Okiro: A Hell of a Send-off

Comfort Obi

Former Inspector-General of Police, Mike Mbama Okiro, had it all worked out. Sixty years old on July 24, he had planned to retire that day in a blaze of glory. An indigene of Rivers State, Okiro enlisted in the Police Force in 1977 as a cadet officer. He had a glorious time. He was catapulted from a C.P. to a DIG, thanks to an unwritten policy which says every zone of the Federation must have a DIG. He took the South south slot because he was the most senior officer from the zone at the time. It was mother-luck. But more was in stock. When Sunday Ehindero retired as the IGP, the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, which had a couple of days to go, appointed DIG Ogbonnaya Onovo the Acting Inspector-General of Police. Hopes were high that he would be confirmed. But enters President Umaru Yar’Adua. He stood down Onovo, and appointed Okiro the IGP. Both men enlisted in the police same year. Yar'Adua thought Okiro, being from the South south, would placate the restive Niger Delta. It never did. The South east took Onovo's fate very hard. But Onovo took it with grace, and humility. Today, it has paid off. He has just been appointed the IGP by Yar'Adua.
For the two years Okiro held sway as the IGP, he managed to keep off scandals. His two predecessors, Tafa Balogun and Sunday Ehindero, left in a web of scandals. Balogun ended up in jail. And Ehindero is still being investigated over hundreds of millions of Naira allegedly misappropriated. A lawyer, and an author, Okiro found other ways of making money. He wrote books. A couple of weeks before his retirement, he presented his newest book, garnering about N60 million. The word out there was that he used the launch to settle himself.
In office, Okiro was powerful. And even though crimes, especially, the sort never known before in Nigeria were on the increase, his profile rose. He was everywhere, prompting many to wonder whether he would really retire on July 24 or not. Some others were already clapping that Okiro has broken the jinx of scandal-prone retiring IGPs. The claps came too quick. On July 22, it came crashing. The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, gave Okiro a technical knock-out. In a move which left mouths agape, the NDIC called Okiro a common criminal. He was accused of forgery. In doing that, it denied Okiro the pleasure of retiring peacefully. Now, in retirement, he is fighting the battle of his life. And his enemies, chief among them, Kenny Martins of the Police Equipment Fund controversy, are celebrating. Here is the story of Okiro's toothache.
In a July 20 letter written to him by NDIC's lawyer, Okunade Olorundare, SAN, and leaked to the media, Okiro was alleged to have secured a loan from the defunct Leadbank between 2000 and 2001 to finance a pipeline laying contract which he won from Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NOAC. He used the name of the family business company – Hekiro Nigeria Limited. It says Okiro has refused to pay back since then. The amount: N166.597 million. And the criminal aspect? Okiro allegedly forged a signature. NDIC: “Despite the fact that you are a police officer, and knowing the implication of forging a signature, you signed as Bessy Okiro, and which signature is consistent with your true signature as Sir Mike Okiro on some of the documents available for focus.” Then, the NDIC became more angry, and accused Okiro of abuse of office, and a breach of the code of conduct for public officers for using his office to secure the contract. Ah, Ah! How does the NDIC know that Okiro used his office to secure the contract? But let’s progress. And this is the one that gives NDIC out as being on a mission. It gave him 48 hours to repay the loan. Not done, it said it would drag Okiro before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, the ICPC, and related agencies to prosecute him. A-a-a!
Okiro did not deny the loan. He said his wife, Hera, secured it, but had since paid it back. The NDIC, he insists, is indebted to his wife instead. And he threw a challenge to the NDIC boss, Ganiyu Ogunleye. Okiro: “I challenge Ogunleye and the NDIC management to bring to public any document I, Okiro, signed on behalf of the company to prove the allegations that I forged a signature of my wife or anybody.” He may have reacted in a hurry. For, he has since modified this statement, claiming he got the consent of his aged mother, Bessy Okiro, the chairman of Hekiro, to sign on her behalf.
Dear Reader, there is only one established fact. Hekiro secured a loan. The bone of contention is: Has the loan been paid back or not? The NDIC says no. Proof: Okiro's wife paid the sum of five million naira in April 2009, after much pressure. True? Between Okiro and the NDIC, somebody is lying. Truth is: If the NDIC set out to rubbish Okiro, it has succeeded. Inspite of denials, it seems obvious that was its goal. And the reason is simple. The police, under Okiro, had charged the management of NDIC, consisting of Ogunleye and Professor Peter Umoh, to court for alleged conspiracy, and fraudulent deals with the recovered fund of the defunct Fortune Bank. They deny that. But it seems to support Okiro's claim that the NDIC is on a hit-back mission. Or, why did the NDIC wait till the eve, almost, of Okiro’s departure to bring up this case to public domain? It is like saying to him: “Those who live in a glass house should not throw stones."
Questions are: Why was the letter addressed to Okiro instead of Hekiro? Hekiro is a legal entity. Should Okiro have ignored charging them because his company took a loan? Why did NDIC give Okiro 48 hours to pay back? How many other people, owing banks, has NDIC given 48 hours to pay back? What is the threat with the Conduct Bureau Commission and ICPC all about? How many people has the NDIC dragged there before? It is like beating the dead. Here is a man whose job it was to go after those who contributed to the failure of banks, now being accused of being one of them. It can be embarrassing. And his first statement, denying not to have forged (signed?) any documents, did not help his case. Now, he says he signed on behalf of his mother. What happened to thumb-printing? Yet, who will cast the first stone? Is there any top public official in Nigeria who is not directly, or indirectly running a private company?
Having said that, forgery is a criminal offence. If it is discovered that Okiro forged signatures, let the law takes its course. Otherwise, Ogunleye and co. should be charged with malicious assassination of character. And finally, a word for the police.
It is becoming a norm that their retiring IGPs are mired in scandals and/or controversies. It should stop. The police should work at it. It does not happen in the military. And it does not encourage people to give their best. Worse, it presents the police, at the top, as common criminals.