Dr. Dere Otubu is the Chairman of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc, which has over the last few months, come under heavy criticism, concerning the crisis that the company has found itself in.
The crisis concerns his handling of the Ghost Workers fraud in Eko Electricity Distribution Company, and the steps taken by the EKEDC’s board to investigate the matter. As Chairman of the Board, a lot of criticisms have been heaped on him. And over the last few weeks, there have been in circulation copies of the exchange of e-mails among the top hierarchy of the company.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in Abuja has had to step in and has written letters to the Chairman, asking the EKEDP board to quickly conclude the review of its investigation into these allegations of ghost workers, to identify all those involved in causing a colossal loss of revenues to EKEDP. There are allegations that the Ghost Worker’s fraud is as high as N100 million. And many top Management Staff want the issue to be thoroughly investigated.
Meanwhile, the battle has been between West Power & Gas Ltd (WPG), a company which consults for EKEDP and the Board of Directors of EKEDP, over the deployment and redeployment of staff members.
When the issue broke last year, there were an exchange of e-mails between the WPG and the Board. In the process, a Letter of Recall was issued to Wola Joseph Condotti, the Chief Legal Officer, which the Board Chairman overruled. The Chairman of WPG had recalled her back to WPG to allow for proper investigation, in line with best practices, globally.
The Chairman was criticised for overruling the recall.
Dere Otubu was said to have instructed Wola Joseph Condotti to disregard the Recall.
George Etomi, the Chairman of WPG in an e-mail dated 5th of Dec. 2023 recalled Wola from the position of Chief Legal Officer to Eko Disco.
But Dere Otubu, the Chairman of Eko Disco in his own e-mail on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, told her to kindly disregard this letter in its Entirety saying Eko Disco will continue with its process of looking into the matter.
That same day, George Etomi in another e-mail wrote Dere, informing him that his attention had been drawn to the recent e-mail sent by Dere to the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and the MD/CEO EKEDP, among others, instructing that the WPG e-mail containing the CLO’s Letter of Recall from EKEDP be disregarded in its entirety. I am very surprised at this turn of events, because instructing the CLO to disregard a directive from the Chairman of WPG, her employer, can be considered an act of encouraging insubordination. This may easily be regarded as setting a wrong precedent that could empower management staff to undermine the Directors of the Board at all level”.
“As you are aware, WPG is well within its rights to recall any of its staff based on the Operations and Management Agreement executed between WPG and EKEDP. The rights to recall and/or discipline staff are consequential rights of WPG as the CLO’s employer. The Letter Of Recall to the CLO constitutes standard practice in such cases, pending the conclusion of the investigation and determination of the matter.
“Kindly be aware that the issues that have necessitated the recall are very grievous and nothing whatsoever should be done to condone or cover them up. Without prejudice to whatever action you want to take, WPG will go ahead to conduct a full investigation into the matter and I advise all our nominees on the EKEDC Board not to lend themselves to any cover-up”.
The instruction to recall stands and ignoring it will be at the peril of whoever does so”.
On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, Dere Otubu, fired another e-mail to the Chairman and copied others on the issue of Letter Of Recall, expressing surprise at his letter, as he had spoken to him on why his Letter Of Recall should never have been issued in the first place and was therefore disregarded.
“I had pointed out to you that it was improper for you to single-handedly issue instructions of such significance on behalf of WPG and on a matter that relates to you without wide consultations”.
“…Issuing threats to Eko Disco staff is ill-advised and of no value. I would therefore kindly request you to allow us the space to conduct the investigations properly”.
On 13 December, 2023, Simon Ani, a director sent an e-mail to Ernest Oji and Dere Otubu on the same issue of Recall of the CLO.
He copied others. In the e-mail, he described Dere’s e-mails as ill-advised and inappropriate for 2 reasons, reminding him that WPG had written earlier in the year that all of us Directors on Eko’s Board, clarifying that we are there representing WPG’s interest. We are not there for any other purpose. We are not there representing our shareholdings. WPG nominated us to sit there to look after WPG’s interest”.
“Also, WPG has written clarifying that we are all Non-Executive Directors, including you, Chairman. You are a Non-Executive Chairman. As such, none of us, including you Chairman, has the authority to unilaterally issue orders and directives…
Therefore, it is wrong for you to unilaterally counter-mend the Chairman, WPG’s e-mail bringing the Wola matter to WPG Board…WPG employed all Senior Management, Wola is one of them. And under the O and M Agreement, WPG has overall supervisory responsibilities to Eko”.
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