Former NIA staff accuses director of embezzlement

A former employee of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Aliu Ismail Oguche, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and accused the agency’s Director of Administration, Ismaila Yusuf, of embezzling and diverting of public funds, tax evasion, money laundering, non-declaration of assets and deliberate falsehood.

In the petition dated October 16, Oguche also accused Yusuf of owning a hotel and bakery in Abuja, which he said is against the NIA service guidelines

The petitioner further accused the NIA director of operating an Illegal Bureau de Change from the hotel located in the Wuse II area of Abuja.

He also accused the NIA official of falsely declaring that he is from the Sayawa tribal group in Bauchi State when actually he is from Igala in Kogi State.

On Yusuf’s undeclared assets, Oguche said the NIA owns and operates a hotel located in Wuse II, Abuja named “Gold-plate Suites (RC 1085461).”

“He is the chairman of the hotel alongside his three children – Kabiru Ismaila Yusuf, Habiba Ismaila Yusuf and Yusuf Abba – acting as directors,” the petitioner said.

According to him, the funds siphoned from the NIA are exchanged at Yusuf’s illegal Bureau de Change.

The petition read: “Contrary to the law establishing hotel or bakery businesses, there is no signpost for the either of the two businesses, ostensibly to evade taxation payable to the Federal Inland Revenue Service and other levies payable to government.

“It may equally, have been intended to avoid paying the five percent VAT being charged on customers’ bills.

“The secrecy surrounding the operations of the hotel are both suspicious and smacks of other clandestine activities, possibly cultism.”

Oguche claimed that his findings are open secret to the staff of NIA, adding that the Director-General of the NIA, Amb. A.R Abubakar, personally visited the hotel in March this year.

He also alleged that Yasuf has another hotel in Lagos and lives in a palatial house in Wuse II, Abuja, “which is far beyond his legitimate earnings.”

Oguche urged the EFCC “to investigate and determine whether as a civil servant, Yusuf, is permitted to run these types of businesses and whether it is permissible for him to serve as a signatory to the accounts of any other businesses outside the NIA, where he is the director of administration?

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He added: “To determine whether Ismaila Yusuf has declared these properties in his assets declaration form at the Code of Conducts Bureau as required by law and whether he acquired these properties legitimately. The agency should also determine whether such properties are within his means as a public servant on fixed salary and emoluments.

The petitioner pledged to make himself available to the EFCC during the investigation into the matter.