Two senior staff of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, who exposed corrupt practices at the corporation, leading to the indictment of its current head, Ladan Salihu, were controversially dismissed by the latter, recent investigations have shown.
Abubakar Abdulrahman, a former general manager of Pride FM, Gusau – a subsidiary of FRCN – and Ibrahim Falalu, then Assistant Chief Internal Auditor of Kaduna Zonal Office of the corporation, were dismissed by Mr. Salihu after he was appointed Director General of the public radio organ by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Although Mr. Falalu was sacked in 2014, he and other staff of the federal government-owned radio station believe his travails started five years earlier when he dared to expose the shady deals of the then Zonal Director of Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, Mr. Salihu.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how in 2009, as Zonal Director of Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, Mr. Salihu was recommended for sack after being placed on half salary by the then DG of FRCN, Yusuf Nuhu, following discovery of his alleged corrupt practices by the audit unit of the zonal office.
The shady deals in the Kaduna zone, which included counterfeiting of receipt was discovered by Mr. Falalu, who promptly submitted an internal audit report to Mr. Nuhu.
The latter set up a panel of inquiry. Based on the panel’s findings, Mr. Nuhu interdicted Mr. Nuhu, suspended him from work, placed him on half pay and wrote to the board of the corporation recommending his sack.
Some of the findings of the panel was that the FRCN receipts number 15051 in the sum of N5,620,000; number 2433 in the sum of N500,000; and number 25581 for N3,500,000 to Katsina State Government for airing of different programmes were forged.
The N5,620,000 was paid with regard to “Gaba dai gaba dai jihar Katsina”, a sponsored programme by Katsina State Government which aired on Sundays and Thursdays at the time.
According to an FRCN Board Paper number 2/2010, obtained, efforts to untie the knot surrounding the forgery were frustrated by Mr. Salihu who challenged the competence of the inquiry panel, and refused them access to key documents and relevant staff such as the head of the marketing unit at the station.
However, the government of the day did not implement the recommendations – even though that was the second time the accused was indicted for graft – due to what many staff believe was the closeness of Mr Salihu to influential politicians.
Speaking to Journalists, a seemingly unhappy Mr. Nuhu, lamented how an officer with records of graft would become head of the same organisation from which he had stolen.
The former FRCN Director General said while he recommended the termination of Mr. Salihu’s appointment, it was beyond his powers to enforce same, saying the government owns the radio corporation.
Serving and retired officials of radio corporation told reporters how Mr. Salihu boasts of his connections to any and every government in power and so believes he is untouchable and above discipline.
More exposures
Like Mr. Falalu, Mr. Abdulrahman, then General Manager of Radio Nigeria Pride FM, Gusau, Zamfara State, also suspected that Mr. Salihu was mismanaging the finances of FRCN subsidiaries under his control.
Records show Mr. Abdulrahman stopped lodging commercial revenues of the Gusau station into a joint account with the Kaduna zonal station on the grounds that Mr. Salihu’s office was diverting the deposits.
In a letter dated April 3, 2013, Mr. Abdulrahman wrote the accountant of the Gusau station saying the issue of lodging their commercial revenue into an account opened for them by the Zonal Headquarters in Kaduna was questionable.
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