Allegations of Financial Misappropriation Rock ASIMPIN, Members Drag PG, Tin Can Chair Over Ethnic Segregation

The Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners in Nigeria (ASIMPIN) is embroiled in a deepening crisis, as allegations of financial misappropriation against its Tin Can Island Chapter Treasurer, Mr. Louis Eze, threaten to fracture the association along ethnic and administrative lines.

The controversy has been further inflamed by accusations that the association’s President General, Eze Damian Obianigwe, tacitly endorsed the labelling of Delta State Igbo members as “outcasts” in Igbo maritime affairs, a charge that prominent Deltan members say they will no longer tolerate in silence.

At a press briefing on Friday, Chief Mike Okolichi, a prominent ASIMPIN member and former Vice Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tin Can Island Port chapter, spoke on behalf of aggrieved Deltan members and issued a 72-hour ultimatum to both the Tin Can Island Chapter Chairman, Chief Isaac Ndukwe, and the President General.

The flashpoint, according to Okolichi, was a statement made by Ndukwe at a general meeting in which he allegedly referred to Deltans within the association as “Ndi Okalauzo”, an Igbo expression meaning outcasts or people without freeborn status.

What made the remark more incendiary, Okolichi said, was that the President General was seated at the meeting and said nothing.

“We are giving the Chairman of ASIMPIN Tin Can Chapter, Mr. Isaac Ndukwe, 72 hours to come out and publicly apologise for calling the Deltans in the association ‘Okalauzo’, meaning an outcast, people that are not freeborn,” Okolichi said.

“We Deltans were the most wounded during the Biafra War. Even the Igbo Maritime Forum, which we are all members of today, was formed by our late brother, Prince Ozo Chukwura. Ndukwe made that insulting statement at a general meeting which the President General, Eze Damian Obianigwe, was seated at, and he never corrected him.”

Okolichi added that the PG’s silence was compounded by a separate incident in which Ndukwe allegedly suspended the issuance of registration forms to Deltan applicants, even after the PG had directed that 100 forms be made available to them.

“This further shows that the statement he made by calling us ‘Okalauzo’, he meant it. It means they don’t need us. He has insulted the whole Deltans and not just one person,” Okolichi said.

Running parallel to the ethnic tension is a financial scandal centred on Mr. Louis Eze, who served as Financial Secretary and Treasurer for 13 years under the immediate past Chairman, Chief Charles Igbokei, and currently holds the position of Treasurer under the new executive.

Okolichi alleged that petitions filed against Eze prompted the PG to set up a probe committee. The three-man investigative panel, headed by former President General Chief Ben Nde and including Gideon Nwagbaraocha and Lawrence Ubah, sat nine times over several weeks, far longer than its two-week mandate, largely due to what the committee described as poor financial record-keeping by Eze.

The committee’s report, made available to our correspondent, found that monies collected from members were in several instances paid into Eze’s personal account rather than the chapter’s official account, in breach of the ASIMPIN constitution.

The report also found that bereaved families of deceased members had been short-paid their burial rights, with discrepancies recorded against at least six families.

Among the most serious findings was the handling of funds raised for the late Cletus Nwabueze, where N1.58 million was reportedly collected in free-will donations, with N1 million allegedly paid to the widow while N580,000 was said to have been spent at the wake-keep, a claim the former Chairman flatly denied.
The total amount allegedly misappropriated was put at over N5 million.

The committee recommended that Eze be suspended from the current executive, barred from holding any finance-related office, and required to refund all short-paid burial benefits within three months — or face expulsion and prosecution.

However, according to Okolichi, before the report could be formally adopted, Chairman Ndukwe disrupted the session in which it was being presented, and a second three-man committee was subsequently constituted by the PG, headed by Chief Eugene Nweke, Dr Frank Ukor and Shedrach Chukwuemeka. They were to re-examine the original report and come out with a white paper.

Shortly after, even before the white paper committee could commence its assignment, the PG’s media aide issued a statement declaring the original report discarded, a claim the PG has neither confirmed nor denied.

“The media aide who wrote for the PG was not in that meeting where these decisions were taken, so he must have gotten his brief from the PG.
“We sent the offensive statement to the PG to confirm or debunk, he has refused to respond.”

Chief Charles Igbokei, popularly known as Charles Tailor, the immediate past Chairman of the Tin Can Island Chapter, corroborated the financial misconduct allegations at the briefing, saying Eze and his associates consistently insisted that association funds be paid into personal accounts rather than official chapter accounts.

“The only money I can account for was that disbursed by cheque. Louis and his cohorts insisted that monies should be paid into his personal account, and Ndukwe who was a national officer at the time was backing him”

“If I had put up pressure then, the association would have scattered, so I had to keep managing them. Most of what they did and monies collected was done behind my back. Nobody has indicted me of any financial misappropriation in the 13 years I was Chairman.” Igbokei said.

He alleged that funds donated by members toward the construction of the chapter’s building were also unaccounted for, and that the collection occurred while he was on a family holiday in the United States.

The association’s Tin Can Chapter Secretary, Mr. Austen Egede, also spoke at the briefing, alleging that Chairman Ndukwe had collected the secretariat key from him, removed him as administrator of the chapter’s WhatsApp platform, and effectively barred him from performing his duties as an elected officer.

“I advised Louis to go and reconcile with his past executive on the matter of financial misappropriation so that we can work better as a chapter executive, but what he told me was that we should forget about the accounts and just carry on,”

Egede said. “We got to know that Louis has been sitting on the benefits of our dead members. The man sitting at the helm of affairs is giving them backing, and this is very bad, he is sympathetic towards the whole irregularities instead of making efforts to unify the association.”

When he was reached for comment, Chairman of Tin Can ASIMPIN, Isaac Ndukwe denied the ethnic slur allegation outright, insisting his words had been taken out of context, and described the crisis as a politically motivated campaign by factions that opposed his election.

“Before God and man, the allegation that I called the Deltans ‘Ndi Okalauzo’ is a total lie. I was only expressing myself during a meeting with our PG, i was making an explanation, and they took my words out of context and are now twisting it against me. When you want to kill a dog, you first give it a bad name,” Ndukwe said.

On the financial allegations, Ndukwe questioned the selective nature of the probe, arguing that the former Chairman could not be absolved of responsibility for transactions that occurred on his watch.

“How can the Financial Secretary embezzle N5 million without the consent of his Chairman? You cannot prosecute the Financial Secretary and leave out the Chairman. They should both be held responsible,” he said.

He also defended his handling of the secretary’s situation, alleging that Egede had been leaking executive meeting resolutions to a rival faction and repeatedly reinstating an unauthorised individual as administrator of the chapter’s WhatsApp platform against his directive.

“I see this as insubordination,” Ndukwe said.

On the stalled registration of Deltan members, Ndukwe did not directly address the allegation, instead reiterating his position that opposition elements within the association had been working to destabilise his administration since his election.

“After the election, I made efforts to ensure that we build a unity government and work as a team to move Tin Can chapter forward. I was surprised when Sonniel Onochie from the camp which Egede belonged, informed me about ongoing plans to bring down my administration by forming a pressure group”

“I hold Ezebo Chief Mike Okolichi in high esteem and I have no grudges against him, but the sycophants surrounding him are the problem” he said