Worried that their petition to the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed over a case of corruption and financial im
Worried that their petition to the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed over a case of corruption and financial impropriety against the Director of Marketing and Special Duties of the National Theatre, Femi Joel, has not received any attention months after the petition was submitted, some staff of the National Theatre under the aegis of Concerned Staff of the National Theatre have petitioned the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The staff want the ICPC to deploy a team of crack investigators to unravel the alleged monumental fraud and corrupt practices of Joel and his co-conspirators. The staff alleged in the eight paged petition that they are doing all in their capacity to cover up a lot of unscrupulous activities.
The petition to ICPC in part reads that, “In 2019, Abiodun Femi Joel as head of Marketing Department and the then GM CEO appointed their friend associate, one Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye trading under the name and style of KAK Integrated System. No. 2, Aloba Street, Off Apapa Road. Costain, Ebute-Metta (West) Lagos and awarded it the contract of collecting toll from motorists passing through – entering and exiting – the National Theatre premises and its environs without recourse to the Procurement Act or the authorization of the Governing Board of the National Theatre and the National Troupe of Nigeria (hereinafter called “The Board”).
“They drew up a memorandum of understanding (hereinafter called “The MOU’”) with the said KAK Integrated System wherein about 70% of the proceeds of or revenue generated from the tolling exercise was ceded to the company. The memorandum of understanding is hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 4. The tolling exercise attracted or generated about Seven Hundred and Forty Eight Million Naira during the three years it lasted but little or nothing was paid to the TSA of the federation. The duplicate receipts/tickets and other records for the tolling are/were kept by the KAK Integrated System.
“The fraudulent excesses of Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel among other related issue, prompted the Board overseeing the National Theatre to probe his activities and those of other erring officers of the National Theatre. The board recommended in paragraph 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 on pages 4 & 5 respectively of the Board report that the illegal tolling exercise be terminated immediately and all the monies collected and /or expended in the course of the exercise be returned to the Federal Government. But the said Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye and Abiodun Femi Joel are yet to return the monies collected from the illegal exercise as directed by the Board.
See below the full Petition……
The Chairman
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related
Offences Commission (lCPC)
Through:
The Commissioner
Lagos State Command
Dear Sir,
COMPLAINT OF CORRUPTION/FRAUD/FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY AGAINST MR. ABIODUN FEMI JOEL, DIRECTOR, SPECIAL DUTIES IN THE NATIONAL THEATRE, LAGOS.
The above subject matter refers.
1. We are constrained to lodge a criminal complaint to your esteemed office against the aforementioned Director in the National Theatre to ensure that your agency investigates his fraudulent and corrupt financial activities, recover the proceeds of such activities and accordingly prosecute him and his cohorts for same as outlined below:
a. Use of a fictitious or phantom stakeholders conference to embezzle the sum of Ten Million Naira (₦10,000,000) from the treasury of the National Theatre:
Sometime on 2nd November, 2009 the said Abiodun Femi Joel while holding sway as the I lead of the Marketing Department of the National Theatre in connivance with the then GM,CEO took the sum organize a stakeholders conference on “efficient event management and revenue generation” at Rock View Hotel, Abuja. The conference was slated to hold from 13th to 14th November, 2009. The proposal put forth for the organization of the said conference by Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel and the payment voucher for the ten million naira collected by him for that purpose are hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 1A – B respectively. However this stakeholders ‘conference never held at Rock View Hotel Abuja as proposed or anywhere in the world but the sum of ten million naira paid out to Abiodun Femi Joel for the conference has not been returned and/or paid back to the National Theatre coffers or the Treasury Single Account of the Federation till date.
b. Theft of twenty four million naira belonging to the National Theatre: On 25th July 2017, the said Abiodun Femi Joel as Director Marketing in concert with the then acting GM CEO entered into a memorandum of understanding (hereinafter called the MOC) with one Market Execution Solutions Limited. The MOU is hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 2. The said MOU was perfectly used by the then GM/CEO and Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel as the Head of Marketing Department to facilitate the outright theft of the sum of twenty four million naira due to the National Theatre from Nigerian Breweries Plc by diverting the said sum to the bank account of Market Execution Solutions Limited and converted to personal use. The Nigerian Breweries bank draft drawn in favour of Market Execution Solutions Limited for the twenty four million naira is hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 3. This money was meant to be paid to the Treasury Single Account of the Federation (hereinafter called “TSA”) but till date, it has neither been accounted for nor paid into the Treasury Single Account as required.
c. Fraudulent /Unauthorized Tolling of the National Theatre premises and environs and diversion of the proceeds:
In 2019, Abiodun Femi Joel as head of Marketing Department and the then GM CEO appointed their friend associate, one Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye trading under the name and style of KAK Integrated System. No. 2, Aloba Street, Off Apapa Road. Costain, Ebute-Metta (West) Lagos and awarded it the contract of collecting Tolls from motorists passing through – entering and exiting – the National Theatre premises and its environs without recourse to the Procurement Act or the authorization of the Governing Board of the National Theatre and the National Troupe of Nigeria (hereinafter called “The Board”), They drew up a memorandum of understanding (hereinafter called “The MOU’”) with the said KAK Integrated System wherein about 70% of the proceeds of or revenue generated from the tolling exercise was ceded to the company.
The memorandum of understanding is hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 4. The tolling exercise attracted or generated about Seven Hundred and Forty Eight Million Naira during the three years it lasted but little or nothing was paid to the TSA of the federation. The duplicate receipts/tickets and other records for the tolling are/were kept by the KAK Integrated System. The fraudulent excesses of Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel among other related issue, prompted the Board overseeing the National Theatre to probe his activities and those of other erring officers of the National Theatre. The board recommended in paragraph 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 on pages 4 & 5 respectively of the Board report that the illegal tolling exercise be terminated immediately and all the monies collected and /or expended in the course of the exercise be returned to the Federal Government. But the said Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye and Abiodun Femi Joel are yet to return the monies collected from the illegal exercise as directed by the Board. The Board report dated 26th – 28th August 2020, is hereby attached and marked as exhibit Femi 5.
d. Outright theft and/or Diversion /conversion of Revenue from bookings for films, videos and advertising shoots, excursions, picnics, outdoor parties e.t.c.
Booking rates for films, videos and advertising shoots, excursions, picnics, outdoor parties and other social events that are carried out in the outdoor spaces or lawns of the National Theatre Complex are fixed by the Marketing Department. The National Theatre generates a minimum of Two Hundred and Twenty Six Million Naira (₦226,000,000) per annum from bookings for the aforementioned revenue sources. However since Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel took over the Marketing Department (2012 – 2021) he and one other officer, Mrs. Florence Njida turned the revenue accruing from these sources to their personal earning, thereby robbing the National Theatre of hundreds of millions of money over the period under consideration. The Board has had cause to question his handling of the aforementioned sources of revenue, found him culpable of malpractices and recommended that he and the then GM CEO. Mr. Sunday Baba, be sanctioned accordingly. See paragraphs 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 respectively on pages 7 and 8 of the attached Board report. See also paragraph 4.2 on page 1O of the report.
e. Gross under remittance of approved rents /rates for the (multipurpose) halls:
The National Theatre Complex houses a total number of seven large multipurpose halls. And the Board has fixed approved rents /rates for each of the halls ranging from three hundred and fifty thousand naira (₦350,000.00) to nine hundred and fifty thousand naira (₦950,000.00) per hall for an event. As a major event centre in the commercial hub of West Africa these halls are usually fully booked from January to December, thus affording the parastatal of more than four hundred million naira per annum in internally generated revenue. However under the leadership of Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel, (2012-2021) as head marketing department which is directly responsible for these halls and the revenue accruing therefrom, he actively connived with Mrs. Florence Njida to loot hundreds of millions generated from the use of these halls, thus remitting little or nothing to the coffers of the National Theatre during the period under consideration. The amazing thing about the man is that it is extremely difficult to detect his corrupt deeds primarily because he does not leave any traces behind. He either destroys, or doctors or forges documents or better still falsifies records or conceals or keeps them secretly and exclusively for his use, thus requiring the forensic capabilities of the Commission to unravel the monumental fraud committed during the aforementioned period.
f. Use of a post graduate programme to siphon hundreds of thousands of naira from National Theater Management and a forged documents to cover up the monies so collected:
Sometime between 1996 and 2002. Mr. Abioun Femi Joel took various sums of money from the National Theatre which for want of time and space cannot be calculated or presented here, for the sponsorship of a post graduate programme, Master in Business Administration at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos. He later presented a forged document entitled “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN” showing that he completed the programme in 2001/2002 academic session whereas the University has repeated confirmed that he has not completed the programme 21 years after contrary to the said document purportedly issued by the university. The aforementioned document and other relevant letters/document are hereby attached and marked exhibit Femi 6A, B, C, D and E respectively.
g. Also, during the Lagos@5O Anniversary Celebrations in 2017, all the halls in the National Theatre were fully booked for weeks by the Lagos State Government for the celebrations or activities marking the anniversary. A whooping sum of nine million naira (₦9,000,000) only was paid by the Lagos State Government for the use of the halls but Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel converted the said sum to personal use and refused to account for it or remit it to the TSA. All effort by the then sitting Chief Executive Officer. Comrade Tar Ukoh, to recover the said sum did not yield any result as he was sooner or suddenly removed from office. He claimed that the halls were used for free as directed by the minister of Information and Culture but did not show evidence of such directive or approval by the minister to the then Chief Executive Officer. Comrade Tar Ukoh stated and explained much about this fraud in his hand over notes under the subhead entitled “Lagos@5O payment scandal” at pages 14 of 17 and 15 of 17 of the handover notes. The relevant parts of the copy of the handing over notes are hereby attached and marked as Exhibit Femi 7.
2. Sharing of National Theatre properties under the guises of Auction Sale
In 2019 Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel, then director of Marketing Department conspired with Mr. Sunday Baba. the then acting GM/CEO and Engineer Nwaogu, (now retired) the then Director Engineering and Technical Services Department to share National Theatre properties among themselves, namely two diesel generators ( 750KVA and 450KVA respectively) and unspecified number of valuable store items. While Mr. Sunday Baba took the 750KVA diesel generator, Engineer Nwaogu went away with the 450KVA diesel generator under the guise of a sale that the Board adjudged as not complying with the law and as a subterfuge to sell government properties at an undervalue for personal gains. Meanwhile Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel was compensated with numerous valuable store items. See paragraphs 3.2 to 3.2.2 on pages 5 and 6 of the attached Board’s report.
3. Acting in concert with others to compromise and loot the 2019 National Theatre Capital Budget through the use of proxies
A total of four capital projects were carried out in the 2019 National Theatre Budget but they were awarded to and executed by Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel. Mr. Sunday Baba, Engr. Nwaogu (now retired) and Abu Muhammed, the procurement officer, by proxy as follows:
a. Renovation of National Theatre’s Box office at a cost in excess of eight million naira awarded to Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel.
b. Building of a 10-room apartment awarded to Sunday Baba. The job was poorly executed to about 20% and abandoned till date though fully paid.
c. Acquisition of Modem Theatre seats awarded at the cost of twenty two million naira (₦22,000,000.00) to Mr. Abu Muhammed, procurement officer.
d. Renovation of the sewage and water treatment plant awarded to Engr. Nwaogu (now retired).
All the above projects were full; paid for but shoddily executed and subsequently abandoned till date.
4. From the foregoing, it is axiomatic that billion. of public funds have been lost to the fraudulent and corrupt practices and .or actix ities of Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel and his co-conspirators at the National Theatre, lganmu, Lagos.
No wonder he has been able to acquire several/numerous landed properties in Lagos. Ogun and Kogi states including two magnificent properties – a three-bedroom bungalow and a duplex – built with imported state of the art materials. In Mowe, Ogun State, South Western. Nigeria, where he lives in stupendous affluence and enjoys the splendour of a fleet of exotic cars including a Toyota Venza and RX350 Lexus Jeep 2010 model.
Consequently, we call on the Chairman to deploy a team of crack investigators to unravel the monumental fraud/corrupt practices of Mr. Abiodun Femi Joel and his co-conspirators, recover the proceeds loots and accordingly prosecute the culprits
Thank you in anticipation of your prompt and diligent action. Sir.
Yours in the Service of the Nation.
