Snake in the building
Looting is not new to the Nigerian populace; there have been different dimensions to it. The surprising- or rather funny- thing is that animals are now involved [whether directly or indirectly]. The story making the rounds is that of the snake that made its way into the vault in the account office of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Makurdi where it gulped a whopping sum of N36 million. The money was said to be proceeds from the sales of JAMB scratch cards [when the cards were still in use].
As one would have expected- since snakes are not known to consume paper or cash- the matter has been given a spiritual painting. The individual (that is, JAMB’s sales clerk, Philomena Chieshe) who is at the centre of the whole saga was quoted as saying that “she did not steal the money but confessed that her housemaid connived with another member of staff at JAMB to spiritually (through a snake) steal the money from the vault in the account office".
The Board has since come out, through its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, to debunk the claim of the money-gulping snake related by the clerk; stressing that the case at hand is one of absolute criminality and fraud. The fraud was discovered after the team of auditors [appointed by the board] assessed the board’s inventory as the registrar made moves to ensure account stability and also curb incidences of corruption and/or financial misappropriation. He also pinpointed that it was in this view [of fighting corruption] within the system that the pin vending method was introduced for students’ JAMB registration.
In a related development; Chairman of Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani, paid a visit to JAMB office with a group of snake charmers whom he said have the capability to unravel [and deal] with the mysterious snake that has now become an entity of national interest.
However, given that we are to ‘play the fool’, and put the ‘snake story’ under scrutiny; how did Mrs. Philomena get to know that the snake sneaked into the vault and made away with the money? Has she got an ‘all-seeing eye’? Plus, though I do not know how activities are run within the account office but should such a huge sum of money (as N36 million) not have been taken to the bank- irrespective of how safe the vault might have been? There is no doubt that the lapses that exist within the system was one of the reasons why the perpetrators were able to cart away that huge amount of money.
While investigations are still ongoing, it is hoped that the board will get to the root of the matter and bring the culprit(s) to book. A statement attributed to Dr. Fabian [in one of the national dailies] has it that a report on the matter has been forwarded to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and that disciplinary measures will be meted out after the report has been approved [by the minister].
Philomena Chieshe might have tried her best in attempting to fool a whole nation by selling us her ‘snake story’ but we are surely having none of it; she has got to come out clean with the whole truth and let the ‘lying snake’ have some good rest.