TELPECON UPDATE: Disharmony Among NGOs As Officials Divert Multi-Billion Dollar Foreign Grants

Members of a consortium of some Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Nigeria under the umbrella of The Less Privileged Empowerment Coordinators Network  (Telpecon )  are now in a battle of wits as multi billion dollar grants sourced from several international donor agencies could not be accounted for. The money is meant for millions of less privileged Nigerians whose names were registered by the NGOs in the last two or three years.

SECURITY EXPRESS investigation revealed that the NGOs; a good number of which are run by Nigerians with well respected titles like Reverend, Prof, Doctor and so on, had at some point come together to harmonise their interest and present a common front by forming TELPECON as a special purpose vehicle to source for foreign grants for their members.

To facilitate activities of  TELPECON  and make it easy to realize its objectives in good time, elected officials of the group decided to appoint a consultant whom they considered professionally competent to act on behalf of TELPECON. This decision was taken under the leadership of TELPECON’s National Executive President, Rev. Cyril Elochukwu Mamah who is a resident pastor of an Abuja church and also an NGO Operator.
It was gathered that by consensus, another NGO Operator; Prof. Prince Isong was appointed a consultant to TELPECON under the auspice of his company; Princestandford Global Management Consultancy Firm Limited. To formalise the Consultancy relationship; TELPECON officials decided to give a Power of Attorney to Prof. Isong and his company.
The Power of Attorney, a copy of which is available to SECURITY EXPRESS was dated 15th January, 2020. The document spelt out the duties/obligations of the Consultant who was referred to, as the DONEE and TELPECON as the DONOR. Among the various duties/obligations of the Consultant were the fact that he should source for grants from international donor agencies and bring the sourced grants to TELPECON.

The sourced grants were to be deposited directly into TELPECON’s account here in Nigeria; an account in which the Consultant is also a signatory. Subsequent disbursement of the funds were to be done to the beneficiaries through TELPECON within a few weeks after receipt. The Power of Attorney was to subsist for three years subject to renewal at its expiration.

According to SECURITY EXPRESS findings, some foreign donor agencies made some grants available to TELPECON through the Consultant who was said to have travelled to three different countries during the 2020 Covid-19 problem to sign agreements with those donor agencies. His several trips were said to have been bankrolled by TELPECON with no less than N70million.
At the meeting of TELPECON officials with the Consultant, he was said to have announced to them that several billions had been sourced from various foreign donors. Some sources close to the TELPECON officials told SECURITY EXPRESS that the Consultant had sourced about $10billion from Australia, $700 million from Singapore and some other undisclosed sums from United States of America and elsewhere.

It was gathered that while the Consultant was busy sourcing the funds overseas, TELPECON officials were coordinating the various NGOs spelling out modalities on how the grants would be disbursed. It was gathered that no fewer than 44 million Nigerians were registered by the various NGOs as potential beneficiaries from the grants.

Controversy was said to have begun when officials of TELPECON wanted to see the documentary evidence of the sourced grants. The Consultant was asked to produce the Telex copies of wiring the funds to Nigeria.

He was said to have ignored this request, thereby creating an impression that something was wrong somewhere. While a good number of the officials had insisted in knowing the exact amount sourced and documentary evidence of it, a few others seemed to have aligned with the Consultant by not joining in the pressure for him to keep the terms of agreement as contained in the Power of Attorney.

With this state of uncertainty, disbursement of the funds which reportedly had been communicated to beneficiaries on several occasions, could not come true, thereby creating a serious loss of confidence in the TELPECON leadership. This, we gathered had led to several reconciliatory meetings but all to no avail. Apart from the Consultant and his sympathisers, no other official seem to know how much was actually sourced and where the money is domiciled.

Several attempts made by SECURITY EXPRESS to speak with the Consultant; Prof. Prince Isong failed. A message sent to his WhatsApp number, a few days ago on the issue could not be responded to, neither did he return calls made to his phone.

Only the National Executive President of TELPECON, Rev. Cyril Elochukwu Mamah could respond to our enquires. He could however, not say much other than telling our Editor-in-Chief on phone that it was the Consultant who has a case to answer since he has not brought the Telex copies with which the grants were purportedly transferred to TELPECON account or any other account.

He could also not entertain further questions as to why he did not impress it on the Consultant to comply with immediacy in line with agreement reached via the Power of Attorney which was duly notarized.

Efforts by SECURITY EXPRESS to speak with other officials of TELPECON proved futile as the National Chairman of Board of Trustees, Prof. Nkanta Gideon, Executive Secretary, Pastor Asogbon Oluwayomi Godwin could not pick calls made to their phones.

1. Credit To: Security Express