Why Marilyn Ogar, Was ‘Sacked’

Controversial former spokesperson of the State Security Service (SSS), Marilyn Ogar, has been compulsorily retired from service following investigation into allegations of bribery and professional misconducts against her.

Mrs. Ogar was alleged to have collected several trucks of DPK (Dual Purpose Kerosene) as bribe, playing partisan roles, among other breaches of service codes.

Although no official statement has been issued by the Service regarding the compulsory retirement of Mrs. Ogar and others officials, a security source confirmed that the former spokesperson was retired on Wednesday – seven years before she was due to leave service.

PREMIUM TIMES had on March 26 exclusively reported how Ms. Ogar received trucks of kerosine in bribe, and then proceeded to disparage the then opposition APC on television and other media before and after the Osun governorship election.

In the exclusive report, which sources in the service said triggered internal investigation by the new service leadership, this newspaper reported that Ms. Ogar was treated to a special offer the former Nigerian administration utilised in appeasing dubious officials hired to do hatchet jobs, and other Nigerians regarded as troublesome. 

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the new Director General of the service, Lawal Daura, set up a panel headed by a retired director of training to investigate the allegations against Ms. Ogar and other staff of the agency.

Mrs. Ogar, our sources said, was found guilty of the corruption allegation against her as well as for playing partisan role that ridiculed the agency in the eyes of the Nigerian public.

The panel therefore recommended that she be compulsorily retired, alongside others also found guilty for professional misconducts during the last administration.

In the PREMIUM TIMES story that exposed the bribery, it was reported that within government circles, the offer made to her, which was direct allocation of fuel products, was termed “settlement” by agents of the immediate past administration.

“That is what the government uses if it wants to settle you. If you are settled once, you are made,” one source told PREMIUM TIMES in March.

Mrs. Ogar was referred to the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the government-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in charge of marketing and distribution of petroleum products.

According to elaborate details of the transaction obtained by PREMIUM TIMES in March, the PPMC was directed to allocate 10 trucks of DPK (Dual Purpose Kerosene) to Mrs. Ogar.

The sacked spokesperson accordingly met with the then Managing Director of the company, Haruna Momoh, and the deal was struck, this newspaper reported.

With little or no previous fuel marketing experience, and more importantly, without a registered company for that purpose, Mr. Momoh, suggested the allocations be channelled through known fuel independent marketers who will receive the allocation, sell them and deliver cash to Ms. Ogar.

According to the PREMIUM TIMES report, the former spokeswoman agreed, and the PPMC selected three marketers to deliver four, three, and three trucks apiece on her behalf.

An agent at the PPMC triggered text messages to the respective marketers. In one, sent by the coordinator of a private depot in Apapa Lagos via 08064387579, the firm wrote, “Please be informed management has approved three trucks of DPK to your company. Kindly make arrangement for payment. Thank you.”

To finalise the deal, the PPMC introduced Ms. Ogar to the three marketers and all sides agreed she be paid N1.5 million for each truck of DPK.

In all, Ms. Ogar was paid N15 million for doing nothing beyond meeting the PPMC boss having been recommended by the higher authorities to do so.

To this day, Ms. Ogar never responded to calls and text messages seeking her comments over the story.