By Auwal Mohammad
Gombe (Nigeria) – Executive Secretary, Gombe State Emergency Management Agency, Danlami Rukuje, has denied diversion of relief materials meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.
On Wednesday, Gombe zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a press statement saying it arrested Mr. Rukuje, over alleged diversion and selling of relief materials supplied to IDPs by the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative.
Speaking to Journalists on Friday in Gombe, the Executive Secretary said that he sold cement and paint supplied in order to save the items from expiring, and getting destroyed.
Rukujei said he earlier sent a letter to the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative Committee on July 3, 2017 with reference number GO/SEMA/PCNI/1334V.1, drawing their attention on the need to distribute the items to avoid keeping it for unnecessary long periods, but no reply was received.
“That forced us to sell the items in the open market, because the cement and paint were being kept in an unsafe area for longer than necessary, and that there was every likelihood the items may get destroyed.
The SEMA head said already, the 2 X 3inch wood supplied by the contractor has been completely damaged because it was kept in an open store.
“About 3 weeks back, I had reason to go to EFCC office, one of my staff had told me that EFCC had come to our store but the store keeper was not around, so I told the store keeper to go to them because that is the noble thing. He went on Monday and met the head of operations. My initial reaction to the report was that let everybody believe what he wants to believe, because for each of us, your principal judge should be yourself. In every work you do, you should be able to rate yourself, whether you’ve done well or not.
“When I went they brought issues of materials and I told them that I’m aware of it. Sometime in April, some contractors came to Gombe, one of the contractors went to our warehouse, and said he had been given a contract by the Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative to supply certain materials and deliver in Gombe, so I asked whether he was to deliver to SEMA or NEMA and he said no. that a lot of them delivered in NEMA warehouse and it is now filled, and so they tried to see if they could rent a warehouse in town but there was none.
“My assumption was that this will be what will be used during Sallah, fasting came and went, there was no communication, no distribution. So early in July, I had to write a letter and my reason for the letter was because I went to the warehouse and realized that we have lost the timber. The timber was exposed outside (2/3) for three months none of them is useful now, you go there and check it and the warehouse I have is an open warehouse,” he said.
“By civil service, that was a confrontational letter, but I had to do that. You can’t bring things for me in April and by July, you can’t say a word about it, I don’t think that is responsible. I didn’t get a reply, so I had to take a decision on what to do. My safest, and that’s what a lot of Nigerians do, will be to close my eyes, allow the cement to block, allow the paint to spoil, and nobody will ask me, its government property, we have a lot of it in this country, you saw the timber in NEMA, nobody asked how manage it spoilt.
“So I decided unliterary, whatever it will take, whatever it will cost, I will not watch cement and paint go bad like the timber though there was nothing I could do about it. So I asked my staff how much they sell cement in the market (wholesale) they said N2, 400, how much do they sell paint in the market (wholesale), they said N2,300 . So I said go and sell these stuff for me, worst scenario is that when it is required, I replace it.
“I told them to sell cement at N2, 300 and paint N1, 850 with the total amount at N10 m,” he said..
Good job Mr Ruguje tested and trusted u are a leader.