Staff members of the Nigeria Export Processing Zone (NEPZA) have petitioned the minister of trade and investment, Dr.Olusegun Aganga, over the sale of staff estate at Ikot Ekpo, Calabar in Cross River State without recourse to laid-down procedures by the executive director of the agency, Dr. Sina Agboluaje.
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?Investigation by LEADERSHIP revealed that, following the petition dated October 03, 2011, the NEPZA helmsman convened a meeting and told his staff that he never sold? any house in Calabar? without accounting for the proceeds, and that the controversial houses were sold in line? with the monetisation policy of the federal government.
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But a former staff member of the agency who declined to have his name in print told LEADERSHIP that Agboluaje was being economical with the truth as the houses sold to staff? members as? confirmed by him were those located at MCC and Adam Duke Road.
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?LEADERSHIP authoritatively confirmed that the estate in contention is the Ikot Ekpo Housing Estate, hitherto called EPZ Houses, located on Odukpani Road, a few kilometers before the gate into the town.
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The houses were acquired by the supervising Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in the early 1990s at the cost of N100 million and transferred to the Authority along with other assets such as machinery and plants, as well as the entire Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ) itself. The MD is alleged to have single handedly sold this estate between 2004 and 2006.
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The protesting staff also informed LEADERSHIP that, sometime in August 2008, Agboluaje? tricked and intimidated his administration, accounts and audit officers to process the payment? of his severance package? in the sum of over N5 million.The officers were said to have believed? him at that time that his tenure would end on August 29, 2008, the day his four-year tenure was to end.
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But the MD was alleged to have succeeded in securing an additional two-year extension as specified in the Act setting up the Authority and never refunded nor returned the amount collected up to date.
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Investigation revealed that since the petition to the minister, the NEPZA boss has been trying to reach out to anybody who could help him douse the whirlwind.
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For instance, he was alleged to have made several efforts to meet a key director in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment through some former permanent secretaries of the ministry.
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The director, a no-nonsense lady, was said to have tasted the bitter side of the MD in the past when she was side-tracked during the constitution of the committee used in the controversial recruitment of? general managers for the Authority. The director is the ministry’s representative on the governing board of the Authority.
LEADERSHIP also gathered that another of the new general managers engaged from the outside assumed duty on October 4, 2011.