The
names of a former National Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Chief Bode George, and other ex-convicts, are still on the
national honours list.
Other prominent convicts whose names
are on the list are a former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa
Balogun; ex-Managing Director of Oceanic Bank, Cecilia Ibru; her former
counterpart in the defunct Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola;
and other ex-managing directors of banks convicted after they were
conferred with the national honours.
President Goodluck Jonathan during the
2012 national honours awards in Abuja in September had said that he had
directed the national honours award committee to withdraw the awards
from awardees who had been convicted or undergoing criminal trial.
Investigation by our correspondent showed that the committee had not been able to meet to carry out Jonathan’s order.
It was also gathered that 21 recipients
of the 2010 and 2011 National Honours awardees had yet to receive their
medals more than one year after they were conferred with the awards.
Eighty per cent of the awardees came from the public sector as either public officers or political appointees.
Already, the Special Duties Office in
the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had
concluded arrangement to use its 21 members of staff, preferably those
from recipients’ home states to take the medals personally to them.
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