Ebonyi’s secretary of controversies

Fidelis Mbam, Secretary to Ebonyi State Government (SSG), seems to have achieved notoriety for controversies. To Mbam, Chief of Staff in the immediate past regime in the Salt State of the Nation, controversy walks on all fours.

Recently, the governing council of the state university (Ebonyi State University, Abakiliki) frowned at ‘excessive interference and meddlesomeness’ of Mbam as SSG into the affairs of the institution. The council members are angry that Mbam, in defiance of due process, foisted his personal friend, Professor Francis Idike, on the university as vice chancellor. Thus Mbam had to deploy his official powers to get Idike, former deputy vice chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), appointed vice chancellor far and above other qualified candidates.

This is not the only instance of Mba’s controversies. Last year, he was, alongside others, summoned to the Zone 9 Police Headquarters, Calabar, Cross River state to answer to allegations of an attempted murder. The SSG is being accused of conspiracy and an attempt to assassinate a labor leader, Comrade Onyemaechi Eke, May 3 last year. Eke, the state’s chairman of the Public Service Negotiating Council, had, within the time range, led workers to declare labor dispute in the state, a situation which exposed him to attacks by government officials, including Mbam. Instantly, Mbam authored a letter which sent Eke and his fellow labor leaders on an indefinite suspension. And Mbam has, despite protests and threats of sympathy strike by various sister labor unions across the country, including the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), refused to reinstate the suspended labor leaders.

Perhaps, more disturbing and scandalous is the alleged failure of Mbam to give details of how he spent the sum of N150 million, which he was said to have collected from the state government for the purpose of providing furniture and giving a facelift to the cabinet office. The scandal is currently causing ripples in the state.

Mbam reportedly secured approval of the state Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, for the fund so as to replace worn out seats, desks and other furniture in some offices within the cabinet office, as well as cladding the foreground of the cabinet office. But sources within the cabinet office testify that instead of providing the chairs and other items indicated in the request for release of the N150 million, Mbam, merely traveled to Lagos and bought few writing tables including the one currently in his office as well as a few locally made tables without most of the offices getting supplies.

A source informs KlinReports: “It is now about four months after the SSG collected the money. When he was asked he told the Governor that the supplier which he paid for the items has disappeared promising that he has sent people who know him to track him down. But the surprising thing was that weeks after eye brows were raised about the non supply of the items, he called photographer to take pictures of the big table in his office ostensibly to confuse the governor on the type of equipment he bought”.

The source, also, discloses how the SSG ordered two trips of sand and gravel to be supplied to the foreground of the cabinet office, expressing dismay that some officers were taking undue advantage of Elechi’s enthusiasm for development to line their pockets.

“Mbam knows the Governor would not physically come around the cabinet office to see the items procured. This is not the first time he is using subterfuge to bamboozle the Governor. The other time he kept back a letter from the authorities of the teaching hospital only to turn around and accuse the officers of fraud”, the source adds.

KlinReports could not get the SSG to comment on his knack for controversies, specifically, on the issues involved, but the state commissioner for information, Ken Uhuo, while reportedly declining to comment on the matter, maintains that from day one, the state Governor made every appointee understand that with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) in place, every officer should be prepared to account for his deeds in office.

For Mbam, it’s controversies all the way.