- Raises ‘army’ for social media war
Embattled LAWMA’s contractor, better known as “Iron Lady”, has launched a massive media offensive with a dual mission to launder her name and discredit the ongoing audit exercise, according to our findings.
In this connection, a popular social media influencer simply named Deji has been hired to coordinate a crack team she assembled with a huge war-chest said to run into millions of Naira.
This was the highlight of a damage control meeting “Iron Lady” reportedly had at the weekend with her powerful political backers in the State.
This comes as details of the forensic audit report emerged, detailing large-scale fraud allegedly perpetrated by “Iron Lady” for several months through the padding of the wage bill submitted to the Lagos State Waste Management (LAWMA).
In a surprise move last month, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had relieved Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin of duties as Managing Director/CEO of the agency and asked Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni to take over in acting capacity and ordered a forensic probe of LAWMA’s books.
Out of estimated N560 million that the agency pays monthly to keep Lagos clean, Iron Lady’s company was said to be collecting about N80 million.
The governor’s decision was said to have been necessitated by security reports revealing systematic scaling up of the wage-bill of highway sweepers and supervisors.
A sweeper earns a flat wage of N25,000 monthly, while their supervisor receives N40,000 per month.
In deed Iron Lady’s woes became compounded last weekend following an expose by some whistleblowers named “Concerned LAWMA Operators” who revealed that not only was the wage bill criminally padded, but also that the “Iron Lady” had forcibly hijacked routes legally allocated to them with the connivance of the immediate past MD of the agency, urging Governor Sanwo-Olu to restore their routes to them.
Another highlight from the emergency meeting the “Iron Lady” held with her backers, it was gathered, was to completely avoid interfacing with the press directly. Our repeated visits to seek audience with her at her official address at No. 72, Oja Oba, Adeniji Adele Road, Lagos did not yield another result as we were told each time that she was not available.
Interestingly, The Punch newspaper, quoting her aide, yesterday reported that she had been hospitalized. The newspaper claimed to have briefly spoken to the “Iron Lady” on Tuesday, only for her to cut the line abruptly.
To counter the gale of negative reports, Iron Lady’s team has flooded the social media with assorted short videos conceived to elicit public sympathy. In one, she was shown dispensing cash to a crowd of women posing as sweepers in LAWMA apron, while they sang her praise.
In another footage, a young man identifying himself as Olamide Suleiman Toshi was shown offering apologies to the “Iron Lady” on behalf of the “Bourdullion Boys” for “spreading lies” against her.
In yet another video which trended in the social media, a young lady was shown crying and raining expletives on the State government at a school location on Lagos Island, claiming she was being owed six-month back wages.
But interestingly, a group who identified themselves as the authentic “Bourdillion Boys” have paid a solidarity visit to LAWMA’s headquarters in Ijora, pledging loyalty to the new management and endorsing the ongoing audit to “ensure that the hard-earned money Lagosians pay as tax will stop ending up in the pockets of some selfish individuals.”
In another clip, a group of women posing as sweepers in LAWMA aprons were shown alleging that they were being owed arrears of wages.
But LAWMA has officially dismissed the allegation of six-month arrear of salaries as fiction, stating that, “Only May wage is pending and efforts are being made to offset that. The delay is because of the ongoing investigation to fish out ghosts on the pay-roll.”
Speaking on a Lagos Television (LTV) programme we monitored yesterday, a LAWMA supervisor who identified herself as Miss Justina described those protesting against LAWMA’s new management as rented crowd: “Those parading themselves on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as LAWMA sweepers and supervisors are fake. They’re hired people paid to blackmail the government against the ongoing audit.”
On how to identify genuine LAWMA sweepers and supervisors, she explained: “Any genuine sweeper or supervisor carries valid ID card with their name, photograph and thumbprint captured in biometrics by LAWMA.”
Also speaking on the LTV programme, a LAWMA supervisor identified as Mr. Ademola Tola, expressed support for the ongoing audit by Governor Sanwo-Olu: “We don’t want ‘Iron Lady’ again in LAWMA. We want the government to ensure that any CEO (contractor) that is found wanting of corruption should be removed.”
Meanwhile, audit exercise carried out in the Ikorodu axis which ended last year revealed jaw-dropping discrepancies between the figures “Iron Lady” submitted and what the investigators met on ground.
With the 66 routes in her portfolio, the “Iron Lady” effectively controlled more than ten percent of the Lagos waste market.
She claimed she had in her employ on the 66 routes a total of 2,310 workers. Each route was expected to engage 33 sweepers and two supervisors. Based on those figures, her company was collecting over N80m monthly from LAWMA.
But we were reliably informed that on the Itowolo-Magidun East (Ikorodu Area) route, for instance, auditors discovered that seven of the 28 sweepers paraded were impostors. Even at that, the 28 persons paraded still fell short of the 33 documented and paid monthly wages for months.
So far, overall, auditors were said to have discovered that out of over 16,000 workers claimed by the contractors, a whopping 7,000 have been unmasked as “ghost”.
No fewer than 600 operators are accredited by LAWMA and they, in turn, employ more than 16,000 sweepers and hundreds of supervisors.
Statutorily, LAWMA’s brief includes oversight of PSP operators, sweepers of highways, clearing of marine waste and market management, as well as the de-silting of the primary and secondary drainage.
For effective coverage of the state, LAWMA delineates the 20 councils and 37 development areas into routes and allocates such to licensed operators who, in turn, employ and assign sweepers and a supervisor on each route.
Meanwhile, the audit exercise began on the Lagos Island and Victoria Island this week. Insiders told us they were confident more sleaze will be discovered in what has been described as massive racketeering in LAWMA in the past twelve months.