Embattled Director General of the Nigeria Tourism Development Commission (NTDC) Mrs. Sally Uwechue-Mbanefo may have settled for more controversies as she has refused to honour invitations to appear before a probe panel set up to investigate her role in the failed Brazil 2014 Fan’s village.
The Minister of Culture, Tourism & National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke had on the accusation of financial impropriety and betrayal of trust against the DG by President of Za Entertainment, Mr. Azania Omo-Agege set up a probe panel to unearth the truth of the matter and report back to him.
The four member panel is co-chaired by the Director General of National Commission for Museum and Monuments, Mallam Yusuf Usman and Director of Human Resources Management in the Ministry Dr. Ochapa Ogenyi.
We learnt that Mbanefo believes that since she was appointed by the President of Nigeria the same way the Minister was appointed, the minister has no right to set up a panel to investigate her. She also believes she cannot appear before a panel headed by her colleagues in the ministry.
Our source in the NTDC disclosed that the panel also invited the Directors of Administration, Marketing, HTT, Finance and head of project unit; Fatimah Obadakin who were initially restrained from appearing before the panel because the NTDC DG ceased their invitation letters but after some other developments were released to honour the invitation.
The President of Za entertainment has told us that he and other parties in the case have since appeared before the panel and were awaiting their decisions on the matter. He also confirmed that Mbanefo was invited by the panel twice but refused to show up.
Our source informed us that while the NTDC DG informed the panel that she couldn’t appear before it on health grounds, she was busy travelling and paying courtesy calls on other agencies.
“That was the time she paid a courtesy visit on the National Planning Commission and so cannot claim to be sick,” the source said.
It is however unclear what the minister may have decided to do with this case as there are insinuations that she is relying on other contacts in the presidency strong enough to sway any recommendation from him to the President.
Society Reporters NG had reported the scuffle between Uwechue-Mbanefo and Omo-Agege in Brazil over the proposed Nigerian Fans Village which never took off. Omo-Agege claimed the DG never kept her own side of the bargain after collecting money from sponsors, while she in turn accused him of trying to defraud her. The controversy got worse when Omo-Agege alleged that the DG wanted to destroy the agreement both parties had, which led to the fight in a hotel lobby in Brazil.
In another development, we discovered that the relationship between the NTDC DG and her staff is deteriorating everyday as she deals with them without regard for the laws and regulations guiding the Federal Civil Service of Nigeria.
In a set of documents made available to us, her Personal Assistant, Mrs Ewuzie Patricia who is also an Assistant Director on August 6, 2014 in a memo (NTDC/PR 1872/1) was queried on an accusation of emotional outburst which was alleged to have embarrassed the DG and ridiculed her office.
The query signed by Acting Director Admin and Supply, B.O Eboka read: “such acts are scandalous and they constitute unruly behavior (PSR 030301 a (II) and acts unbecoming of a public officer (PSR 030402) respectively.
“You are therefore expected to make a defence within 48 hours why disciplinary action should not be taken against you.”
Ewuzie in her reply on August 7, 2014 stated that: “I wish to state that I was asked by the DG to explain why I did not inform her of the courtesy visit of Abuja Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, so that she can be officially dressed for the occasion.
“I responded that I had informed her by text on 5th August 2014 by 9.58am and the 6th morning by 9.20am. I also explained that I had reminded her verbally of the courtesy call on the evening of the 5th before she left office. The text messages are all in my phone and that is the mode of communication with my DG over similar matters.
“There was no outburst on my part; I was only trying to explain to my DG regarding the courtesy visit and her not dressing to suit the occasion.”
As the reply was received, in utter disregard for the rules, Ewuzie was suspended from office.
It reads: “In view of the seriousness of the offence, you are hereby suspended from office for one week with effect from Monday, 11th August to allow for further investigation.”
When we called Mrs Ewuzie to hear the case directly from her, the understandably terrified civil servant said: “I don’t know who told you and I don’t know you. It is a family matter and I don’t want to get into more trouble.”
When we then contacted Mbanefo to get an explanation to these allegations, she asked to be excused for an hour since she can’t talk where she was. Afterwards calls and messages made to her were not responded to.