Ex-NSITF Chair, Ngozi Olejeme’s Unenviable Status

Ex-NSITF Chair, Ngozi Olejeme’s Unenviable Status

In her halcyon days as a top player in the nation’s political setting, Ngozi Juliet Olejeme commanded a lot of respect. While she was envied by many of her peers, many others saw her as god-sent in their lives.

Olejeme, a former chairman of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust-fund (NSITF), would later venture into politics when she aspired to be governor of Delta State on the Platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Sadly, Olejeme, also a former chairman of the Board, Subsidy Re-Investment Programme, SURE-P, has now fallen from her enviable position. This came after she was arrested by the nation’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. At the outset of her trial, she had wrongfully thought that she could escape justice owing to her influence in the society.

Indeed, she was said to have boasted that she was untouchable. But years after, the Delta State-born billionaire is now ruing the day she had dipped her hands in the cookies jar.
Unfortunately, the more she tries to clear her name, the deeper she sinks.

Society Watch gathered that a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had ordered the interim forfeiture of assets and properties traced to her, following an ex parte application filed by the EFCC on December 12, 2018.

In his ruling, the judge held that “an order is hereby made attaching/forfeiting in the interim, all assets and properties set out in the schedule attached to this application, to the Federal Government of Nigeria, pending the hearing and determination of the trial in Charge No. CR/365/17 pending at.”

Some of her properties that were seized include a one-storey semi-detached residential building located at house/flat 86, 11 Crescent, Kado estate, Abuja; a fenced plot of land with C of O No. DTSR16326, located at plots 104 and 105, Block IV, Phase V, Core Area, Asaba, Delta state; Six units of one bedroom apartment; one unit of five bedroom bungalow; a block of six units of office space, all located at 196, Melford Okilo road, Amarata-Epie, Yenegoa, Bayelsa state.

Others include one duplex and four-bedroom residential building with swimming pool, gatehouse, fully furnished with state-of-the -art facilities, located at No. 25 Kainji Crescent, off Maitama, Abuja. This same property is also known as plot No. 738 Cadastral zone AO5, Maitama, Abuja; A storey building; two bungalows; printing press with printing equipment; a fenced empty land measuring 1422.765 square meters, located at km.9 Asaba-Benin Express road, Asaba, Delta state.

Another property is a twin duplex office building, located at Plot R/151 (No. 30A) Kingsway Road, Old GRA, Enugu State, registered at Enugu Land Registry.

The commission, through the application, also sought the interim forfeiture of two Duplexes with Boys’ Quarters, generator house, Gym and Car Park, located at No. 3D Opolo, Old Commissioner’s Quarters, Yenegoa, Bayelsa State; Ten plots of land, located at plot 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 20, 23, and 24 Phase IV, Block 111, Core Area, Asaba, Delta state, with C of O No. DSTR1194; a two bedroom bungalow, located at No. 3 Ogwa Godspower avenue, Oshimili South LGA, Asaba, Delta State; a two bedroom bungalow, located at No. 11 Chiweta Street, off Ezenie Avenue, Asaba, Delta State, measuring 527.141 square meters; a two bedroom bungalow, located at James Odittah Street, Oshimili LGA, Asaba, Delta State, amongst many others.

Society Watch gathered that the so-called godfathers who had reportedly assured her that she would be left off the hook are nowhere to be found.

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