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| Richard Mofe Damijo - RMD |
A few weeks ago, I featured RMD as a February Man Candy. The list was to showcase Nigerian men who looked good doing what they did, but I also wanted to use the opportunity to celebrate them for their hard work. RMD is a veteran Nollywood actor, but some years ago, he accepted an appointment to work with the Delta State government as an Special Adviser, later a commissioner for Tourism.
Now, RMD is alleged to have misappropriated N50Million meant for a Cultural Expo to attract tourists to Delta State, my home state. I've waited a couple of days for a rebuttal from RMD and his camp, but none has surfaced at this time. Until he has answered the allegations publicly, I've decided to remove RMD from my Man Candy list. He may be eye candy, but if he's guilty, he's not a man I can look up to or ask others to aspire to be like.
...Mr. Mofe Damijo issued a check to the tourism board in the name of its acting GM, Ms. Ajufo. She in turn reportedly deposited the sum into her First Bank private account with account number (3006131619) operated under her name, Nkem Philo Ajufo. Our sources said she and Mr. Mofe Damijo subsequently shared the money.
If this report by SaharaReporters is true, it indicates that RMD may have fallen victim of the "Nigerian factor" - the bureaucracy that means that government officials either do not perform their assigned duties, demand bribes before they do them, or simply appropriate public funds for their personal purposes. While I find nothing wrong with being a public official - both my parents being retired from the civil service - I cannot condone authority figures using public funds without due process, or outright embezzlement.
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PS - I know my list is piddling in the scheme of things, but this is symbolic for me.
What happened to innocent until proven guilty? And for the record I am Zimbabwean and hardly know who this man is? No biasis here at all!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, but RMD's silence at this time is not golden. There is guilt, and there is the appearance of guilt, none sits well with me.
DeleteI am short of words....I hope we learn the truth very soon. He's someone a lot of persons look up to.
ReplyDeleteHmm,,,,,let me wait and hear his own version, beacuse tomorrow story go change.
ReplyDeleteI hope to hear his side of the story...I am surprised he is not attacking Sahara like he did Linda Ikeji when she published news about his house then...sad :(
ReplyDeleteAh he can't take down Sahara journalists (vs. Linda Ikeji- gossip blogger).
DeleteThis is very believable sha. So sad that this is the mindset in Nigeria. Once you get your foot in the door, just chop chop and chop some more.
this is my first time commenting on here and i do believe that if u had put him on the list for all the good things he has done then let it be..If at all this allegation is true which there isnt any proof of at the moment because we do not know his side of the story just yet! then we should at least still give him the benefit of doubt, wat if it turns out to be just a rumour would u then put his name back??we should at least try to stand by "our" people even when they make mistakes,there may be other people wu are on ur candy man list wu have worse skeletons that we may be blissfully ignorant about..
ReplyDeleteAlthough i will be dissapointed too as i love RMD as an actor and all but i still think we should wait and see..
Thanks Shallie, me too. It's just that RMD was very quick to rebut anther blogger so his silence now is disappointing. If he's proved to be innocent, I'll publish an apology.
DeleteWe need more people like Myne in the media. Until we loathe corruption and corrupt practices in all ramification as a people(whether in public, private, families, religious centers etc), we shall never have development. We will only grow in an unsustainable way- by benefiting (individually or collectively) from proceeds of loots and crime. If we all embrace mynes disposition towards questionable characters, corruption will become unfashionable in Nigeria. Right now, what we need in naija is: Guilty until proven innocent. The cleaning up has to be revolutionary!
Delete#Bravo, Myne.