Secret Reporters No place to hide
Forget about the claim by some government officials who like to peddle the slogan “corruption fights back”. In most cases, these government officials are the ones swimming in the ocean of corruption. In fact, most of them are corruption-personified.
“Corruption fighting back” seems to have become a slogan adopted to distract the uninformed public. That seems the case with the unholy comradeship between the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service Babatunde Fowler and his partner in crime, Kayode Adebayo who was the Head of the Financial Unit from where he was assigned to man the Investigation Department of ICPC by the erstwhile Chairman of the Commission Nta Ekpo
Between 2015 and 2016, Mr Kayode Adebayo investigated the Federal Inland Revenue, Boss Babatunde Fowler over allegations of diversion of funds and connivance with some companies to defraud the government by granting tax waivers to some companies. Aside from that, Fowler was investigated by Mr Kayode Adebayo for using proxy companies to fleece government of billions of Naira.
Midway after the investigation according to a discreet investigation by LeadingReporters, Mr Adebayo was made to water down the investigation, and thus “kill” it from the insider perspective. In fact, Mr Kayode Adebayo gave Mr Babatunde Fowler a clean bill of health and this was well reciprocated by Babatunde Fowler and even led to a serious comradeship in corruption between the duo.
Our investigation revealed that no sooner the former ICPC Chairman was redeployed as a commissioner to the National Salaries and Wages commission than Kayode was “punished” with deployment as a Deputy Provost at ICPC Academic Training School (ACAN). When cases handled by Mr Adebayo Kayode was reviewed, it was discovered that Mr Kayode has leveraged on his position as the head of both Financial and Investigation Unit of the commission to amass illegal wealth with which he acquired about 12 choice properties within the Federal Capital Territory, and owned about 4 foreign accounts using proxies.
Armed with these allegations, a memo from the office of the Head of Admin, ICPC was issued, requesting that certain staff who have been believed to be culpable of corruption should declare their assets with Code of Conduct Bureau CCB. Mr Kayode Adebayo knowing that he was so close to being caught immediately reached out to Fowler proposing to switch to Federal Inland Revenue Service on two years secondment in the first instance. This was to enable him to escape from the impending investigation which his assets declaration would have necessitated after he got wind that he would be soon nailed and prosecuted.
Mr Adebayo Kayode in 2007 transferred his service to ICPC from the National Primary Health Care Agency. From a poor average civil servant, Kayode through dubious deals became a millionaire in Naira and dollars – All thanks to his lacklustre anti-corruption fight which became a conduit through which he filled his pocket. Today, aside from owning choice houses in Abuja, he owns a lot of foreign accounts using proxies.
Meanwhile, a group of Nigerians under the auspices of League For Defence of Leadership Morality have vowed to revisit the case where those entrusted with leadership positions and anti-corruption fight are the ones perpetrating the same corruption for which they have prosecuted others. The group, led by its National Coordinator – Ibrahim Nura has vowed to take all the necessary steps towards changing these glaring anomalies and bringing everyone culpable to book.
Source: LeadingReporters
