“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”
–George Eliot, Adam Bede
By ONYEDIKA AGBEDO
A former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Andrew Yakubu, found himself in a strange situation on February 3, this year, when he fell into the dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). But the interesting thing about his current circumstance is that he did not find himself in it unwittingly going by the account of the EFCC, which is yet to be debunked.
According EFCC’s spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, Yakubu’s present ordeal started when the commission received intelligence about “suspected proceeds of crime believed to be hidden in the slums of Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna.” The intelligence pushed the commission to conduct a special operation on February 3, which led to the recovery of the sums of $9,772,800 and £74,000 cash (about N3 billion) in a building owned by Yakubu, which was being taken care of by his younger brother, Bitrus Yakubu.
The account of the incident, which the EFCC released penultimate Friday read in part: “On arrival at the facility, the caretaker of the house, one Bitrus Yakubu, a younger brother to Andrew Yakubu, disclosed that both the house and the safe where the money was found belong to his brother, Andrew Yakubu.
“When the safe was opened, it was discovered that it contained the sum of $9,772,800 and another sum of £74,000. On February 8, 2017, Andrew Yakubu reported to the commission’s zonal office in Kano and made statement wherein he admitted ownership of the recovered money, claiming it was a gift from unnamed persons. He is currently assisting the investigation.”
Since February 10 when the EFCC burst the bubble, Yakubu has not issued a public statement about the whole situation. He is now being judged in the court of public opinion based on his admittance of ownership of the money and how he earned it at the EFCC. Even when the whistle-blower reportedly came out again to allege that there were four safes not one in his Kaduna residence, and that three other safes were moved from the house before the EFCC raid, Yakubu remained mute. But what would a man who valued such ‘gifts’ more than his esteem say? What happened to the banks that he chose to keep the ‘gifts’ in a safe in his house in Sabon Tasha under the care of his younger brother? Well, it could be that he never needed those ‘gifts’ in the first place and as such locking them up in a slum location was all that he could think about. It could also be that he never wanted anybody to know that he has people rich enough to dole out dollars and pounds to him as present. But in doing so, he forgot the words of 17th century French playwright, Jean Racine, that “there are no secrets that time does not reveal.” Time has revealed his treasured ‘gifts’ and time will still reveal his magnanimous donors. Time will also reveal where this whole scenario will land Yakubu. Already, the EFCC has got an order of interim forfeiture of the recovered money to the Federal Government from the Federal High Court, Kano, while investigations continue. Nobody knows what would happen next; what is now known is that Yakubu was a slum billionaire.
Born in Ma Mazah in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State in 1955, Yakubu attended the Government College in Keffi from 1969 to 1973, where he obtained the West African School Certificate. He later attended the College of Arts and Science in Zaria until 1975 when he secured admission into the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), also in Zaria, where he studied Chemical Engineering. He graduated from the ABU in 1979, with a degree in Chemical Engineering and started his carrier as a Chemical Engineer II in the NNPC Kaduna Refinery. He served in various roles in the refinery before becoming Executive Director, Operations, at National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of NNPC, in March 2005. He was appointed as the GMD of NNPC on July 1, 2012 but sacked from the position barely two years after by former president Goodluck Jonathan.
A fellow of the Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering and an associate fellow of the Chemical Society of Nigeria, Yakubu holds the Presidential Merit Award by the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (1997) and the GMD of NNPC Award (1987). He was given the chieftaincy title “Iyan Atyap” by the Atyap Kingdom of Kaduna State in 2004 and is a full member of the Iyan Council of Chiefs.