Mr Aaron Kaase, Principal Admin Officer (Press and Public Relations Unit) Police Service Commission
Mr. Kaase wrote a petition on May 21, 2015, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) accusing Mr. Mike Okiro, then Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), of corruption, abuse of office and fraudulent act to swindle PSC of an amount totaling of N275,525,000.
The PSC had sought and obtained the sum of N350 million from the Federal Government to train its staff in monitoring the conduct of the police in the 2015 general election. The Commission budgeted for training of 900 staff in Abuja, Lagos and Kano but the entire staff force was not more than 391 and that is the figure actually trained in the programme held in Abuja only.
Although the ICPC investigation did not reveal “any act of criminal infraction” against Okiro, it however directed that the total balance of N133,413,835.99 from the N350,000,000 for the monitoring exercise domiciled in First City Monument Bank (FCMB) be remitted to the Federal Treasury through the ICPC Recovery Account No. 1012929790 at Zenith Bank Plc.
For daring to blow the whistle, the Commission initiated Kaase’s persecution with a trumped-up charge of collecting N1million to procure US visa for a client but failed to do so. On the basis of this, the Commission suspended him without pay through a letter dated May 27, 2015, on the ground that a prima facie case had been established against him.
The threats and intimidation piled up to the point that Kaase had to relocate his family from Abuja when he found out that they were no longer safe. He himself temporarily vacated his home and started squatting at different places around the city.
In two different courts in Abuja where he was arraigned for a purported visa scam, he was discharged and acquitted for “lack of diligent prosecution, and lack of evidence to prosecute the case.” Yet his persecutors would not stop. They have been using a police lawyer, Joseph Nwadike, a Superintendent of Police who obviously got marching orders to fish around courts in Abuja for a pliant judge who will invent reason to convict the whistleblower.
The African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has petitioned the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission (PSC) over the unprofessional conduct of the police lawyer.
However, reprieve came the whistleblower’s way in November 2017 when the National Industrial Court to which he had prayed for reinstatement delivered judgment in his favour. The court declared Kaase’s suspension null and void and of no effect. The judge ordered that he should be reinstated immediately to his position and all his emoluments and entitlements paid to him. But he was only issued a letter of recall in March 2018 after the plan by his persecutors to appeal the judgment was thwarted by senior officials who chose to side with justice.
Although Kaase has since resumed, his outstanding salaries and entitlements from May 2015 to April 2018 had not paid at the time of compiling this report.
