC arraignment to remove Modibbo Kawu and
shoehorn Dele Alake into the position. Secondly, Lai
Muhammed has not forgiven Modibbo Kawu’s “effrontery”
of going to seek the governorship of Kwara State last year.
Searches conducted in the Ministry of Information and
Culture, at the Radio House Abuja, indicate that Lai
Muhammed is still trying to canvass that argument of
Modibbo Kawu’s governorship ambition, as a ground to
get him out of the DG position at the NBC, even at this late
hour of his own tenure as Minster of Information. The
other point that has been raised is that Lai Muhammed is
so desperate to be re-appointed as a Minister by President
Muhammadu Buhari, that he was not going to say
anything, that would amount to defending the action he
took, in approving the payment to Pinnacle
Communications Limited, so as not to be seen as
antagonizing another organ of government. The fact that
the ICPC is taking a wrong action of arraigning innocent
people means nothing to Lai Muhammed. His own
ambition is always the first, and important matter for him.
A very learned political analyst in Lagos, who has studied
Lai Muhammed from his days as Bola Tinubu’s Chief of
Staff in Lagos State, said that treachery, stabbing people
in the back and uncommon ability to tell lies, are the main
elements of Lai Muhammed’s political survival till date. Lai
Muhammed, it was argued, can willingly push anyone
under a moving train, if such a terrible act, will enhance his
personal position. The analyst said Lai Muhammed would
not suddenly develop empathy, sense of honor or a sense
of justice that he has never possessed.
It is very interesting that the ICPC investigator, Charles
Adama, nevertheless was forced by the circumstance of a
cross examination, to reveal some curios details. He
confessed that months after the first visit to Lai
Muhammed, they never bothered to return or to invite him
to their office, as they did to others, to make him write a
statement. It meant that there was one law for Modibbo
Kawu, Mr Dipo Onifade and Sir Lucky Omoluwa; while
there is a different law, for Minister Lai Muhammed, who
was the approving authority for the N2.5 Billion, that ICPC
has made the basis of a clearly political witch hunt, and a
very unconscionable media trial. ICPC’s Adama also
confessed, that so far, Minister Lai Muhammed has not
denounced, at least publicly or in writing, the fact that he
approved the payment to Pinnacle Communications
Limited. He also accepted that the Federal Government
never complained about the money paid to the company.
This ICPC issue is becoming the ultimate charade. But as
the lawyers say, the case is sub judice, so we are not
allowed to comment on the substance. However too much
has been revealed already, and it’s looking like even more
would soon come to the public space, for Nigerians to see
some worrisome dangers. The first is the clear abuse of
the powers of the ICPC, to intimidate as well as malign the
characters of Nigerians, especially when such individuals
are the targets of an over-ambitious political, ethno-
regional and religious group. The Lagos political
machinery has become a clear and present danger to
Nigeria. They arrogantly want to take every strategic
position in government and in politics; and they will use
every kind of weapon, including their control of the media,
to destroy people they have targeted, to achieve their
inordinate ambition. We must not allow them to achieve
this inordinate ambition at the NBC, and against Modibbo
Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited. And as for
ICPC, if Charles Adama was right in court last week, that
there was no petition against Pinnacle Communications
Limited, why were the gentlemen in court arraigned?
Nigerians deserve a very reasonable answer; not the
wish-washy presentations they are presenting in court.
ABUBAKAR MAHMOUD AHMED, A RETIRED
JOURNALIST, PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONSULTANT AND
HADITH SCHOLAR, LIVES IN KURMI MASHI, KADUNA.