Governor Nwifuru’s arrest of stealing workers

NOT many people who have watched the video recording of the Ebonyi State governor, Francis Nwifuru, questioning certain civil servants for their serial acts of theft of government properties can be quite relaxed about it. The incident is bloodcurdling. The outraged governor had to order the arrest and prosecution of one Ndukwe Ayansi and five others for allegedly stealing materials meant for the state Ministry of Health. As he indicated, he had seen suspicious movements on that particular axis on several occasions but had glossed over it, until curiosity made him order his aides to turn to the warehouse where the theft took place. The governor was on his way to inspect certain ongoing projects of his administration when he saw a Toyota mini truck being loaded with registers, books, and other materials from the warehouse of the Ministry of Health located at the Ochudo Centenary City in Abakaliki, the state capital. Initially, the governor merely stopped to ask a few questions, but the answers he got only served to heighten his suspicion, and he decided to suspend his movement until he could determine what was actually going on.

To Governor Nwifuru’s chagrin, the civil servants he had seen around the vicinity on previous occasions were actually engaged in the theft of government property. He was apparently shell-shocked as he discovered that patient data registers, cards, and other important documents were being packed into the Toyota vehicle. The governor told the suspects: “This is the register for daily antenatal and you decided to sell it, whereas you don’t have even one in our primary healthcare centres where this is supposed to be. They are using exercise books to write. I have seen it times without number. You have the opportunity to be a civil servant and all these things are in your custody and you are selling them. Today that is Saturday, you called somebody, a buyer, to come and start loading them. Now this is immunisation register (with the inscription), Please Do not falsify any data, and you are selling it! The other one is non-polio vaccine (cards) and you have brought two vehicles. This is not the first, second or third day. I have seen these vehicles here more than four times, on so many other days, but I never cared to stop. I don’t know the spirit that said we should turn (back) today. And I said to my people, ‘Turn. For the first time, let me see what these guys are doing there.’ In the last two years, we have spent more than N6 billion in buying equipment for the healthcare centres and the general public, and this is what you storekeepers are doing!”

Instructively, the suspects, who claimed that the stolen materials had “expired” and that the warehouse was being decongested, could not provide any evidence to back their submission. It turned out, when they opened some of the stolen boxes on the governor’s instruction, that the materials were actually in pristine condition. According to a statement by the Ebonyi State government, the suspects have been arrested by the police, and investigations are ongoing.

Vigilance is certainly a necessary tool of governance; indeed of life in general. Governor Nwifuru did well in seeking to confirm his hunch, and exposing the theft that had been going on in the affected ministry’s warehouse for a long time. In all probability, the theft of public property is not limited to the Ministry of Health or the warehouse in question. Given what is known of the activities of certain “evil servants” that inhabit Nigeria’s civil service, the apprehended suspects in this case were most probably carrying on a practice that they had inherited from their predecessors, and did not act alone. Sadly, theft of government property is still probably ongoing in other ministries and government units in Ebonyi State and elsewhere, even with Governor Nwifuru’s arrest of the suspected thieves at the warehouse of the Ministry of Health. And this is evidently because of the general lack of consequences for crime.

In this case, as in any other, there is a need to interrogate the suspects thoroughly. For instance, was there a syndicate behind the theft? Where were the supervisors of these suspected thieves all this while? What were they doing? Was there no inventory of materials? Why were these corrupt civil servants able to perpetrate such theft for so long? The government and the police should dig deep into the matter: there could be a network beyond the few thieves arrested. In the extant case, is it not disturbing that people could be carting away government documents in spite of the fact that every government department has an inventory section and officer? Or could it be the case that the officer and those working in the section are all involved in the alleged crime?

Governor Nwifuru deserves commendation for his vigilance. It is something expected of all Nigerians. Every patriotic citizen should be concerned with how government property and documents are treated at every point in time. We expect the police to do thorough investigation and expose all those involved in the heist for appropriate punishment according to the law. They should not get away with their crime.