“Agba, this headline concerns your brother. We know you are both from Bedia and you are close to him. Read…”

This morning, I received several messages that summarize into that short quote I para-phrased above. Several amorphous online news sites, carried the headline, “Defence Chief Running Office As Family Business.” Even as a journalist, my heart beat increased for a moment until I curiously opened the links.

A petition has been written by the Coalition of Public Interest Lawyers and Advocates COPA, to the Minister of State for Defence and immediate past Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle to investigate two allegations.

The crux of the petition signed by the national coordinator of COPA, Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq, reads: “I write to you on behalf of the Coalition of Public Interests Lawyers and Advocates (COPA), a dedicated advocacy organization committed to upholding social justice, equity, and good governance in Nigeria. We are deeply troubled by the pervasive tribalism, abuse of federal character principles, and nepotism evident within the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the leadership of Major General Parker, the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI).

“It has come to our attention that Major General Parker has consistently demonstrated favouritism towards his kinsmen, notably evidenced by the recent appointment of Navy Captain S K Ogogo (NN/2122) as the Director of Finance and Accounting (DFA) at the Defense Intelligence Agency. This appointment starkly undermines principles of fairness and equity, especially when there are numerous qualified individuals suitable for the role. Furthermore, the appointment of the DFA from the same local government area as the CDI raises alarming concerns about the blatant disregard for federal character principles.”

I actually thought I was going to see a long list of General Parker’s tribalistic and nepotistic sins while I read the petition but alas! The only issue the petitioners seem to have is the singular appointment of Navy Captain Ogogo as DFA of the DIA.

Let me start with the appointment of the DFA. COPA, the petitioners deliberately concocted a blatant lie obviously to mislead the public. The lie is that Navy Captain Ogogo and General Parker are kinsmen from the same LGA. A kinsman is someone related to you by blood. Your blood line. General Parker Undiandeye is from Obudu LGA, while Navy Captain Kenneth Ogogo, is from Obanliku LGA, both in Cross River State.

General Parker is Bette in Obudu while Navy Captain Ogogo is Bisu in Obanliku. If both of them speak their vernacular, they cannot understand themselves.

They must use English language to communicate whether in public or private. I am Bette like General Parker, but I can neither speak nor understand Bisu, Navy Captain Kenneth Ogogo’s, vernacular. So that allegation was deliberately and mendaciously inserted with the intention to deceive and mislead the public and instigate public opprobrium against the CDI.

Secondly, Navy Captain Ogogo is an accountant. He is a red neck. He graduated from the Nigerian Defence Academy NDA, and has gone ahead to study accounting in other prestigious institutions and holds several professional accounting certifications that eminently qualifies him for his appointment. So far, he has no record of blemish whatsoever in his career as an officer of the Nigerian Navy, that should have disqualified him. Unless someone is saying that qualified personnel must not be hired because the person in charge of hiring is from their State. The distribution of directorships in the DIA is not tied to ethnicity but to the different services who have their personnel serving in the agency.

Lastly, talking about “consistently demonstrating favoritism towards his kinsmen”, I want to challenge COPA to provide additional evidence. That will help to properly situate their grievance. For now, that is a wild allegation. If a section of the country is angry that the immediate past DFA, Rear Admiral Samson Bura, from Borno was replaced, there are better ways of addressing their grievances than laying it in the doorstep of tribalism.

General Parker and Navy Captain Ogogo are not from the same tribe. In fact, apart from the very laudable and commendable community interventions that General Parker is doing in the village, he has strictly refused to deal personally with his kinsmen, including even his siblings from the same womb on matters related to his work, not to talk of me that is writing this.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

StreetReporters.ng

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