Posted by 9jabook.com on November 15, 2009 at 4:20am
Vincent Ogbulafor, PDP Chairman, in NYSC scandal
As the Peoples Democratic Party continues to defend the integrity of its senior officials, a NEXT investigation shows that the party’s national chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, is facing a potential criminal liability case as the status of his National Youth Service is now being called to question. Available documentary evidence and testimonies from aides show that at the time Mr. Ogbulafor claimed he was under-going the mandatory national youth service scheme, in 1993, he was in fact serving as the Commissioner for Works, Land, Housing and Transport in Abia State.
The NYSC hullabaloo is not an isolated case. In at least two other instances, Mr. Ogbulafor’s ethics have been called into question. In 2000, he was accussed, in a petition sent to the ICPC of fraudulently stealing N104 million naira belonging to the Federal Government. Also, the Human Rights Justice and Peace Foundation has raised questions regarding the source of the money the PDP chairman used to acquire his palatial home in Abuja.A 44year old youth
The questions surrounding Mr. Ogbulafor’s NYSc’s status were raised because a copy of his resume that was boldly displayed on the PDP’s web site showed that the national chairman of the ruling party did not do the NYSC programme after his graduation, but waited for 18 years- by which time he was well into his 44th year - before electing to go for service, a statutory programme designed for graduates of universities and holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) below the age of 30.
However, Mr. Ogbulafor’s office moved fast to tweak the resume that was displayed on the PDP web site, after our enquiries on Wednesday. By Thursday evening what was initially entered as “NYSC Certificate...1993/1994” was now adjusted to read “NYSC Certificate Nov 1993/94.” It is unclear why Mr. Ogbulafor’s office thought this was the necessary way to proceed, since by that slight adjustment he revealed that he had completed his tenure as a commissioner before engaging in the scheme. In such an event, Mr. Ogbulafor would indeed be deemed to have committed a crime under the NYSC Act.
Mr. Ogbulafor, a 1975 graduate of Economics and Political Science from the Lake Forest College, Illinois, in the United States had apparently waited until 1993/1994 before participating in the NYSC programme. The PDP chairman refused to answer phone calls and text messages requesting that he shed light on this aspect of his resume. Party officials also refused to comment. Repeated calls to the party spokesman, Nuru Alkali, a professor of political science, were also unacknowledged.
When NEXT contacted , Chijioke Adindu, the spokesperson for the PDP chairman, he could not tell us the state where Mr. Ogbulafor served and his place of primary assignment, but simply said, “this thing is a personal issue, I can’t really say now. I will check and call you later.” He was, however, sure that Mr. Ogbulafor served in 1994. “The NYSC is 1994. It is 1993 to 1994 November 20th. I haven’t gone to the website; I will go there and check. All I’m saying is that it is not 1993; it is 1994, between November 1993 to 14th November 1994. He served as a commissioner only for three months in Abia State before the military took over”.
When NEXT tried to contact the National Youth Service Corps headquarters in Abuja to try and get answers to questions surrounding Mr. Ogbulafor’s participation in the NYSC scheme, we were told that as the NYSC camp was in session, there was no one available to respond to our questions.
The National Youth Service Corps Act
Section 12 of the NYSC Act makes it obligatory for every Nigerian seeking employment and who claimed to have obtained a first degree or its equivalent at the end of the academic year 1973-74 or at the end of any subsequent academic year to produce a copy of the Certificate of National Service or a copy of any exemption certificate as the case my be.
However, Mr. Ogbulafor’s resume contains several other instances in violation of the provision of the NYSC Act. He was employed as the Regional Sales Director, West Africa for Chemetron Corporation between 1976 and 1979. Also, between 1981 and 1986 he was the National Secretary of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.
Prior to 1993 [or even 1994] when he claimed to have participated in the NYSC programme, Mr. Ogbulafor held a number of political and public sector appointments. In 1989 he was made a board member of the Imo State Sport Council, a position he held until 1991. In the year that followed, he was appointed by Ogbonnaya Onu as a Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State on Economic Affairs. Subsequently in 1993 he was made the state’s Commissioner for Works, land, Housing and Transport.
A curious case
Chidi Odinkalu, a legal expert and the Africa Programme Director of the Open Society Justice initiative, found this revelation difficult to comprehend. “This is curious at best” he said. “I could say worse about it. By the time he did his youth service in 1993-94, he would have been over 45 years old. That would have required an exemption for him to get there.”
On the political appointments of the PDP chieftain, Mr. Odinkalu wondered how he managed to pull all that off .“He served as adviser to the Governor of Abia and as Commissioner in the state cabinet without an NYSC certificate. How did he clear the screening hurdle?” he wondered. Querying the 18 years hiatus between Mr. Ogbulafor’s graduation from college and when he claimed to have participated in the NYSC programme, Mr. Odinkalu said Mr. Ogbulafor’s actions don’t make sense and are perhaps indicative that there is more to this than meets the eye.
“This is a question of fact”, said Jiti Ogunye, a Lagos based activist lawyer. “If you subject his claim to probability test you will then come to a conclusion that he lied in his CV”. Thus he referred to Mr. Ogbulafor’s resume as a “padded CV” a term he explained is a euphemism for “blatant falsehood”. “It is unlikely for someone who is a commissioner to have participated in the National Youth Service Corps the same year because participation will then mean that as a commissioner he was in an NYSC camp in a particular state and was then posted to a particular place of primary assignment”, explained Mr. Ogunye.“Was he posted to Abia State as a commissioner? Is that his place of primary assignment? Further, would it then mean he participated in all the programmes and activities of the NYSC in that period including the days that were set aside for community service and so on?”
In the light of this, Mr. Ogunye said two facts have been brought to the fore. “He didn’t participate in any youth service corps or if he ever did, he didn’t participate in the year as he claimed.” Either way, Mr. Ogunye said “he will be a liar”.
Chinua Asuzu, an Abuja based lawyer, agrees with Mr. Ogunye. First, he said since Mr. Ogbulafor stated that he had participated in the NYSC programme, exemption does not apply to him.“If the facts are as you have stated, Mr. Ogbulafor and all those who employed him before he obtained his NYSC Discharge Certificate violated the law” In addition, Mr. Asuzu said “If you find out that he never even participated in the NYSC scheme, then he committed a criminal offence for which he ought to be prosecuted since the Nigerian criminal law has no statute of limitation”.
The NYSC Act is very clear about the punishment that awaits anybody that violates any provisions of the act. Section 13 of the NYSC Act spells out jail terms ranging from one year for not participating in the youth service programme to three years for failing to comply with the provision of the act and forgery of the NYSC certificate. This punishment applies to anybody who violates the provision of the act and the employer of such a person.
In the eye of the storm
NEXT investigations reveal that this is not the first time Mr. Ogbulafor will be embroiled in controversy. In 2000, while serving as the Minister for Special Duties (Economics Affair), Mr. Ogbulafor was alleged by one Chika Nwandibia to have fraudulently appropriated N104 million naira belonging to the Federal Government. This was contained in a petition written to the President Umaru Yar’Adua by Chidi Nwosu, the president of an Aba based civil society group, Human Rights Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF). The petition called on Mr. Yar’Adua to compel the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) to prosecute Mr. Ogbulafor after he was indicted by the commission for fraud. Citing the case file that indicted Ogbulafor as Ref.NO.ICPC/P/NC/477/2005/37, Mr. Nwosu said that during the investigation, it was revealed “that Prince Ogbulafor and several others shared the loot and doctored the papers to cover their paths.”
He also claimed that Mr. Ogbulafor “in a rare show of honesty in dishonesty admitted receiving N2 million from the lump sum. He however claimed that it was an ex-gratia payment to aid him pursue an undisclosed political venture.” According to the petition, “the sharing formula showed that Prince Ogbulafor was given N28 Million through one Chris Nwoke, who according to Prince Ogbulafor is well known to him.”
When Mr. Yar’Adua refused to act on the petition, Mr. Nwosu proceeded to a Federal High Court, Abuja to obtain an order to compel the ICPC to act on the report of its investigation on Mr. Ogbulafor or release the document to the human rights group. On 20th August 2009, the court granted Mr. Nwosu leave to apply for an order (Suit No. FHC/ABJ/M/451/09) compelling ICPC to release the documents indicting Mr. Ogbulafor or to prosecute him. According to Mr. Nwosu, unfortunetly, the order was granted by a Judge M.G Umar who was standing in at the time as a vacation Judge. Since then according to Mr. Nwosu, he has found it difficult to get any judge to accept the case as many seem to be actively avoiding it.
Another accusation hanging over Mr. Ogbulafor is that made by the Human Rights Justice and Peace Foundation who say Mr. Ogbulafor bought a N400 Million mansion located at 45, Mamman Nasir Street, Asokoro, Abuja, three days after he was appointed the chairman of the PDP. According to a statement credited to the group; “We are aware that Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was not a business mogul before his assumption of office. Without doubt, the sum of N400,000,000.00 expended by Prince Ogbulafor is clearly an indication of an accretion to his personal resources which should attract his prosecution since he has no satisfactory explanation.”
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