NAFDAC Boss Reacts To Arrest By EFCC

The director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii, who was arrested and grilled yesterday, August 3, by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of abuse of office and contract fraud, has reacted to his arrest.

EFCC officials

Orhii, who arrived at the EFCC’s headquarters and was quizzed from 10.am to 5.pm said that contrary to reports that he was arrested by the EFCC, he actually went there on his own to clarify some issues bordering on allegations of corruption raised by a former director of finance, Ademola Mogbojuri. Mogbojuri who opened the can of worms that nailed the NAFDAC boss said that Orhii has a problem managing money as he allegedly misapplied funds running to billions of naira on his watch. He said, “I am not the one who wrote to Sahara Reporters or even petitioned the Federal Government on the crisis in NAFDAC as widely claimed. The truth of the matter is that the DG is quite reckless with spending.
“Before he joined the agency in 2009, the annual total revenue of NAFDAC was about N2.5bn and he met around N600m in the account. Now, the total internally generated revenue is about N9bn and the agency owes about N5bn in debt.
“Every month, I wrote about the financial position of the agency to the DG and supported it with relevant documents. Part of what we owe are government remittances which are about N1.4bn but he never allowed me to pay because he was scooping the money. Reacting to Orhii’s arrest and questioning, the director of special duties of NAFDAC, Abubakar Jimoh, who spoke on the controversy leading to his boss’s arrest, said that his boss actually visited the anti-graft office on his own pointing out that other officials of the regulatory body who were mentioned in the petition had gone to the EFCC last week to answer questions in relation to the allegations, which he described as ‘mindless’.
Jimoh said, “We have been alerted to the online trending news of the visit of the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Dr. Paul Orhii, to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission today. The visit was at the personal volition of the DG to explain the situation regarding allegations of corruption by a former Director of Finance and Accounts of the agency, Mr. Ademola Mogbojuri. Since last week, some officers who were mentioned in the allegations have been going to the EFCC to shed light and clear the air on the mindless accusations.”
Since the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, the EFCC has increased its investigations into official corruption.