2. The JDA is a colligate organization in which the Board is made up two Executive Directors each from both countries; these Executive Directors head the four (4) departments in the organization. Since inception and based on mutual agreement, the Nigerian Executive Directors are in charge of Monitoring & Inspections (M&I) and the Finance & Administration (F&A) while the Saotomean Executive Directors are in charge of the Commercial & Investments (C&I) and Non-Hydrocarbon Resources (NHR).
3. The current problem in the organization started when the Executive Director (ED) for Monitoring & Inspections was on 7th October 2015, a day after the end of his first six (6) year term, was barred from entering his office on the instructions of the Board despite the provisions of Article 10.1 of the Treaty (COPY ATTACHED), which states that “...Executive Directors shall hold office for such period as the appointing Head of State shall determine, normally for a period of six years, once renewable or until a replacement is appointed”. This provision was put in place to avoid a vacuum and to ensure that there is always balanced representation on the JDA Board.
4. In line with this provision, the immediate past ED C&I from STP, Mr. Jorge Dos Santos spent extra two (2) years after the expiration of his tenure and also the immediate past ED M&I, Mr. Anthony Fiddi, who was seconded from the NNPC for a period of four (4) years could not leave until the then President appointed a replacement. It is worthy of mention that Nigeria, having the largest share of this great project (60%) has been represented by only one (1) Executive Director since October 2015, a situation contrary to the intent of the founding fathers and the provisions of the law governing the organization (Treaty). Under normal circumstances, the Board cannot be said to be complete, hence all decisions taken thereafter should be declared null and void.
5. It is widely believed that the ED M&I was unlawfully barred entry into the office due to his insistence on prudent management of the JDA funds especially that of the headquarters building project for which colossal sum of money have been expended with little to show for it.
6. In 2013, the contract for the Design, Procurement and Construction of the JDA permanent Head Office at Utako, Abuja was awarded to Enypesa/Architect Associates/Enyser Consortium (henceforth referred to as EHP Development Limited) at sum of One Billion, One Hundred & Forty-Four Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N1,144,750,000.00) only for the main building and the sum of One Hundred and Eighty Four Million, Seven Hundred and Sixty Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred and One Naira, Fifty Kobo (N184,767,901.50) only as additional costs for the construction of the Basement for the First Building and Foundation (with Basement) for the Second Building. The highlights are as follows:
(i) The foundation laying ceremony was conducted in March 2014 and the project commenced fully in July 2014.
(ii) The completion date was therefore adjusted to July, 2015 from the initial completion date of December, 2014, due to delay in the commencement of the project. The Contractor could not meet up with the July 2015 deadline, therefore a new completion date of 1st December, 2015 was fixed. When it became apparent that the contractor still wouldn’t meet up with the new deadline, the Board due to the interest of the ED F&A granted approved a new completion date of 31st March, 2016.
(iii) The contractor, which was later discovered to have links to the brother of the ED F&A has shown lack of the required technical and financial capabilities to successfully complete the project.
(iv) The contractor handling the project (EHP Development Limited) has failed to deliver despite the fact that JDA has paid to it close to 70% of the total contract sum (SEE PAYMENT DETAILS ATTACHED).
(v) The project has remained un-completed till date. The site is there for all to see.
(vi) Principal Officers of EHP that could be interrogated:
Mr. Chuks Philip (Managing Director): +234-8066669907.
Mr. Carlos Garcia (Dep. MD): +234-7067777440; +234-9099672647.
(vii) Till date, about 70% of the project fund has been paid to the contractor while the work done by the contractor is less than 40%.
(viii) The contractor requested for a variation of up to 40% of the contractor sum despite the fact that the project is on a “Fixed Contract” with “No room for variation” and the fact that the contractor has not carried out works commensurate with the funds paid by the JDA. The project has been abandoned by the contractor and the site, located nearly opposite the VIO Office in Mabushi is there for all to see.
7. On 18th April 2016, during a general staff briefing, staff were informed that an anonymous petition (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED) was written to the DG SSS, Chairman EFCC, Minister of State for Finance, Chief of Staff to the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). The petition alleged fraud in the JDA and focused on the Executive Director Finance and Administration (ED F&A) as it included pictures of his properties. The Board accused nine (9) staff of complicity in the writing of the petition.
8. On 22nd April 2016, the Board issued letters of suspension of 'one month with half pay' to five (5) of the accused staff and an additional 3 on the 'suspicion' of authoring the petition and releasing internal documents (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED). Four (4) persons initially accused and who are known to be loyalists of the ED F&A were 'mysteriously exonerated'. The affected staff appealed to Nigerian JMC delegation to prevail on the JDA Board to follow stipulated procedure in the JDA Staff Regulations and JDZ Treaty (COPY ATTACHED “APPEAL LETTER TO NIGERIAN JMC LEADER OF DELEGATION).
9. The Board vide its letter dated 3rd May, 2016 (paragraph 2) stated that “… your suspension is neither a finding of guilt nor a punishment”. This position is in contravention of the provision of Section 13.3.6.3(v) of the JDA’s Conditions of Service which deals with suspension with half pay is clear that the provision is a PENALTY and/or INTERMEDIATE DISCIPLINARY ACTION meted out to staff who have been tried and found guilty. Section 14.3.6 is titled “TYPE OF DISCIPLINARY MEASURES” (See JDA’s Conditions of Service – ALREADY PROVIDED).
10. The Board via the same 3rd May, 2016 letter stated that an external investigative panel was constituted to investigate the matter (See PAGE 2 of letter of 3rd May, 2016 for list of members of the panel) (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED). It is worth of note that the use of external panel is alien to the JDA’s Conditions of Service as it is only the Appointment Promotion and Disciplinary Committee (APDC) that is empowered to consider and make appreciate recommendations to the Board on all disciplinary issues involving senior staff. This has been the practice for similar cases that have occurred in the past including petition written against past Board and even cases involving thefts and forgery of documents.
11. Most of the members of the External Panel are friends of the ED F&A (the main accuser), while some members of the panel are known to have benefited one way or the other from JDA through the ED F&A.
(a) Amb. Ahmed Magaji: He is the chairman of the external panel and an in-law to ED F&A, his daughter was employed last November (employment for which staff were accused of speaking against), after about eight (8) top level staff were retired due to high staff emoluments. In November, 2014, he was given US$500,000 CASH from the money for house purchased in Sao Tome (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED). There are many questions begging for answer:
(i) How come JDA didn't transfer the $500K to the vendor's account as was done with the $900K and $600K paid for the house?
(ii) How could a serving Nigerian Ambassador to STP become money transfer agent for JDA?
(iii) How did he move such amount of cash through our bothers to STP considering that maximum of $10,000 cash can be moved with declaration in line with anti money-laundering act?
(b) Mr. Lawal Abubakar: A member of the panel, former JDA staff and a friend of ED F&A, got a contract for supply of 4 Tricycles for N1.6M paid via an Eco-bank Cheque (27th April, 2016) after the constitution of the panel (EVIDENCE TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED).
(c) Amb. Antonio Correia: Serving Saotomean Ambassador to Nigeria is a member of the panel. His daughter was also employed by the Board in November 2015. His daughter who works in Board Secretariat was supposed to be suspended like the other 3, but was excluded.
Obviously, the panel members are prejudiced and not capable of carrying out an honest investigation. How could these members of the panel have given fair hearing and act against their friend, in-law and benefactor?
Unconfirmed reports have it that the panel which submitted its report to the Board more than a month ago, expectedly indicted all the accused staff except Mr. Tijani Tukur, who took the US$500,000 to Amb. Magaji. The Board has refused to release the report till date.
12. The one-month suspension issued to the eight staff was supposed to end on 25th May, 2016; however, the Board via a letter dated 24th May, 2016 directed the suspended staff to immediately proceed on their 2016 annual leave with effect from 25th May, 2016 “to enable the panel conclude its investigation”. It is pertinent to state that there is no provision for “forced leave” in the JDA’s COS (See Section 11 [pages 48 – 54]). The action of the Board in this regard clearly contradicts the provisions of the JDA’s COS.
13. On 31st May 2016, the Board informed all staff that the JDA would be closing down due to a lack of funds to pay salaries and maintain operations and that only "few selected staff" would be retained and paid half salary. This is despite the receipt of =N=350m from the government of Nigeria in March 2016.
14. The JDA Board, from 14th June 2016 issued letters to thirty six (36) out of JDA’s fifty nine (59) staff. This comprises twenty three (23) Nigerian staff and thirteen (13) Saotomean staff. The thirty six staff were directed vide the letters, not to report to work effective 13th June 2016 as the Board and Management of JDA are scaling down JDA activities and staffing due to funding challenges (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED). The said letter which came without proper notice has led to a situation whereby the affected staff who like all JDA staff have not been paid any allowance in the 2016 budgetary year, have had to stay at home without pay, for an undetermined period (13th June, 2016 till date).
15. The affected staff wrote a letter to the Hon. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Leader of Nigerian delegation to the JMC) on 27th June 2016 (COPY OF LETTER TO BE PROVIDED BY MOHAMMED). The letter, which complained of the lack of objectivity and in-human treatment in the down-scaling exercise, clearly stated that the JDA is a viable project, there is no justification for the current staff restructuring embarked upon by the JDA Board and that there is no authority for the JDA Board to restructure staff without recourse to the JMC.
16. Up till now, no official communication has been received from the Hon. Minister of State Foreign Affairs in response to the letter written. In view of the absence of JMC, it is now appropriate to escalate the matter to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigerian in line with the provisions of the Treaty for the removal and replacement of two (2) Nigerian Executive Directors.
17. The acts of impunity have continued unabated as Mr. Kashim Tumsah has given contract employments to his nephew and one of other person when staff who have put in up to fourteen (14) years of active service have been asked to stay at home. He also masterminded the on-going relocation of the headquarters from its present location (Plot 1101, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja – as provided for in the Headquarters Agreement) to a new location (No. 13, Audu Ogbe Street, Jabi, Abuja).
18. Despite the fact the Nigerian Government recently released the sum of One Billion Naira to the JDA, the JDA has only recalled five staff (2 Nigerians and 3 Santomeans) to resume work in January 2017 while all others will continue to stay at home without any communication whatsoever on the fate.
19. Currently, a total number of sixteen (16) staff are being supervised by three (3) Executive Directors, whereas the salary of one (1) ED can conveniently pay the salaries of ten (10) staff on middle cadre.
20. These and many more are the acts of the impunity that have been perpetuated by the Board under a government which prides itself on its fight against corruption yet appears to condone such impunity.
21. This situation has brought untold hardship to the affected staff some of whom are finding it difficult to meet their basic financial obligations. Some are sick and cannot access proper health care due to lack of fund. Some of the staff have loan obligations to banks which have been harassing staff due to inability to meet obligations. The staff are in a “limbo” as they have not been on salaries and the fact that they have not been disengaged from the organization has made it impossible for them to access their terminal benefits and a percentage of their pension to at least meet domestic needs.
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