President Bola Tinubu has been urged to save the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) from Mr Ahmed Ja’afaru whose actions are crippling the effective functioning of the Service.
Ja’afaru, a former Controller-General of the NCoS, and presently, the Secretary of the Civil Defense, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) alleged fraudulent activities have led to low morale, bribery, and nepotism in the service.
Some serving and retired officers of the NCoS who spoke through Mr A Abubakar, yesterday morning, made the call while detailing what they called, “Personification of fraud by Ja’afaru at NCoS.”
According to them, Ja’afaru whose parents migrated from Niger Republic has taken the NCoS as his estate deciding who will be Controller-General and who plays what roles in the service.
“It is unfortunate that the Correctional Service has become an estate of a manipulator, a deft tactician who is determined to cover his fraudulent records to the extent that he descended so low to take up the position of Secretary of Board, a position that was meant for a Director in the service having served as a Controller-General of NCoS.
The Secretary is the least in order of protocol of the Board because he is a Director in the eyes of the law establishing the Board.
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“Secondly, nobody would ever imagine that a retired CGC would accept to take a position where he would be taking notes in Board meetings for his subordinates like Controller Generals of Agencies who were at most Deputy Controllers in 2016 when Ja’afaru became Controller-General.
“Thirdly, it is argued that even if the position of Secretary were to be for retired CGC, Ja’afaru should have emulated the Police Service Commission where the most senior IG seat for a term before the next senior IG comes in.
“Ja’afaru from his records when he was a lecturer, not the recently doctored records, is about 80 years old, this can easily be verified if he can produce his Gazette publication from 1998 to 2000; his activities in the NCoS has caused international partners like the Red Cross to withdraw their activities in Nigeria and as Nigerians who want the Correctional Service to be truly correctional, the likes of Ja’afaru should be investigated and prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others, including his cronies that are boasting that they have enough money to ensure cover-ups.
“How did we get to this situation where Ja’afaru single-handedly got his cousin, Haliru Nababa, a very corrupt and incompetent person to replace him as the Controller-General and sneaks in at night to carry out the functions of the Controller-General because Nababa does not know what to do.
“Ja’afaru should explain why Tsalha Abubakar whose carelessness and gross misconduct led to jailbreak when he was in charge of MSCC, Minna had to be rewarded and promoted to Controller and set up in Pension Office to recommend the retirement of good and unblemished officers. In whose interest was the jailbreak if the fight against terrorism must involve every well-meaning Nigerian?
“The activities of Ja’afaru in the Correctional Cooperative Society, CoCoS, and CIWIS should be investigated because that is where he readily dips his hands, three years after leaving office as the Controller-General, he is still in charge of the funds.
“A new Controller-General should be appointed to replace Mr Haliru Nababa while the investigation is going on because Nababa is an accomplice and will readily distort the records.
“Also, Mr Salisu Mamman, who is Ja’afaru’s nephew and made the Principal Staff Officer, PSO to Nababa should be investigated for his activities at CIWIS.
“The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and other security agencies should assist President Bola Tinubu to achieve desired results in the fight against terrorism and corruption by investigating Ja’afaru no matter the amount of money that he is ready to give out as bribe.
“We can say this because President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has shown within this period of being in office that he desires a progressive Nigeria, a Nigeria which is functional; we cannot continue to have a correctional service that inmates cannot be trained to be productive, where inmates cannot be properly fed and have access to medical facilities because of corruption as personified by Ja’afaru.”
