The travails of the embattled Prof. Innocent Ujah, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) appear to be compounding by the day. Ujah appeared at the Abuja office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for interrogation on allegation of corruption in his administration of NIMR affairs in the last 5 years as the Director General.
He was sighted by our Abuja correspondent at the Abuja office of EFCC alongside the Director of Administration, Alhaji Abdullahi S. Yunusazazzau and Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr. Shola R. Olagundoye on Friday November 13 2015. Their appearance at EFCC is concurrently going on with the investigation of the trio and other officers of NIMR by the Lagos office of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Recalled that the administration of Prof. Ujah from 2010 to date is alleged to be epitomised by corruption, nepotism, misappropriation of staff salaries and promotion arrears, fraudulent employment of workers and the distortion of staff nominal rolls to cover-up their fraudulent practices, gross impunity, autocracy and disregard for public service regulations.
The visit to Abuja office of the EFCC is barely 24 hours after the closing ceremony of the poorly attended 6th Annual Scientific Conference which held from November 10 to 12 2015. Most of the dignitaries expected to grace the ceremony which Prof. Ujah perhaps wanted to use to launder his dented image from corruption stayed away from the conference by merely sending representatives. Attendance at the conference grew thinner day after day till the last day of the closing ceremony that was sparsely attended. Someone like Mr. Linus Awute, the immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health whose name was in the programme of the occasion and was expected at the ceremony was at the same time in Abuja in a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari alongside other Permanent Secretaries fighting the battle of his life as he was among those who were eventually retired following the meeting.
InfoTrust correspondent who witnessed the ceremony gathered from some people present in the Institute’s main auditorium that the Director General no longer exhibits his usual arrogance and confidence when he speaks. They observed that, “The man is troubled. He has been subdued by the travails of facing the ICPC in the last 2 months and more recently EFCC.” They lamented that, “The man and his syndicate have actually ruined the Institute morally and financially”.
InfoTrust reliably gathered from sources who pleaded anonymity that Prof. Ujah first played Mr Integrity when he first assumed office in 2010 threatening staff that he does not condone indiscipline. Our sources lamented that, “We never knew that he was a pretender. It is now that we are realizing how badly he has damaged the Institute from the news we read about his deeds in the course of his 5 years of mismanagement.”
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The antecedents of Prof. Ujah becoming the Director General on what can be termed a platter of gold shows that the Director General is perhaps not appreciative of the privilege and opportunity of the office he occupies going by his abuse of the office as evident in the series of allegations of corruption leveled against him with convincing evidences.
Prof. Ujah, a lecturer from the University of Jos, is revealed to have being in a distant third position during the selection processes for the position of Director General of NIMR. A reliable source disclosed that Prof. Ujah who was third only became the Director General after the candidate, a renowned Nigerian Professor based in a South African University, who came first mysteriously slumped and died after collecting his letter of appointment and is expected to assume duty and another mysterious calamity befell the candidate who was adjudged second on the list.
A source disclosed that Prof. Ujah is the preferred candidate of the immediate past Director General of NIMR, Dr. Oni Idigbe, who brought Ujah into the picture connivance with some members of the then Governing Board of the Institute and some former top echelons in the Federal Ministry of Health. It was further revealed that Dr. Idigbe and his allies frantically frustrated the efforts of his Directors who made efforts to succeed him as insiders. Dr. Idigbe himself was reported to have enjoyed the support of most staff in the Institute to emerge as the first person from the risen through the rank and file of NIMR to become the Director General. It is not surprising the former Director General has remained a loyalist and close ally of Prof. Ujah having been benefiting contract appointment in NIMR as a Deputy Director and Coordinator Research Planning and Management after his retirement from active service at age 65 years having served 2 terms in office as NIMR Director General for 8 years.
Prof. Ujah is reported to have ridiculed the administration of Dr. Idigbe on a number of occasions in the presence of the immediate past Director General who never refuted any of Ujah’s claims of his (Idigbe) administration being never-do-well and moribund prior to his arrival in NIMR in 2010. He was alleged to have even boasted with a ridiculous statement that he would have gotten rid of Dr. Idigbe if not that he has been cooperating with him. A leaflet that was in circulation in NIMR recently was reported to have advised the former Director General, Dr. Idigbe, to honourably leave the Institute before he is disgraced having been alleged to be aiding and benefitting from the perpetration of corruption by Ujah’s administration.
InfoTrust reliably gathered that Prof. Ujah who is fondly referred to as the “grandmaster” by his Director of Administration, Alhaji Yunusazazzau in view of his skill at manoeuvering his way around is alleged to have played the Director of Administration like a pawn as in the game of chess leading to the corruption scandal in NIMR. Now the chess board has turned and Prof. Ujah with his travails is under check by a greater Grandmaster. It is a regret to see to how the mighty are falling. Is this the beginning of the end? It will be interesting for Nigerians to see how the whole corruption saga in the country’s foremost medical research institute plays out in the nearest future.
