CRFFN Boss Exposed: Registrar  Spends N36million On Beauty Pageant, Others As CSR

*Governing Council report indicts him over N300million  alleged misappropriation

* Refuses to pay vendors for over two years

*Council can’t  account for N1.6 billion in 2020 budget

The  Registrar and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria(CRFFN), Barr. Samuel Nwakohu appears to be on his way to jail with the magnitude of unchallenged allegations of financial embezzlement  and age falsification  against him in the Council, if the spirited efforts by the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi to save him fails.

Five members of the CRFFN management team had petitioned the Minister and CRFFN Governing Council Board alleging wanton embezzlement of funds by Registrar to the tune of over N300million out of which it was alleged that he spent a total of N36.6million as Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) on fake NGO and beauty pageant in Rivers State when he has refused to pay some maritime media a paltry advert bill of less than N10million for more than two years now.

Consequently, the Board, after thorough investigation of the allegations made a far-reaching submission and recommendations in an over 1000 pages report to the Minister, seeking the Registrar’s sack , refunds of all the misappropriated funds and  prosecution through the Economic Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission(ICPC).

MMS Plus gathered that the Minister may kill the report as he has begun moves to save Nwakohu whom he appointed as the Registrar of CRFFN against all odds. But there is a build up tension by the aggrieved members of the freight forwarders who are bent on dragging Nwakohu to graft agencies.

While the dust on the  petition is yet to settle, independent findings by MMS Plus has revealed that CRFFN’s budget performance  for 2020 is tainted with stories that touch the heart as many frivolous items used for financial appropriation cannot be justified to the extent that N1.631,500,000  has been misappropriated.

According to the petition by the aggrieved five management staff against the Registrar,N7million was   claimed by Nwakohu as overhead between March and July,2020 out of a total available fund of N11million, representing 63 per cent of the funds.

He allegedly paid N8million to  as fake CSR to a Federal University in Gombe without  documentary evidence or receipt  from the school, while N400,000.00 was given to a lady under the guise of a beauty pageant as CSR, without relevance to the maritime industry.

He allegedly  made a donation of N4million to his alma mata, Okirika Grammar School Old Boys Association as CSR, and paid N24,217,000.00 to a fake NGO whose activities  has nothing to do with CRFFN without due process.

He approved  and was bent on collecting N47,946,000.00 as additional training fees to the N109million earlier approved and disbursed to ADG International Resources, organizers of the February 2020 CRFFN seminar which held at Radison Blue, Ikeja Lagos.

The Registrar was further alleged to have collected N10million to pay for rent for a non-existing office for CRFFN in Asokoro, Abuja at N0. 33 Lord Lugard Street. This earned him a query from the governing council.

Speaking on the report titled: “ Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Investigation of Allegation of Financial Recklessness, Poor Management and High –handedness Against the Registrar, Barr. Samuel Nwakohu” submitted to the Minister by governing council, a member of the controversial CRFFN board said, ‘the governing council swung into action on receiving the petition from the management team and began investigation and found out that the allegations were true. We then indicted him.

“We discovered that he is not qualified to be the Registrar. He falsified  his age.  He did not submit his credentials from the onset. He did it in piece meal and yet has not submitted everything till this moment. He is yet to convince us that he is actually a lawyer. We recommended that he has to relinquish his position and refund all the funds he misappropriated.

“By the virtue of his position as the Registrar, he is a civil servant. He falsified his age at the time of recruitment. He said he was 55 while he was 63 years. Now, he is around 65 years. He must go to jail. He is not even humble to learn the job he does not know”. The source concluded.

However, Nwakohu had acknowledged in an interview with MMS Plus that there was problem within the management ranks of CRFFN, alleging frustration  and sabotage by some key workers. When called on Friday for reaction on the petition which he had said was written in September,2020, he went on his usual complaint of “No Money” repeating how unfair government has been for cutting his overhead to N1.2million from N2.7million, thereby making work difficult for him.

Some of the items on 2020 budget appropriation that CRFFN  still cannot justify their inclusion and expenditure include, development of six zonal offices in six geo-political zones at the cost of N1,371,500.00;  Awareness-as a subheading was put at the cost of N150million; Automation of  the Council’s operation and revenue collection, TSA system and software put at N60million; Subscription  to international bodies like FIATA,TIACA which never took place, N50million.