A former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, was kicked out of the agency last week by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over allegations of corrupt enrichment. But Jamoh is still catching cold over an impending invitation to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which sources insist he has questions to answer as regards his stewardship at NIMASA in the past four years
By Our Correspondent
Since Bola Ahmed Tinubu became the president of Nigeria last year, Dr Bashir Jamoh, now sacked Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), had never been comfortable because he bore a baggage full of alleged corruption. Though Jamoh was constantly pampered by former President Muhammadu Buhari amid numerous allegations of corruptly enriching himself while he ran the affairs of NIMASA as Director General, the ousted Jamoh had remained jittery and apprehensive over his fate at NIMASA under Tinubu government whose election into the Aso Rock Villa as president and Commander – in – Chief he (Jamoh) had allegedly contributed a large chunk of NIMASA funds to bankroll some aspects.
Jamoh, though, was among the very first callers, among such other numerous sycophants, to Tinubu’s residence in Lagos to dobale (a Yoruba slang for paying obeisance) for Tinubu after the Jagaban of Lagos won the presidential election early last year, he had the premonition that Tinubu did not like the alleged corruption smell that dropped from NIMASA under his leadership.
There had been a speculation that Tinubu would sack Jamoh since last year. Credible sources had hinted that last year, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the wife of the president had developed keen interest in the agency, and had penciled down a replacement for Jamoh with someone who hails from the South west. For example, in its edition of October 15, 2023, Tentacle had published as part of its Cover Story, an article with the title: “Tinubu Eyes NNPCL, NPA, NIMASA”. But the man at the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, narrowly escaped Tinubu’s axe for some reasons. Since the story broke out, Jamoh had remained a shadow of himself.
As a smart Fulani personality, Jamoh had tried to deploy, sometimes nauseating, Public Relations cum marketing journalism tactics to smear his clearly dented personality as the NIMASA boss. For this reason, Jamoh was constantly in the news 2/4/7 with many frivolous and unreasonable outings deliberately cooked, packaged and dished out to the media by his powerful media team.
The latest of Jamoh’s arranged awards for credible performance as DG-NIMASA, which he deployed to con critical stakeholders of NIMASA, came barely a week before his inglorious exit from the agency.
However, despite the orchestrated media hype occurring while NIMASA suffocated within, it was gathered that Tinubu had never been impressed with Jamoh’s performance. Part of the evidence to confirm Tinubu’s lack of interest in Jamoh’s deceitful advances to court his attention, occurred on Friday, January 26, 2024 when Jamoh struggled with futility to get noticed at a Nigeria Customs Service’s (NCS) event in Ikeja Lagos, where he was invited as a special guest.
The event was the International Customs Day (ICD) celebration, when it was his turn to present a goodwill message, Jamoh had begun with lamentation that he had never been invited to customs events since he became the NIMASA boss, and wondered what his sins could be. He had begged the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Adewale Adeniyi to thenceforth never to forget to carry him along in all of Customs events, probably because Jamoh had estimated that the Customs CG is enjoying some kind of cordial relationship, as a Yoruba indigene, with the Jagaban of South west Zone.
Incidentally at the event, Jamoh who prided himself in his phony performance at NIMASA, was to be humiliated when numerous other maritime operators and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) were honoured with awards for excellent performance by the World Customs Organization (WCO), including the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello Koko, but Jamoh’s name was missing in the list of the recipients of the honour.
There is no gainsaying the fact that Jamoh may have actually put up some commendable outings as DG-NIMASA. However, his detractors alleged that his unquenchable appetite for the filthy lucre may have lured him into toying with the NIMASA funds, albeit allegedly, and got his fingers burnt in the process. At a point, all the three Executive Directors of NIMASA under Jamoh administration, were said to have lamented that NIMASA was drifting under Jamoh.
As NIMASA Director General, Jamoh had aspired to contest the 2023 governorship election in his home state of Kaduna but was prevailed upon by his benefactors to drop the ambition for the time being. During a media event at NIMASA headquarters in January 2022, Jamoh while clearing the air on the suspense that surrounded his alleged governorship ambition, had confessed that “My people have called me to come and rule them as the governor of my state”. He said he was still considering whether to answer the governorship call to take over from Nasir el’Rufai or not. At the time, the speculation was rife that Buhari would not support the Tinubu presidential agenda, but that of Ahmed Lawan, former Senate President. Jamoh and Buhari are said to be in-laws. By virtue of the circumstances that surrounded his humiliating ouster, Jamoh has been stripped of honour as a former DG-NIMASA.
But some of his offensive acts as NIMASA Director General are not farfetched. In the first instance, the controversies that surrounded the completion of the N17 billion ultra modern edifice that now pose as the new headquarters of NIMASA in Victoria Island are still haunting Jamoh. Under the watch of a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the presidency of Buhari, the new NIMASA headquarters was rushed to completion by NIMASA, fueling suspicion that the contract was hugely inflated allegedly. Till date, no explanation has been given for abandoning the former NIMASA headquarters on Burma Road, Apapa Lagos after the agency wasted several billions of naira to give it a facelift.
Jamoh was appointed to head NIMASA in March 2020 by Buhari. Between then and Monday, March 11, 2024 when Tinubu forced him to hand over to Chudi Ofodile, an Executive Director Finance and Administration, Jamoh’s days at NIMASA were full of alleged corruption scandals.
Notably, on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, a Civil Society Organization (CSO), Centre for Public Accountability and Civil Society Partners had accused a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, of continued obstruction of justice and administrative procedures over the investigation into the allegations of corruption against Jamoh. The CSO had called on Buhari to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), to take over the investigation of Jamoh over monumental corruption allegations.
In a media conference, the Executive Director of the CSO, Olufemi Lawson, had said, “We also want the National Assembly, especially the Senate, to ask the EFCC Chairman to step aside, while a thorough investigation is carried out to unravel the mystery behind the scholarships given to his (Jamoh) siblings.
“Our focus today is premised on the worrisome involvement of the Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, whose actions are beginning to constitute an obstruction of justice.
“We have waited till today to see if the EFCC, under the leadership of Mr Bawa will do the needful as challenged by the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), to carry out a thorough investigation into allegations of diversion of funds amounting to the tune of N1.5 trillion and $9.5 million respectively, but till date, nothing visible to Nigerians, including our independent findings, has been done by the EFCC.
“Recall that on May 21, 2021, an online newspaper, Point Blank, published an exclusive story in which the newspaper alleged that the DG-NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, was involved in some shady deals ranging from blatant corruption and abuse of office.
“After more than a year, it became a kind of hide-and-seek game as nothing has been done by the EFCC. Having followed the allegations with keen interest, we stumbled on reasons why these allegations against Mr Jamoh may have been swept under the carpet”.
In retrospect, one Mr Jack Ude had accused Jamoh of alleged corruption in 2021, claiming in a series of tweets that Jamoh had allegedly diverted the sum of N1.5 trillion into his personal accounts. Ude also alleged in the tweet that Jamoh diverted another $9.5 million to a different account traced to him.
Mr Ude’s allegations had rattled Jamoh at the time, promoting him to engage all manners of defense to prove his innocence to no avail. Jamoh was under intense heat as many Nigerians began to call for his sack from NIMASA and subsequent probe. But then President Buhari would not bate an eyelid over the calls. When many CSOs mounted the pressure on Buhari to sack Jamoh, the latter was compelled to write to the EFCC to probe Mr Ude’s allegations against him, a request that never moved the anti -graft agency to action.
In a letter Jamoh addressed to the EFCC Chairman at the time, the former NIMASA helmsman had asked the EFCC to conduct a thorough and painstaking investigation into the allegations of Ude, saying thus, “I write to bring to your attention the attached online publications and tweets that have gone vital since Friday 21 May, 2021.
“The publications emanated from series of tweets of one Jackson Ude alleging the sums of N1.5 trillion and another $9,557,312.50 were traced to my personal account.
“The allegation of money laundering which impugns my integrity, character and family name, has been circulating on the social media, and also suggested that the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) be invited by security agencies to give reasons why such huge sums of money were transferred to my personal accounts instead of the Treasury Single Account.
“In view of these weighty allegations and the insidious and perniciously damaging effects on the government and the country, I hereby request that a thorough and painstaking investigation be carried out by your Commission with a view to unraveling the truth or accuracy of the allegations. This is to put the record straight on the public domain, please”.
Many observers who read in-between the lines of Jamoh’s request to the EFCC to probe him, knew he was only playing to the gallery because they knew that the EFCC lacked the biting prowess, under Buhari government, to probe a high profile Fulani man who has intimate link with Buhari.
Jamoh also ran into muddy waters at NIMASA in his quest to allegedly hijack all the contracts at the agency, using fronts and cronies from the North. He was roundly criticized for alleged contract splitting, contract inflation and contract racketeering. The allegation of contract racketeering was to pit the Executive Directors against Jamoh at a time. But again, Buhari had also played the ostrich, granting Jamoh the audacity to run NIMASA to favour his Northern Fulani oligarchy to the detriment of the Southern regions of the country.
In July 2022, the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senate, had considered the alleged siphoning of NIMASA funds by Jamoh, using various illegal channels, to be no longer bearable. Thus, the 9th Senate had found Jamoh wanting in character and integrity required to run such a Federal Government parastatal as NIMASA. Consequently, the upper legislative branch of the Nigerian legislature had, through its Panel on Public Accounts, ordered the arrest of Jamoh for allegedly paying the sum of $5 million to a legal firm as professional fee for the recovery of $9.3 billion.
The $5 million was paid for intelligence-based tracking of a global movement of Nigerian hydrocarbon and recovery of loss by the Federal Government of Nigeria for $9.3 billion between 2013 and 2014.
Additionally, Jamoh was accused of contract employment racketeering, promoting nepotism at NIMASA, jettisoning recruitment based on merit for tribal and religious sentiments, as well as the alleged recruitment of over 500 people without due process.
Last year, Jamoh had run into collision with the House of Representatives over his alleged corrupt practices at NIMASA. The lower chamber of Nigeria’s legislature had around July 2023 resolved to set up ad hoc Committee to investigate corruption allegations against Jamoh.
The resolution followed the adoption of prayers of a motion moved by the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda and four other members of the House during plenary.
According to the motion, NIMASA under Jamoh leadership was rattled by allegations of awarding fictitious contracts, gross mismanagement of funds, lopsided staff placements among others.
The House had listed some of the sins of Jamoh to include, but not limited to, contract splitting, non-operatinal speed boats, security surveillance contracts and deep blue water contracts.
Honourable Chinda also accused Jamoh of awarding contracts to his cronies, stating thus, “The agency is alleged to have entered into a very dubious contract with a firm known as XPO Marine Limited for the lease of six (6) speed boats, each at the rate of$173,930 monthly without need assessment for such facility being carried out by relevant departments of the agency.
“The said XPO Marine Limited had earlier been indicted for defrauding the agency to the tune of$80,000 in revenue”.
The House of Representatives Motion had called for thorough investigation into $175 million Integrated Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure Framework, popular as Deep Blue Water Project. Chinda said that the Deep Blue Water Project contract was “suspected to be a conduit by which the agency’s management pilfered funds”
According to Chinda, “The agency is also said to have an existing surveillance system (called Lloyd’s List Intelligence) for tracking the movement of vessels on Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“There is evidence that the agency’s Legal Department counseled against the consummation of the contract on the grounds of some fraudulent claims in the agreement, but same was not heeded.
“The facilities claimed by HSLI are said to be an existing surveillance infrastructure provided by KMBTS Limited, also an Israeli firm whose contract with the agency at the instance of the agency’s former Director General had long expired”.
In response to his recent sack, Jamoh had tried to save face by claiming that he was only relieved by President Tinubu after he completed his first four years tenure. Tentacle learnt that since last December Jamoh had been lobbying to be appointed for another four years tenure by Tinubu. This lobby led him into launching aggressive media campaign to impress President Tinubu that he was qualified to remain NIMASA boss, including his desire to accept any performance awards from any quarters, whether credible or not. Tentacle learnt that it was on the day Jamoh had begun to rejoice for having won Tinubu’s heart that the latter instructed him to hand over to Ofodile.
When contacted to comment on the sack of Jamoh, the spokesperson for NIMASA, Osagie Edward, responded that his former boss was not actually sacked as being speculated in some quarters. Edward said Jamoh had served his first four years at NIMASA which is statutory, and was not reappointed. According to him, that does not imply that Jamoh was sacked. However, a credible source at the EFCC whispered to Tentacle that Jamoh was sacked on account of corruption, and would soon be a guest to the Anti -graft agency.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Dr. Dayo Mobereola to serve as the new Director-General of NIMASA for the next four years.
Mobereola’s appointment is expected to bring vast experience in his new role to achieve the mandate of NIMASA in providing world-class standards of maritime safety administration, maritime labour regulation, marine pollution prevention and control, search and rescue, cabotage enforcement, shipping development and ship registration, by the policies and programmes of the Renewed Hope agenda for the sector as ably guided by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola.
Dr Mobereola holds a PhD and an M.Sc in Transport Economics from the University of Wales, United Kingdom. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport in England and a fellow of the same institute in Nigeria.
He was the Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, from 2003 to 2015 and was also the Commissioner for Transportation in Lagos State from 2015 to 2016.
In the private sector, he was Deputy Managing Director and Project Development Director at AFM Consulting Plc, London. He was also a Senior Economist at British Petroleum Shipping Limited, London.
