The President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Presidential Villa,
Aso Rock,
FCT,
Abuja.
Your Excellency,
MASSIVE FRAUD IN ASCSN WORKERS’ UNION: THE NEED FOR YOUR URGENT INTERVENTIONS.
We bring you greetings and the very best of our wishes. We are members of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), a trade union affiliated to the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC). The association unionizes senior civil servants from levels seven to seventeen in both federal and the state civil service.
Sir, we are compelled to seek your urgent interventions, having exhausted all local avenues to resolve alleged massive financial fraud crisis facing ASCSN. For sometime now, ASCSN has been engulfed in deep financial crisis and on our part, we have tried to call the attention of relevant government agencies to investigate the union but it is a case of corruption fighting back. It is most unfortunate to say that these government agencies involved in investigating the union have not handled the matter satisfactorily; the EFCC and the ICPC.
These two agencies started investigating financial fraud in the union but despite what we believe to be their monumental discoveries, they have refused to conclude their investigations and prosecute the suspects. We have written these agencies, appealing to them to conclude their investigations but it is like they have d chosen to be quiet. We have also written the DSS to look into the activities of the EFCC and the ICPC in this regards but no response.
Your Excellency, we also sought the interventions of the Ministry of Labour through the two Ministers, Dr Chris Ngige and Festus Keyamo and most disappointing, there was never a response.
We are quite convinced that the EFCC and the ICPC have made enough discoveries to go ahead and prosecute the corruption matter in ASCSN but they are not doing anything in that direction.
What is more painful is that one of the suspects was alleged to have paid a courtesy visit to the EFCC boss AbdulRasheed Bawa whereas he is being investigated and the EFCC has been mute on the conclusion of their investigations.
The case file with the EFCC allegeds an embezzlement of over ten billion naira. Is the EFCC protecting suspected looters of our collective wealth ? ASCSN has over five hundred thousand members national wide and generates close to ten billion naira from check off dues yearly. In the last ten years the union would have made close to ₦100 billion but most of these have been allegedly embezzled.
Mr President Sir, we therefore appeal for your interventions to
1. In line with our union’s constitution, call for a forensic audit of the activities of ASCSN in the past ten years.
2. The probing of the EFCC and the ICPC’s handling of the fraud in ASCSN
3. Attention should be paid to issues of non remittance of check off dues by the union secretariat
4.Money laundering abroad accusations especially to Dubai, United Arab Emirates against one of the suspects.
5.That you set up your independent team to also probe the activities of ASCSN and in the end corroborate it with the findings of the forensic probe of the union.
Finally , Mr President, We like to draw your attention, the attention of all State Governors and the general public to the fact that one of the suspects at the center of the corruption in the union is a retired employee of the union,who retired in line with civil service rules and has collected his gratuities but has refused to vacate office and he has also recruited the services of one retired civil servants to act as the president of ASCSN but the workers have said no to that. We therefore call on the President and the Governors not to have anything to do on behalf of civil servants with suspects and retired civil servants under investigation for graft.
We are hopeful that your interventions will make a difference especially considering your government’s drive to zero tolerance for corruption. Civil servants have been defrauded, we want justice.
CONGRESS OF SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS OF NIGERIA . (CSCSN)
Motto : We make things work
Email: ascsncongress@gmail.com
