EFCC NABS NBC DG.

Director General of the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) Emeka Mba
(0 Likes)
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) yesterday arrested the Director General of
the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)
Emeka Mba for allegedly operating a secret
account into which about N17 billion funds
belonging to the commission were lodged.
EFCC operatives had been on the trail of Mr. Mba
and some of his directors since last week until
yesterday when they were able to get him.
Daily Trust gathered that Mba who was arrested
in Abuja is being interrogated at the Wuse II head
office of the EFCC.
Sources said EFCC agents traced the money to a
secret account in an unnamed bank after weeks
of investigation.
A source said the commission, under Mr. Mba
operated the account in spite of a directive by the
presidency to collapse all government accounts
into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the
Central Bank.
It was learnt that the EFCC found out that NBC
concealed the account from the TSA policy
introduced to block leakages of funds in federal
government ministries, departments and agencies.
One of our sources said: “The recent discovery of
an undeclared NBC account in one of the leading
commercial banks from which the NBC had been
paying for some ‘special projects’ long after other
MDAs had stopped making such payments in
compliance with the TSA policy triggered the
EFCC swoop.
“Cases of award of contracts without due process
and back-dating of award documents are also
being probed.
“The exclusive access to millions of naira set
aside by the NBC management to pre-empt the
looming financial squeeze of the TSA policy and
the barely concealed liquidity of several
companies being patronized by the NBC raised
eyebrows among other contractors whose
payments were stalled by TSA implementation
and they complained aloud.”
The EFCC is also investigating petitions against
the management of the NBC over alleged shady
award of contracts, sources said.
A source in the broadcast industry told Daily
Trust that the anti-corruption agency had been
watching Mba since last year.
There was a previous investigation against Mba,
based on a petition against him by some
contractors and broadcast license losers who
alleged that the process of awarding contracts
and issuance of licenses were not transparent
and also breached due process.
The source said EFCC beamed its searchlight on
Mba when many aggrieved license seekers and
contractors who were edged out “unfairly” wrote
to the commission to complain about underhand
dealings in award of licenses and contracts.
“They said the broadcast regulatory body was
favouring some organisations over others in the
award of contracts for the production of set-up
boxes for digital broadcasting in Nigeria.
“NBC even went out of its way to stand as a
guarantor in a bank loan to one of the contractors
in the production of set-up boxes scheme.
“It was the discovery of this in the account of the
contractor that led the EFCC to probe the NBC”,
the source, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily
Trust yesterday.
The NBC is also mired in N34 billion MTN
spectrum sales deals said to have been sealed
without compliance with procurement rules and
due process by stakeholders in the forthcoming
digital switch over project.
NBC’s Public Affairs Director Malam Awwalu
Saalihu declined to comment on the arrest.
Similarly, attempts to reach the spokesman of the
EFCC Wilson Uwujaren to speak more on the
arrest were unsuccessful.