Anti-graft group accuses Kingibe of benefiting from racketeering, forgery, alteration and substitution of FM and television broadcast licenses
A Civil Society Organisation with focus on the fight against graft,
Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, CACOBAG has accused a
former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Ambassador
Babagana Kingibe of being one of the 10 beneficiaries of radio
licenses recently doled out by the National Broadcasting Commission,
NBC.
The CSO in a statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Toyin Raheem on
Thursday said they had made a fresh discovery after their initial
investigation, which showed that the embattled Director General of the
NBC, Mallam Ishaq Kawu Modibbo recently allocated six slots of Radio
license to his private company, Word, Sound and Vision (WSV)
Multimedia Ltd and another 10 to companies that did not apply or on
the list approved by President Buhari.
According to CACOBAG, “we are again compelled to draw the attention of
President Buhari and indeed the Nigerian public to another finding,
which indicates that one of the 10 radio licenses doled out
by the leadership of NBC is owned by Amb Babagana
Kingibe who used his position and influence to award to his company through his children as proxies. The 10 companies that did not apply or bided for any radio
license were smuggled into a list already approved by President
Buhari.
“Our investigations shows that one of the beneficiaries
of the doctored license list is Oracle Exclusive Services and Consult
Ltd, with its registered address as 20 Monrovia Crescent, Wuse 2,
Abuja. Further investigations also reveal that the company has only
two directors/shareholders, who are both children of Mr Kingibe,
namely; Abdulkabir Kingibe and Zara Aminu Deribe, who both gave the
same address as 59 Nelson Mandela Crescent, Asokoro, Abuja, the personal residence of Amb Kingibe”
“This is obviously another confirmation of one of the ways the deadly
Cabal around President Buhari operates by circumventing due process
and manipulating his approvals for personal benefits. We believe this
is totally unacceptable in a country governed by rules and
regulations. This is an abuse of office and a display of sheer greed.”
The Non Governmental Organisation urges President Buhari and the
anti-graft agencies that had been petitioned on this matter to move
swiftly and probe its allegation against NBC and its leadership. “We
reiterate our earlier call on President Buhari to immediately direct
the EFCC and ICPC to launch an investigation into this embarrassing
development to protect the integrity of the administration, which
professes zero tolerance for corruption as one of its principal
pillars. We equally assure the public of our commitment to expose
corruption anywhere we find any”, CACOBAG stated.
They promised that in the event that the federal government and its
anti-graft agencies fail to act by probing these allegations, “We will
be left with no other option but to approach the court to seek an
order of mandamus to compel them to do their duty as conferred on them
by the laws of the land.”
