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General News of Friday, 23 April 2021

Source: saharareporters.com

REVEALED: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director made handwritten agreement while raising N10m bribe to secure promotion

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A director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serving in the Directorate of Technical Cooperation In Africa, Suleiman Momoh, made a handwritten agreement to borrow money from one of his friends, while raising N10 million bribe which he paid to secure his office, according to documents sent to SaharaReporters.

The documents included Momoh’s handwritten agreement with the client with his signature and the petition which was later forwarded to the DTCA when Momoh refused to pay back – a petition which was swept under the carpet by the Director-General and the Minister of State For Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada.

SaharaReporters on Friday obtained the handwritten document, titled, “Payment agreement,” which reads, “I, Suleman Momoh, hereby recertify that upon inability to pay on 7/1/020, I wish to crave your indulgence to allow me till 14/1/2020 to pay back the sum of N3,800,000 being the total sum of money agreed to be paid in lieu of N2,500,000.

“A cheque of N3,500,000 of mine from Access Bank has been deposited with the understanding that the money shall be paid in cash. This date, 14/01.2020, is binding on me and can be enforced through legal action,” Suleiman Momoh, 7/1/2020.

SaharaReporters had on Tuesday reported that the N10 million Momoh raised through borrowing from friends was paid to a staff member in the Presidency in Aso Rock in January 2020 to ensure that Momoh was made a director at the MFA because the former director at the DTCA was retiring.

SaharaReporters had gathered that the bubble burst after Momoh refused to return what he borrowed to Mr. Gift Agadagu, a businessman from whom he collected N2.5 million.

It was learnt that Momoh pleaded with Agadagu in December 2019 to lend him him the money, with a written agreement that he would pay back the sum in January 2020, but after Momoh became a director, he refused to repay the money.

Agadagu thereafter raised a petition to the DCTA of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 2020 to complain about Momoh and get his money back but the petition was not acted upon and swept rather under the carpet.

SaharaReporters had obtained the petition in which Momoh’s wife confirmed that her husband paid N10 million to an Aso Rock staff member to get the directorship position at the DCTA which he is currently occupying.

Sources at the corruption-ridden DCTA told SaharaReporters that the petition came to the attention of the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, but it was killed because “the minister’s boys also got shares of job racketeering money from the DCTA.”

The petition raised against Momoh is titled, “Complaint of Criminal Abuse of Office and Obtaining Money by False Pretence Against Suleiman Momoh.”

SaharaReporters learnt that the two ministers of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyema and Zubairu Dada had a long meeting on Thursday over the story and also summoned the Director-General of the DTCA before instructing the ministry’s spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye, to issue a face-saving press release to deny the report.