NAFDAC BOSS PAUL ORHII IN MULTIMNAIRA FRAUD, STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE PROBE…..AS EFCC BEAM SEARCHLIGHT

The Economic Financial Crime Commission EFCC seems to have kick-start underground investigation into the allegation of fraud against the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii a source close to the anti-graft agency squealed out. Though the DG has been on the move to exonerate himself but his petitioner are not backing down, it will be recalled that

Whistleblowers at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had written a powerful petition to President Muhammadu Buhari alleging monumental fraud and waste of funds by its Director-General, Dr. Paul B. Orhii.

Dr. Orhii, a cousin of former Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa who took up his cause before President Umaru Yar’Adua, was appointed to head the agency in January 2009.  

The petitioners say the ongoing frauds include frivolous contract awards and supplies (LPOs), manipulated publicity efforts, donations, international air travel racketeering, and compulsory recertification by bottle and sachet water producers.  The complaint lists 14 companies that are being used in the money games at NAFDAC.

They cite contracts, supply and installation of furniture for the NAFDAC Isolo office at over N370m, for example, which they describe as “over inflated from the original price not more than N180m.”

Similarly, “The sum of about N400m had been illegally withdrawn from the Agency’s purse between March 2013 to December 2014,” the document says.  “This is a multimillion naira fraud by Dr. Paul Orhii and one of the legal officers in NAFDAC whose companies are usually used to perpetrate this evil.”

One of the most startling of the allegations concerns manipulation and conflict of interest in the work of the Director-General.

“Dr. Paul Orhii single handedly contracted a company belonging to himself and his associate to extract money from producers of bottle and sachet water across the nation. It was reported by one of the clients that after paying the sum of N15m to the consultant, in which his water was passed, and certificate issued to him.

“The NAFDAC lab rejected his water from being registered despite assurances given by the DG, NAFDAC’s company. This is one of the ways Dr. Paul Orhii has been extorting money illegally from innocent Nigerians for no reason.”

The petitioners also allege that over N4billion has been fraudulently withdrawn from the coffers of the agency in the past three years for fictitious advertising payment with the understanding by those responsible that Dr. Orhii would approve it.    

“We therefore, appeal to you to act fast and use your good office to save the situation and bring back the lost glory of the Agency to the dream of the founding fathers in other for NAFDAC to keep “safe guarding the Health of the Nation,” they pleaded with President Buhari.

It would be recalled that in 2008, Orhii sued SaharaReporters publisher Omoyele Sowore for $25 million in a US District Court in Texas for the website’s reporting on the seedy nature of his engagement with the Nigerian government in a proposed legal case involving Pfizer and illegal drug tests in Kano.   The court later dismissed the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction.  

A source in Aondoakaa’s Ministry of Justice warned at that time that Dr. Orhii’s appointment portended serious danger for Nigeria. 

“Aondoakaa, who oversees all prosecutions of fake drug criminals, is set to take over NAFDAC the same way he took over the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC has become a lapdog of corrupt politicians since Aondoakaa took it over,” the source said.  

Meanwhile, Dr Orhii, has been holding meetings with some close associates to President Muhammadu Buhari to explain himself to them and also seek for shelter knowing fully well that the President has strong words for corrupt officials