Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
The rot in the Delta State Government of Mr Ifeanyi Okowa has spread its tentacles to the Ministry of Women Affairs, with the Governor turning a blind eye according to information reaching SecretReporters.
Documents in the possession of our newspaper detailed how the Commissioner in charge of the ministry, Mrs Omatsola Williams has turned the place into her conquered kingdom, embezzling funds at will. Multiple sources within the official complex confirmed that the sum of N3 billion released to her by State Employment and Expenditure for Results Project (SEEFOR) has allegedly been embezzled by the Commissioner.
According to our sources, the World Bank had released N3 billion to an arm of SEEFOR and it was in the control of Mrs. Omatsola Williams. The released fund was meant for the development of some Itsekiri communities.
But as common with Nigerian politicians, Omatsola Williams and one of her ally, Mrs. Akowhoarehor Orubu seized the money and diverted the money to private purse.
Investigations by SecretReporters revealed that Omatsola and Orubu have been embezzling the SEEFOR money for three years now, with no SEEFOR project in sight, in any of the three Warri Local Government Areas with about N500 Million embezzled from the project funds.
Every letter written to the State Governor by staff complaining of this unholy act ended up in the dustbin, narrated a powerful source within the government. According to the source, the money allegedly embezzled by the Commissioner is being kept faraway to use for the election of 2019 in the Warri axis, which the government considers as politically problematic.
Our reporters could not verify independently if Mr Okowa is aware that these lump of money has been diverted to fight his electoral battles instead of using it for its original purpose.
Aside from her alleged looting spree, Omotsola also committed an act of Injustice to one Mrs Constance Aboyowa who is now late. The deceased until her death was the breadwinner of her family, since her husband lost his job in the banking sector.
For reasons best known to her, Mrs. Omatsola posted the woman to Burutu LGA, away from her family, which prompted the husband to go pleading to the Commissioner to reconsider this decision and at least post the wife to somewhere closer to home, which she adamantly refused.
Compelled by this, the husband went borrowing for money to rent an apartment for his wife in Burutu so she could resume work. However, one month later, Omatsola posted Constance again; this time to Oghara in Ethiope West. And again, the husband went begging but she refused.
Due to the accommodation problem in Oghara, Constance could not go to work for a week. Disturbed by these incessant postings, Constance wrote a letter to the Head of Service who is from the Ijaw tribe to use his powers and influence Omatsola’s decisions.
In response, the Head of Service wrote to Omatsola, ordering that the posting be reverted since it is against civil service rules to post a civil servant to two different locations within one month.
Omatsola Williams refused and stopped the salary of the deceased, which led to her being sick out of frustration. She lost blood and had no money to pay for the three pints of blood as requested by the doctor. She couldn’t get the money for treatment and died as a result.
The strings of events have led the husband of the deceased to take comfort in drinking and he is now a drunkard in Asaba.
When our reporter called the Commissioner for Information, Mr Patrick Ukah to get the government side of this story, his phone rang endlessly but was not answered.
