Embattled Director General of the Nigeria Tourism Development Commission (NTDC) Mrs. Sally Uwechue-Mbanefo may have settled for more controversies as she has refused to honour invitations to appear before a probe panel set up to investigate her role in the failed Brazil 2014 Fan’s village.

The Minister of Culture, Tourism & National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke had on the accusation of financial impropriety and betrayal of trust against the DG by President of Za Entertainment, Mr. Azania Omo-Agege set up a probe panel to unearth the truth of the matter and report back to him.

The four member panel is co-chaired by the Director General of National Commission for Museum and Monuments, Mallam Yusuf Usman and Director of Human Resources Management in the Ministry Dr. Ochapa Ogenyi.

We learnt that Mbanefo believes that since she was appointed by the President of Nigeria the same way the Minister was appointed, the minister has no right to set up a panel to investigate her. She also believes she cannot appear before a panel headed by her colleagues in the ministry.

Our source in the NTDC disclosed that the panel also invited the Directors of Administration, Marketing, HTT, Finance and head of project unit; Fatimah Obadakin who were initially restrained from appearing before the panel because the NTDC DG ceased their invitation letters but after some other developments were released to honour the invitation.

The President of Za entertainment has told us that he and other parties in the case have since appeared before the panel and were awaiting their decisions on the matter. He also confirmed that Mbanefo was invited by the panel twice but refused to show up.

Our source informed us that while the NTDC DG informed the panel that she couldn’t appear before it on health grounds, she was busy travelling and paying courtesy calls on other agencies.

“That was the time she paid a courtesy visit on the National Planning Commission and so cannot claim to be sick,” the source said.

It is however unclear what the minister may have decided to do with this case as there are insinuations that she is relying on other contacts in the presidency strong enough to sway any recommendation from him to the President.

Society Reporters NG had reported the scuffle between Uwechue-Mbanefo and Omo-Agege in Brazil over the proposed Nigerian Fans Village which never took off. Omo-Agege claimed the DG never kept her own side of the bargain after collecting money from sponsors, while she in turn accused him of trying to defraud her. The controversy got worse when Omo-Agege alleged that the DG wanted to destroy the agreement both parties had, which led to the fight in a hotel lobby in Brazil.

In another development, we discovered that the relationship between the NTDC DG and her staff is deteriorating everyday as she deals with them without regard for the laws and regulations guiding the Federal Civil Service of Nigeria.

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