Who is this Governor?
http://www.tribune.com.ng/23032008/news/news1.html
Do you have a first hand info? please share with us.

[b]A SERVING governor in one of the south eastern states of the country was quizzed by a team of armed policemen from the Fraud and Money Laundering Special Scotland Yard Squad, on Monday 17 March, 2008 over money laundering.


The governor, Sunday Tribune learnt, jetted out of the country on Friday, 14th March, 2008 with his entourage and checked into Inter-Continental Hotel, Park Lane, Central London under an assumed name.


It was gathered that the governor had a reception for indigenes of his state resident in the country the following day. The reception also had in attendance, the Nigeria Acting High Commissioner and representatives of a foreign company planning to build an oil and gas company in the governor’s state.


The governor was said to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the representatives of the company at the reception.


The next day, Sunday March 16, the governor paid homage to his people who came calling on him at his hotel room.


He was said to have retired at about 11 p.m, when the last visitor left, only to be woken up early the following morning, Monday, by the men from Scotland Yard.


The security operatives, who, acting on a tip off, searched his hotel room, and documents linking him to a house purchased late last year at the cost of £1.8m in South Kensington, London and another in Atlanta, USA at the cost of N$2.1m. Another document showed that the governor is a co-owner of a company in China.


The police also recovered a sum of £1.2m cash from the room of one of the governor’s aides. The governor and the aide were arrested and taken into custody where they were quizzed.


The governor was released the same day but his aide was released the following day because he had a British passport. The money is still in the possession of the police, pending the end of investigation into the source of the money the man claimed was genuinely earned by him.


It was rumored that the money was brought into London through an agent who uses one of Nigeria’s neighbouring countries diplomatic bag. The agent, Sunday Tribune learnt, was paid 20 per cent of the total money successfully brought into the UK and had been successfully transacting such business in the past.


Sunday Tribune findings revealed that that particular transaction went awry because the governor failed to settle all his accomplices whom he had earlier promised would get their share of the loot.


Our source disclosed that when the governor took possession of the money on Friday night, he handed it over to the aide for keeps.[/b]

According to the report below published in today's internet Leadership Newspaper the culprit is Ikedi Ohankim of Imo state.


Yar’Adua Seeks Details Over

Our Correspondent

• EFCC asks for documents

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has requested the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to
furnish him with more information over the circumstances that led to the arrest of Governor Ikedia Ohakim of Imo State by the Scotland Yard operatives last week.

The governor was allegedly quizzed by a team of police officers in London, on Monday, March 17, over issues relating to money laundering.

Acting on security report from EFCC, the security operatives were said to have invaded Inter-Continental Hotel, Park Lane, Central London, in search of a huge amount of money, which he allegedly took to London through some of his political aides.

LEADERSHIP gathered that vital documents which suggest that Governor Ohakim has a house worth £1.8 million in South Kensington, London, and another in Atlanta, USA, at the cost of $2.1 million were allegedly recovered in his hotel room.

Our source said, "A huge amount of cash, running into millions of dollars," was also recovered from persons linked to the governor.

The governor and one of his aides were allegedly arrested and asked to make written statements before they were released by the security officials.

LEADERSHIP gathered last night that President Yar’Adua, in line with his anti-corruption crusade, had asked for more detailed information relating to the case.

"The attention of the presidency has been drawn to the case, and he had directed the commission to do its work," a source at EFCC corporate headquarters told our correspondent last night.

"You know, the president has the principle of not interfering in our activities, although he has indicated interest to know more about the case, he however directed the commission to do its work."

Chief DSP Alameyeseigha and Mr. Joshua Dariye, former governors of Bayelsa and Plateau States respectively, had been arrested and prosecuted for similar offences.

An anti-graft source told our reporter that the money and other documents allegedly recovered in Mr. Ohakim’s hotel room are still in the possession of the London security operatives, pending when the investigation into the matter is concluded.

SOURCE: http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=24629

Thanks man.


Ohakim’s arrest, a ruse – EFCC

Ikedi Ohakim
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has described as mere ruse media reports that Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim, was arrested and questioned by law enforcement agencies in London over alleged money laundering.

This refutal is coming as officials at the Nigeria High Commission in Britain also denied knowledge of the alleged incident.
The man in the eye of the storm himself, equally denied the allegation, describing it as false and grossly misleading.

Leadership, an Abuja-based newspaper had reported in its Tuesday edition, that Ohakim was arrested and interrogated by Scotland Yard operatives in London for alleged money laundering.

The governor was said to have got into trouble over his ownership of a house worth £1.8 million in South Kessington in London and another in Atlanta USA valued at $2.1 million as well as one million dollars allegedly found on one of his aides during the search of their hotel rooms when they visited the British city on March 17.
The newspaper also reported that President Umaru Yar’Adua had subsequently directed the EFCC to furnish him with detailed information on the allegation.

The newspaper report was sequel to a previous one published last Sunday by Ibadan-based Nigerian Tribune. Although the Tribune’s report was speculative, Leadership apparently blew off the anonymity of the South East governor involved in its own news story.
But, the EFCC in a statement signed by its Head, Media and Publicity, Osita Nwajah, debunked the reports, saying its investigations and checks with the law enforcement agencies mentioned in the affair did not “bear out the stories of arrest and interrogation.”

The full statement by the commission reads: “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been drawn to some reports in the media alleging that law enforcement agencies in London, UK, acting on some security report from the Commission, arrested and questioned Imo State governor, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim. They are also reported to have, on the strength of the same security report, confiscated large sums of money and documents found on the governor, after a search of his apartment.

“The Commission wishes to state that no such security report was issued by it on Governor Ohakim and no such report was sent to any law enforcement agency within or outside Nigeria, with the intention to arrest or detain Governor Ohakim. Further, EFCC checks with the law enforcement agencies mentioned do not bear out the stories of arrest and interrogation of the said Governor, either based on the spurious security or other reports of the Commission.

“The media are advised to always crosscheck their facts before going to press.”
Daily Sun’s checks at the Nigeria High Commission in London also corroborated EFCC’s position.
A highly placed official who spoke on phone with Daily Sun on the condition of having his identity protected said: “We don’t have any more details or facts than what you have. We too only read of it in the newspapers on the internet.“But do you know there was a similar allegation against (Olusegun) Obasanjo last year, which we were forced to investigate here. And there was no truth in it. It was totally false.”
Also reacting to the allegation, Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Chuma Nnaji, described it as baseless, and of no substance.

Chief Nnaji who briefed newsmen on the government position, said he had received over 17 telephone calls which drew his attention to the said publication which, he, however said, lacked credibility.
Nnaji added that, “when the Tribune Newspapers came out with their own version of the same story, I quickly went to His Excellency and he told me categorically that there was nothing like that, and I should be able to believe what he told me because I was not with him on that trip.”
Nnaji, made it clear that the governor was in London on Friday, March 14, 2008, with some of his commissioners and returned five days after, wondering how the newspaper obtained its facts in respect of the purported money laundering.

“I do not see how that story will be real because you know as much that the Metropolitan Police could not have released him as soon as possible if that story is real, that is why I believe it is false. I have spoken with my colleagues and some special advisers who travelled with the governor on the project he went for, and I have asked them and they said that it is all false.”


Anyway they are denying that. Look at the flimsy reason they are giving to call it a ruse.
The high commission said they also read up form the media meaning they may not know even if it is true