Fraudsters made me believe I won Mo Ibrahim award – Abba Ibrahim

Print
Email

Category: News
Published on Thursday, 10 January 2013 05:00
Written by Isiaka Wakili
Hits: 6

Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim yesterday described his much-touted $100, 000 Mo Ibrahim award as unreal, saying fraudsters made him to believe he won it.

Ibrahim had before now severally informed the public about the award purportedly billed to be conferred on him in South Africa on January 30.
Senate President David Mark at a plenary session last December, on behalf of the Senate, congratulated Ibrahim on the award.
A source in the Ibrahim-led Senate Committee on Housing told Daily Trust that the Senate had planned to appoint a delegation that would accompany the ‘awardee’ to South Africa.
But yesterday, Ibrahim, a three-time former governor of Yobe State, said in a statement he personally signed that “there is no such award.”
“I had a call and DHL delivery from one supposed professor of the University of Cape Town that I had received the Exemplary Grassroots Leadership Quality in Africa Award 2012 purportedly sponsored by the Rockefeller and Mo Ibrahim Foundations. My staff contacted the organizers who asked us to submit our names to their liaison officer in the South African High Commission for visas. They requested for no money and provided sufficient and contacts that gave the impression that they were real and we thought we were dealing with a campaign sponsored by Mo Ibrahim and Rockefeller Foundations in South Africa.
“Understandably, I became enthusiastic and informed my colleagues, friends and family and received great support. Some friends began to organize to celebrate the event and even took out the publication in newspapers and the story spread rapidly. At this point, before people started to commit resources, I decided to carry out a more professional investigation than my staff were able to do. Our investigators unfolded an elaborate scam targeted at distinguished personalities across Africa. We contacted Mo Ibrahim Foundation Office in London who promptly published a disclaimer. We have also informed the University of Cape Town, Prof. Ali Mazrui, Minister Ebrahim Patel of South Africa and several others named as partners in this scam. I have also taken steps to warn my friends, well wishers and colleagues not to raise any funds and terminate further preparation.”
The lawmaker, who admitted being amazed by what he called the professional sophistication of 419 scammers, said, “There are great lessons to be learnt: Our society is now littered with angry, ruthless and dangerous people. With robbers, kidnappers and 419 criminal gangs everywhere, no one is safe anymore.”

Space reserved