Civil servants have demanded the immediate return of the N14.38 billion withdrawn from the account of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to Nigerian Special Economic Zones Company (NSEZCO).
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, the Head of the FCT Chapter of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comr. Isaac Ojemhenke, said the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, who served out first term today, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, “illegally and fraudulently” transferred the money from NEPZA, which was the agency the money was budgeted for to carry out the capital projects in special economic zones.
Comr. Ojemhenke said the action of the Minister amounted to transferring the functions of NEPZA to NSEZCO and to appropriate public funds to NSEZCO, a private company.
He said Dr. Enelemah was not only scheming to privatize Kano and Calabar free Trade Zones to himself using his close allies as his fronts under the umbrella of a private company called NSEZCO, but to also appropriate public funds to the said company in the 2019 budget in disregard to extant rules and constitutional provisions.
He said the Association had on December 19, 2018 called the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari to Dr. Enelamah’s intention to privatize Kano and Calabar Free Trade Zones to himself and his allies.
In a statement today, Dr. Okechukwu denied the allegations, saying the company was a special purpose vehicle for development of special economic zones.
He said the company was incorporated to drive, alongside other investors, a project to develop world-class Special Economic Zones to position Nigeria as the manufacturing hub in sub-Saharan Africa and a major exporter of made-in-Nigeria goods and services.
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