•Afam Osigwe and Ahmed Farouk
Nigerian lawyers, under the aegis of the Nigerian Bar Association, yesterday called for an investigation into allegations of corruption levelled against the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Ahmed Farouk.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, had accused Ahmed of acts of corruption and economic sabotage, asking that Ahmed be probed.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television last night, NBA President Afam Osigwe said the investigation is necessary despite Ahmed’s resignation.
“It will be unfair for me to take sides with any of the sides,” Osigwe said.
“The matter has become embarrassing for public officials and the government. The ICPC indicated that they will investigate the allegation. Let it not be that these allegations were used to get rid of a person,” he said.
“Let there be a proper investigation so that the man clears his name, or it is proved that he was actually corrupt or guilty of the allegations against him.”
Dangote’s Allegation
Dangote said the NMDPRA chief had spent “taxpayers’” funds amounting to millions of dollars on the secondary school education of his children in Switzerland, releasing a breakdown of the expenditure in the published advert.
The billionaire petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over the matter, calling for Ahmed’s arrest, investigation, and prosecution, and accusing him of “living beyond his means” as a public official.
He alleged that Ahmed was using the instrumentality of the NMDPRA to embezzle and divert public funds for self-gain and the pursuit of private interest to the detriment of the Nigerian people, which orchestrated uproar and protest by different groups recently.
Dangote claimed that the NMDPRA boss, throughout his lifetime as an adult, worked in the public sector in Nigeria and that the totality of his earnings over the years was nothing close to $7 million.
Days after the allegations, Ahmed turned in his resignation following a brief meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
He had earlier described Dangote’s claims as “wild” and “spurious.”
