Official Denial, Appeal To Ethnicity, Diversionary Publications And Media Blackmail: Desperate Measures Employed By Mrs. Oduah To Stave Off BMW Scandal


When SaharaReporters broke the news of the scandalous purchase of two BMW armoured Cars by the cash-strapped Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah and her collaborators went silent, hoping that the two-day Muslim public holiday would blunt the report.

Instead of responding the allegations Mrs. Oduah reportedly called on the Reno Omokri, the social media man at the Presidential Villa to handle scandal.

Reno's job includes using a loose network of paid "anti-bloggers" to attack the credibility of such reports by leaving comments on Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messengers and the comments sections of websites.

The “anti-bloggers” went straight to work by claiming that Mrs. Oduah’s signature was not found on the documents SaharaReporters published and as such, that she could not have been involved. As that argument didn't seem to hold water, they quickly started a new line of argument to the effect that she was sufficiently wealthy before becoming a minister and thus could afford the cars.

That line of argument was the first official reaction from the minister's office through the spokesperson of the Federal Airports Authority, Yakubu Datti.

If Mrs. Oduah thought Mr. Datti's intervention would work, it turned out to be a failure as the response outraged the Nigerian public which was reeling from recent accidents in the aviation sector.

By Wednesday, Mrs. Oduah had instructed her media aide, Joe Obi, to own up to the purchase of the cars but to claim that they were made because the minister faced “imminent threats” from certain forces in the aviation sector. While the admission was aimed at creating a sense of siege and thus capitalize on the insecurity in the country, that argument only incensed more people, such that, Presidency sources said, President Goodluck Jonathan began asking questions on what to do to appease Mrs. Oduah’s enemies.

As the condemnation grew, Mrs. Oduah reached out to leaders of Aka-Ikenga, an Igbo social cultural group, to help frame it as an "ethnic issue" in view of the fact that the two main culprits in the transaction are Igbos. She figured a response by Aka-Ikenga would scare off the public and help mobilize her ethnic group in support of the corruption involved in the car purchase. Mr. Omokri's crew also went on to strengthen that argument, attacking newspapers, websites and blogs republishing the stories as being "anti-Igbo."

They claimed the attack on Mrs.Odua was because she upgraded the Enugu Airport to an International Airport. Even though this argument helped mobilize some unsuspecting Nigerians, it didn't serve her too well as several individuals from her ethnic group condemned the purchases.

Meanwhile, several newspapers had picked up the story. By Thursday, Mrs. Oduah had urged her crew to try another trick: getting some blogs to publish the story that the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, had bought three armored cars for N600 million, one of which he gave to his predecessor, Bola Tinubu.

The only lacunae with the strategy was that Mrs. Oduah's supporters could not produce the compelling evidence to prove that Fashola bought the cars, but even if that were to be true, many argued, it could not be used to justify the Minister’s monumental corruption.

By Friday Mrs. Oduah tried another strategy: she invited the media to a press briefing in Abuja. However, lacking the courage to come out of her office to address the media, she sent the Director General of the NCAA, Fola Akinkuotu to take the stage. A befuddled and clearly confused Akinkuotu then addressed the media in the most bizarre manner, making claims that further embarrassed the Minister as to the rationale for purchasing the cars.

An unprepared Akinkuotu spent more time accusing whistleblowers in his agency for leaking the documents. When he was rounding up the press conference, he promised to take reporters to see the vehicles, but quickly disappeared when two reporters volunteered to follow him.

Later in the night, Mr. Akinkuotu did what most Nigeria officials do best: offer money to newspaper editors to help kill the report. The problem was that most of the newspapers had already concluded production and couldn't reverse their publication.

Dateline Sunday: Mrs. Oduah and media aide, Joe Obi, commissioned some writers to pen articles to defend the minister, blaming union leaders andcertain voices critical of her for wanting to destroy the aviation sector. Such an article penned by one "Capt. Ore Kingsley", titled "Why Stella Oduah Must Be Punished" admitted that the BMW purchases were egregious but went on a rant to blame Captain Dele Ore and others for the “gang-up” against the minister.

A few minutes later Mr. Obi had circulated another spurious report claiming that Fashola bought N600 million worth of armored cars, claiming that a Ghanaian website, Modernghana, made and published the findings. But the sad part is that the Mrs. Oduah and her aides didn’t understand that Modernghana.com is an aggregation website that collects news from any source without verifying authenticity.

As of the time of publishing this report, Mrs. Oduah had recruited Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) party elders and the Secretary to the Federal Governmen, Pius Anyim, to embark on outreach to critical segments of the Nigerian society and to help appease her opponents, it is unclear if this will work as President Jonathan has already claimed he wants to look into the scandal.

Official Denial, Appeal To Ethnicity, Diversionary Publications And Media Blackmail

Ngwakwe: The Anti Stella Odua camp also "paid" Seun to publish their campaign of calumny on the homepage of Nairaland periodically.

malc619:

Senseless!!!

Ngwakwe: The Anti Stella Odua camp also "paid" Seun to publish their campaign of calumny on the homepage of Nairaland periodically.

malc619:

Senseless!!!

Clerverly:

Nwannem, are you politically and ethnically supporting corruption? I thought you were different. I am highly disappointed.

papparatzzi2013: FFK is not wrong about this shameless woman after all. She is a disgrace to motherhood. I am sure Okonjo Iweala and Dora Akunyili will be shaking their heads!!!

3 marriages and no husband. Says a lot about her!!!!.

slimghost:

Which stupid corruption? I expect people to ask reasonable questions like:
1. Was her life under any serious threat?
2. Was due process followed in the purchase of those vehicles?
3. Was it budgeted for?
4. Is the price inflated?

But no, all we hear is a campaign of calumny and falsehood against the woman for obvious reasons. Sorry to burst your bubbles, Stella Odua os not going anywhere. We are used to this kind of games from our SW brothers.

1. Was her life under any serious threat?

2. Was due process followed in the purchase of those vehicles?

3. Was it budgeted for?

4. Is the price inflated?

FreeGlobe: The same south west people claiming igbos are playing the ethnic card will NEVER come out to admit Tinubu is corrupt even with damning evidences. Anyway Sahara reporters are now trying to use sentiments and emotions to give credence to their big goof. what exactly is the ministers offence is a question we wish they could answer.

KenGali: [size=16pt]Lies !!!!!! Lies!!! And Lies!!!!
All of it.
A drowning media outfit clutching for straws!!!!!!![/size]

We are waiting for Sahara to tell us who paid them for this hatchet Job against the minister, to the extent of falsifying the price of the vehicles in order to weep up sentiments.

RockMaxi:

As much as sane people are against her action I think her personal and marital issue should be left out of this.

Clerverly: .

All the questions you asked above, have been adequately answered, and guilty verdict returned. But to make it clearer, these are my response:




Yes, every Nigerian live is under threat by insecurity and poverty, hers is not an exception. Boko Haram kills thousands everyday under the watch of Jonathan.

Unless you are ignorant, then you should have known that she is doing a sensitive job which could result to an attempt on her life. Since the threats are real, then the bullet proof cars are extra necessary.



No, She has no business forcing one of the agencies under her ministry to purchase a bullet proof car for her as an official car. Remember, she is a Minister not a director of the agency, consequently all her estacodes, allowances, and perks of office should come from the Government via the ministry not an agency under the ministry.

Stop spewing childish lies. The DG of NCAA has come out to tell the world that the car was bought for the ministries operations and not Oduah's personal cars and that also they were duly budgeted for but blind haters like you wont accept the truth because you are hell bent on demonizing the woman for obvious reasons.


Hell No! At least no evidence so far, hence the above arrangement.

The NCAA DG has cleared the air. The onus is on you to prove him wrong with facts and not rants.


Well, do the research and revert.
I am doing my research on that right about now.

ballabriggs: In Oduah's case, we saw evidences, we saw invoices, we saw official letters and we had the Ministry of Aviation confirm the story.

Where are your evidences in this case? As far as we are concerned this is another story made under the influence of highly concentrated ogogoro.

Omokri is a very daft human to think any reasonable man will buy this his failed attempt to divert attention from the rogue regime of President Jona.

ballabriggs: Rewind Prophetess ballabriggs here

papparatzzi2013: FFK is not wrong about this shameless woman after all. She is a disgrace to motherhood. I am sure Okonjo Iweala and Dora Akunyili will be shaking their heads!!!

3 marriages and no husband. Says a lot about her!!!!.

ballabriggs: Who advertised for bids for these cars? They cannot tell us.

Who submitted bids?

Which board approved the contract? They cannot tell us. So you purchase a car of over $1 million without a board approving the contract.

Yet Captain Fola says it was purchased for NCAA operations.

When did madam vampires trips to eat nkwobi and fish pepper soup become NCAA operations?

That madam vampire manipulates an organisation which should be run by professionals and where safety is critical for her own fish pepper soup shows you how wicked this woman is.

She has turned top-grade professionals to her houseboys.

Captain Fola is a man I respect so much and a friend of my family. A man who flew John Paul 2 on his Papal visit in the 90's. A top pilot with ADC before he left for abroad. Has a wonderful CV.

However on this one he has allowed a vampire to rubbish him. As a professional you must know when to say no. That you allow a hag like Stella make you a part of her mess shows you are not worthy to be a professional.

KenGali: [size=16pt]Lies !!!!!! Lies!!! And Lies!!!!
All of it.
A drowning media outfit clutching for straws!!!!!!![/size]

We are waiting for Sahara to tell us who paid them for this hatchet Job against the minister, to the extent of falsifying the price of the vehicles in order to weep up sentiments.

Donmams:
See Reno Omokri's goon in action!

FreeGlobe: The same south west people claiming igbos are playing the ethnic card will NEVER come out to admit Tinubu is corrupt even with damning evidences. Anyway Sahara reporters are now trying to use sentiments and emotions to give credence to their big goof. what exactly is the ministers offence is a question we wish they could answer.