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NDLEA OFFICERS SUNDAY ZIRANGEY, OTHERS FINGER IN BILLION NAIRA SCANDAL

Published

3 years ago

September 14, 2022

By Abdul Lateef Bamgbose

Tensions is at the edge of razor at the Headquarters of the National Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency , NDLEA as senior officers of the Agency have been linked to illicit drugs transactions running into Billions of Naira.

Already mentioned is Sunday Zirangey Drambi, a Deputy Commander General of Narcotics and several others who are said to have been running and working with syndicates.

According to the documents in possession of Aljazirah Newspapers several former officials were sacked by the Agency; some lost their jobs for not cooperating on dirty deals, others for leaking vital information of corruption, and it alleged strong links between some senior officers led by Sunday Zirangey Drambi and drug barons involved in international drug trade.

One of the court cases involved a former operative, Williams Olubukola Olanrewaju, whose last place of posting was Yobe State command.

A 55-page court affidavit deposed at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja, is marked NICN/Abj/248/2022 and filed on August 15, 2022 between William Olubukola Olanrewaju Vs The Chairman, NDLEA & 4 Ors, Olanrewaju.

He explained that Sunday Zirangey, Deputy Commander General of Narcotics, headed his unit which compromised war against drug trafficking; adding that Sunday keep collecting bribes on a regular basis.

It was gathered that Sunday Zirangey used his position to enrich himself such that he acquired multi-million naira properties in Abuja, Lagos and Adamawa where he comes from.ss

Olanrewaju alleged that because he alongside many other officers refused to compromise like Sunday Zirangey, the head of the unit, Zirangey, punished him and hurriedly posted him to Yobe State Command, Damaturu interdiction points, with posting references of NDLEA/FIN/88/VOL. VII/237 and NDLEA/ADM/131/VOL.XIII/450 respectively.

The NDLEA was listed as the first defendant while the National Chairman of the Agency, Buba Marwa, was listed as the second defendant. Zirangey Sunday Drambi, Samuel Okereke Abarogu, Assistant Commander of Narcotic, ACN, and Taupyen Sunday, also ACN, were listed as 3rd, 4th and 5th respondents all of SET/SIU respectively.

The court affidavit explained that while working at the SET/SIU Lekki office at Professor Kiumi Akingbehin Street, Lekki, Lagos, the Claimant had issues with his senior officers over “their corrupt activities ranging from frustrating him from accessing vital information, collecting bribes from suspects, missing files, aiding and abetting, tampering with drugs seized, and seizure of drug from a drug courier and refusing to arrest the person caught with hard drug.”

The claimant accused the officers of using “one Barrister Benson Ndakara to extort arrested targets,” who “is not an employee of the NDLEA.”

Sunday Zirangey is said to visit Lagos regularly where he meets with drug barons and traffickers. His hotel accommodation is paid for by these barons.

He was alleged to have refused wiretapping Lagos Island so as not to expose the dirty deals while collecting monthly “bribes” from them. One of the drug barons (name withheld) was said to have paid him N25 million fee weeks ago.

The Court papers alleged that, “The corrupt officers always instructed the barrister to ensure arrest of the suspects just for extortion and promised them that their cases would be frustrated if they could pay them through the lawyer.

“Also, all SET/SIU arrested suspects used Barrister Benson for their cases as the corrupt officers only advised/introduced arrested suspects to use Barrister Benson as their lawyer.”

Court affidavit deposed to on oath stated “that on September 24, 2019, he and other officers of the 2 defendants, including, Stella, Paul , Tapgun , Attah , Orji, and George , collected 3 kilogramme of Heroin from one Charles Cole Osiyemi at Farm City Lounge, Lekki, close to SIU office in Lekki.”

He explained that he, alongside ” Stella, played the major role in the operation leading to interception of the Heroin from Charles, the drug courier.”

He explained in the court documents that on September 25, 2019, he asked Samuel “what I will put in the investigation report but he told me not to write anything in the report because the 3kg of heroin would be kept for evidence in future arrest.”

Explaining that he was shocked, but that he quickly realised Samuel and Sunday Zirangey “had tampered with the 3 kilogramme of Heroin. The 3 kilogramme of Heroin ought to have been taken to the NDLEA’s “Central Exhibit for safe keeping,” he said.

He further averred that Sunday Zirangey “was aiding and abetting as he refused to arrest Mr. Charles Cole Osiyemi the target, from whom the 3 kilogramme of heroin was intercepted,” adding that, this was in spite of the fact that he had provided “the details of his whereabouts in his Intelligence Report before the drug interception day.”

Olanrewaju also accused Sunday Zirangey of being responsible for some missing files at the SIU (Sensitive Investigative Unit) of the NDLEA office in Lekki, Lagos State.

He alleged that Sunday Zirangey “used his position as senior officer” to “extort money from suspects on trial in the courts of law. What he always does after extorting money from targets is that he would steal the case file of the targets from the SIU in order to put an end to their prosecution in the court.

“The case of one Olusegun Folorunso Ayodele (target) is one among several cases of missing files at the SIU, Lekki, Lagos. Olusegun Folorunso Ayodele is a clearing agent. He is a courier agent to drug traffickers. He was arrested and not prosecuted. He was released without proper Order.

“Olusegun Folorunso Ayodele’s case file got missing in order to hinder the prosecution of another drug trafficker by name, Uba Harris Etochukwu Alaekwe. Owing to the missing case file, one Irene Ehizibolo member of the SIU fled without trace till date,” court processes showed.

He claimed in the court documents that Sunday Zirangey and his accomplices stopped him from investigating “one Mr. Tajudeen of Holland (residing in Mozambique as of 2019 and who also has a residence in Lekki, Lagos State.”

He prayed the court to declare as illegal his orderly room trial, that he is still validly in the service of NDLEA, a perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA and it’s officers from further subjecting him to inhuman and degrading treatment as well as restoration of his monthly salary of eighty-two thousand naira (N82,000.00k) and the sum of thirty million naira (N30,000,000.00k) being compensation for violating his right to personal liberty as guaranteed by section 34 of Nigerian Constitution and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Chapter AB (Chapter 10 LFN 1990) and Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.

The affidavit further read that, “They saw him as a threat to their corrupt activities and so planned to get him out of the Unit, which they eventually did.

“The officers involved in the alleged corrupt practices are: a. Sunday Zirangey Drambi, with the rank of Deputy Commander General of Narcotics – DCGN (Director of Agency Intelligence); b. Kehinde Olubunmi George, with the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent – CNA; c. Samuel Okereke Abarogu, with the rank of Assistant Commander of Narcotic – ACN; d. Azeez Abiodun Lawal, with the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotic 1 ASNI.”

Others are “Osifuye Femi Johnson, with the rank of Deputy Commander of Narcotics DCN, Desmond Ukeh, with the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent- CNA g. Attah Ifeanyichukwu, with the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent – CNA, and Jeff Alazigha, with the rank of Assistant Commander of Narcotic ACN.”

The rest are “Chigorom Orji, with the rank of Chief Narcotics Agent – CNA; Oguledo Anthony, with the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics II-AND II; and Omotoso Solomon Gbadebo, with the rank of Deputy Commander of Narcotics-DCN.”

But the Director of Media and Advocacy of the Agency, Femi Babafemi defended the agency saying Olanrewaju was “communicating with drug barons. ”

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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