N1bn land deal rocks NHIS

Investigations by Daily Trust revealed how the health insurance agency has been converted into a sort of slush funds by politicians in the last administration.
 The latest controversy was triggered by the agency’s purchase of land at a price said be three times its actual market value.
About N49 million was also paid as “agency fee” for the deal to a company allegedly owned by an associate of the former chief executive of the agency Dr Thomas Olufemi Martins
 Insiders said the health agency didn’t need to acquire  the land at that amount because it has a bigger land in Gudu District.
Official documents seen by Daily Trust show that the land measuring less than 3000 square metres is situated adjacent NHIS corporate headquarters in Utako District, Abuja.
 The billion naira deal
 The land deal was perfected by Martins early this year when he introduced a company Fagel Cost and Associates to procure the land for NHIS.
 The land – Plot 875 at Utako District – was earlier introduced to former NHIS chief Dr Waziri Dogo for N450 million and again to his successor Dr A. S. Sambo at N350 million.
 Dogo and Sambo rejected it, believing it was too expensive and not needed by the agency, but Martins went ahead and bought it at N990 million, according to multiple sources who spoke to Daily Trust on the matter.
One of the insiders conversant with the deal said the money was made N10 million short of a billion naira “to enable the deal to be perfected without recourse to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).”
 In a letter dated January 18, 2015, Fagel Cost and Associates, a quantity survey and project management firm, requested Martins for payment of N99million as “agency and legal fees” for the consummation of the land deal.
The letter signed by the principal partner of the firm, Fayomi Samuel, said it wanted the N99 million for rendering services such as processing the search report and making statutory payment for the land to AGIS; smooth transfer from the original owner to NHIS; organising meetings and negotiations for the buyer and the land owner; as well as transfer of original documents to NHIS.
 On February 24, 2015, Martins through a letter signed by the NHIS acting general manager of procurement department Taiye Adeleye, approved the sum of N49, 500 for Fagel for providing “agency services for the purchase of NHIS office building at Utako, Abuja.”
Two weeks later, Fagel in a letter dated March 17, 2015, requested for payment of its agency fee and submitted a Zenith bank account to NHIS for the transaction.
In a memo dated March 25, 2015, Martins ordered the payment of N49,500 to Fagel “in respect for the contract for the provision of agency services for the purchase of the proposed NHIS office building at Utako, Abuja.”
Checks at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) show that Fagel Cost and Associates was registered in March, 2012.
The firm was promoted by one Samuel Oluwasegun, according to CAC records.
“Despite the fact NHIS has a plot in Gudu District for which it already processed a certificate of occupancy, Dr Martins went ahead to purchase the controversial land,”  one of the source said.
 The graft case
 The land deal drew so many bad blood among the staff of the agency, another source said. Daily Trust learned that anti-graft agencies are already investigating the matter.
One of the petitions by a law firm, the Refuge Chambers on behalf of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), dated April 6, 2015 was addressed to then President-elect  Muhammadu Buhari.
 The petitioners said in less than two years as NHIS chief, Martins “has done substantial damage (financial and otherwise) to the NHIS than all the number of years that the scheme has been in existence put together.”
 On the land purchase, the TUC claimed that “the persons who received the agency and legal fees are his cronies.”
Martins was sacked by Jonathan on April 27, 2015. The NHIS head of ICT Mr Olufemi A. Akingbade, who is also from Ekiti state, was appointed as acting chief executive of the insurance scheme.
The sack announced in a terse statement by Jonathan’s spokesperson Rueben Abati didn’t explain the reason for Martins sack.
  Officials under probe
 Daily Trust gathered that the State Security Services (SSS) as well as other anti-graft agencies are already investigating the allegations of sleaze in the agency.
It was also gathered that the SSS had quizzed some management staff of the agency over some of the corruption allegations.
 Some of the officials invited by the secret service for interrogation are the acting NHIS chief executive Akingbade; head of procurement Adeleye; head of contribution department Bello Kayode; head of human resources and administration Ma’aji Abdu and head of finance and account Egwu Emmanuel. 
 But there is no confirmation whether Dr Martins was invited over the NHIS case.
It is a smear campaign – Martins aide
Responding to the allegation via phone Shola Adeyemi, media aide to the former executive secretary, said that the allegation was a calculated attempt to discredit his boss and tarnish his good name.
According to him, his boss was unaware of any previous offers made to his two predecessors at a tune of N300 million and N450 million respectively.
He said: “When we wanted to buy that place, we called the federal ministry of works, that is the evaluation department to come and evaluate that place, and the report of the evaluation by the federal ministry of works was valued at N1.5 billion”.
“Before purchasing the land it was approved by the ministerial tender board because it was beyond the approving power of the NHIS board, and all necessary documentation done before we went ahead”.
“We had to negotiate it down, we couldn’t even pay agency fee. The evaluation showed that work on that property is worth over N300 million. That property is over 4,000 square metres, so the report from federal ministry of works which evaluated that place for over N1.5 billion is available.
“I have asked them to send it to me; I can send them to you”, he said, adding that “whether that place was offered to anybody, I never had such information; nobody ever gave me any such information.”
A copy of the purported evaluation by the ministry of works was later sent to our reporter.
He said the agency at that time did not have enough money to acquire the land for N1.5 billion and so had to beat down the amount.
Speaking about the report, Adeyemi said “This report is malicious and intended to cause further damage to the reputation of my boss, since the document is available and can be dully verified”.
He warned, “We should be careful about the item we publish such that this might become a subject of libel; because my boss will not fail to seek redress in court for libel.”
A source close to the former executive secretary, Dr Dogo Muhammed who spoke to Daily Trust said that his boss was approached to buy the land at N120 million but that before he could get the approval for the purchase of the land from the NHIS board it was sold to someone else.
According to him, the land belonged to an old soldier and if memory served him right it was sold to someone else.
Another source at the presidency noted that it could be true that Dogo would have been asked to pay for the land at N120 milllion but it is not possible for the land not to have appreciated till now.
According to him, there was a lot of information surrounding the land that are misinterpreted by people.
Attempts to get Femi Thomas’s predecessor Dr Sambo also proved abortive because he did not pick his calls.
All efforts to speak to the director press at the NHIS, Ayo Osinlu were also unsuccessful.