According to an exclusive report on SaharaReporters,
the electricity supply to the 22-floor Nigeria House in New York, was
yesterday disconnected by Con Edison, the local company that is the main
provider of power to the city.
It was learnt that the company decided to disconnect the building
from its grid following the failure of officials at the Consulate and
the Permanent Mission of Nigerian to the United Nations, which use it,
to pay up bills of about $23,000.
In a disclosure by some members of staff of both offices to the
publication, former officials in charge of the building, led by
Ambassador Joy Ogwu, who served as Permanent Representative for many
years, thoroughly mismanaged the property to siphon off funds meant for
maintenance of the building, which is about $100k per month.
It was further gathered that Ambassador Ogwu, in an astounding act
of nepotism, went as far as awarding the contract for the cleaning of
the property to her son, who lacked experience in the business, and
without the competitive bidding required by law. After she retired last
december the son was kicked out as the contractor in charge of cleaning
the building.
Prior to the disconnection of electricity yesterday, the air
conditioning in the entire building had packed up, making life hellish
for Nigerians who work there, as well as others who transact business,
such as procurement of immigration documents, in the building.
Report reveals that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Bulus Lolo and a former Chancery officer, Ibrahim Rabiu,
both visited the Nigeria House last Monday only to leave via British
Airways on Thursday without solving the billing issue in the building.
Their departure followed a closed-door meeting with its maintenance
engineers.
Apart from the issues of unpaid bills, the Nigeria House has other
issues relating to corruption on the part of Immigration officials
seconded from Nigeria as attaches. A source told SaharaReporters that
attaches in charge of passports have begun to collect bribes from
prospective passport applicants to expedite processing.
On many occasions, the Attache had people waiting in her office to
collect their passport or they simply collect telephone numbers of
desperate applicants and meet them in the restaurants in the area to
hand over passports after they have collected bribes ranging from
$50-$100 per passport or visa.
As at the time of filing this report, it has been learnt that power supply has been restored.
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