A media report purportedly originating from the Director of Finance and Accounts, of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has described as untrue and baseless the allegations of corrupt practices by the former Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr. Ademola Mogbojuri, against the Director-General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhii.
The news had gone viral after some online media platforms and later, some main stream media organisations went public with corruption allegation against Orhii, attributing the source of the information to Mogbojuri.
But in a swift response to the allegation on Tuesday, NAFDAC Director of Special Duties, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh, said the allegation was malicious and lacked the elements of truth.
“Ordinarily, the publications would have been ignored except for the wrong information it would send to the public. However, for concerns expressed by the public and our stakeholders, we wish to state categorically that these allegations are baseless, false, misleading and frivolous because nothing of such has happened under the watch of Orhii as Director-General of NAFDAC,” he stated.
He alleged that Mogbojuri chose to go public with the information over his bitterness for being redeployed to another directorate due to incompetence and that he might be working for peddlers of fake drugs to distabilise the agency.
“It is a curious paradox that the so-called director of finance and accounts who has been superintending over contract awards, payments and other due processes since 2010 would now turn around to make such false and disparaging allegations against the chief executive just when he was redeployed to another directorate due to his incompetence and insubordination
“In any case, redeployment and movement of officers in civil service are a normal routine. This is not the first time since the creation of NAFDAC that directors are reshuffled. In most cases, some directors have been redeployed up to five directorates within three years in the agency. This is why we are at a loss to decipher what the hullabaloo is all about except to believe that he is being used as a willing tool in the hands of counterfeiters to derail the focused administration in its quest to safeguard the health of the nation.
“NAFDAC is aware of an orchestrated plot to throw mud at it by certain interests whose trade in unwholesome food and counterfeit drugs had been affected by proactive actions of Orhii towards ensuring that unwholesome food and counterfeit drugs become history in Nigeria. We are therefore not surprised that these allegations are coming up from a director who is already disgruntled and finding ways of hitting back at the agency and the chief executive,” he said.
Jimoh therefore urged members of the public to disregard the information, assuring Nigerians that NAFDAC management will remain focused, promising that official procedures would employed in handling the matter.
“NAFDAC will also take actions within the extant civil service rules which have spelt out measures to take against civil servants who are involved in acts of in subordination, gross misconduct and dereliction of duties,” he added
