Headline

Buhari Orders Ex-FIIRO DG’s Trial For Collecting 18 Years’ Salaries With Phantom Certificate

Published

4 years ago

September 30, 2021

The President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the arraignment of a former acting Director-General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi, Lagos, Chima Igwe.

He directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to begin the process of his prosecution for receiving salaries with a phantom doctorate for 18 years.

Buhari also asked the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, to allow the institute’s governing board to operate freely.

The President instructed that the board should commence the process of appointing a substantive director general.

This may be a resolution of the leadership tussle that has crippled the running of the institute for about two years.

In 2019, when the position of DG was vacant at FIIRO after the former occupant retired, Onu appointed Igwe despite the opposition of the governing board due to his controversial doctorate, which was being investigated by the ICPC.

The PUNCH correspondent, who visited Universite D’Abomey Calavi, Benin Republic, where he claimed to have bagged the PhD, discovered that he did not complete the programme and had only been using an attestation letter issued by his supervisor in 2002 to gain promotion at the institute.

The ICPC, which initially cleared Igwe, said it was misled and reopened investigation into his case. The agency later concluded that he did not finish the academic programme.

He was subsequently deposed and demoted by the FIIRO board to the position he held before claiming the phantom certificate in 2002.

In the heat of the several investigations by The PUNCH, Igwe returned to the Benin varsity, defended his thesis and was issued a certificate dated 2020.

Onu subsequently pressured the FIIRO board to reinstate him as DG, which was rejected by the board Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Gwarzo, who insisted that the officer deserved prosecution and not reward for the fraud.

After several failed attempts to get the board to do his bidding, the minister levelled allegations of financial improprieties against the members, which were reportedly dismissed by the authorities.

Efforts by the board to begin the process of installing a substantive DG were frustrated by Onu, who claimed that the President was still considering Igwe for the position.

The minister later sent a memo to the board, saying their term had expired, despite not completing their four-year tenure and without the approval of the President, who alone had powers to dissolve the board.

However, Buhari, in a letter dated September 7, 2021, addressed to Onu, and signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Administration and Operations), Ibrahim Adamu, declined the “prayers of the Honourable Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation on the appointment of Chima Cartney Igwe as the substantive Director-General of FIIRO, Oshodi, Lagos State.”

“Directed the governing board of FIIRO to commence the process of the appointment of a substantive Director General in accordance with Section 2.1.3.3 (a) and (d) of the Conditions of Service for Federal Research and Development Agencies, Institutes and Colleges (Revised 2019).

“Directed the Honourable Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation to allow the Governing Board of FIIRO to operate freely within the ambit of the provisions of extant regulations guiding the relationship between the ministry and parastatals.

“Directed the ICPC to commence prosecution of Mr Chima Cartney Igwe for giving false information to his employer,” the document added.

Reacting to the development, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities’ Teaching Hospitals Research Institutes and Associated Institutions, FIIRO branch, Togunde Oyekola, commended the board chairman and his team for their commitment to justice and integrity.

Oyekola urged the board to do more on productivity enhancement and staff welfare.

He also called for transparency in the appointment of a substantive DG within the confines of the law, public service rules, conditions of service of research institutions and other extant rules.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

5 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

8 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

8 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP