PRESSURE MOUNTS ON LAGOS GOVERNMENT TO
ARREST AND PROSECUTE GOVERNOR PETER OBI
FOR MONEY LAUNDERING INVOLVING 225
MILLION NAIRA
"A coalition of civil rights organizations in
the country is mounting pressure on the
Lagos State government to initiate an
investigation into the 255m naira
intercepted by the police on Sunday, May
31, 2009, in the office of Next
International, the private firm of
Anambra State governor Peter Obi
located at 7, Aerodrome Road, Apapa in
Lagos.
In a statement today in Abuja, the non-
governmental organizations (NGOs)
which come under the umbrella of
Transparency In Government Coalition,
advised Lagos State to investigate the
interception of “this huge sum with a
view to prosecuting the governor from
next March when he leaves office if he is
found culpable.”
The group disclosed that it wants the
outgoing governor investigated so as “to
stop the terrible practice of governors
stealing their states blind and investing
their loots in places other their own and
consequently under-developin g their
states”, accusing Mr Obi of having just
completed building the largest shopping
mall in Abuja worth over three billion
naira.
The coalition explained its reason for
calling on Lagos to look into the matter,
rather than wait for the police and the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to do so.
“Public confidence in the two anti-graft
institutions has been declining rapidly
on account of the lethargic manner they
have in recent times been going about
their business”, it declared in the
statement signed by the president of the
coalition, Comrade Joseph Ifedinobi, and
the secretary, Barrister Jeremiah Tumba,
as well as the publicity secretary, Tunde
Oladimeji.
efcc_nigeria
“The offence was committed within the
Lagos territory, so it is, in our view,
within the legal and moral competence of
the Lagos State government o investigate
and prosecute the case, just as the state
government has been prosecuting Major
Hamza El Mustapha, General Sani
Abacha’s chief security officer, for the
murder of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, wife of
Chief Moshood Abiola who won the June
12, 1993, presidential election, the group
stated”.
It observed that if it had not been the
practice of state governments in Nigeria
since the restoration of democratic rule
in 1999 to prosecute corruption cases,
the Lagos state government could set the
precedent “in the overriding interest of
the Nigerian people who have been the
victims of the rapacity of their rulers”.
Outgoing governor Obi was fingered in
the media immediately a sport utility
vehicle (SUV) belonging to Government
House, Awka, was arrested with the
money in the premises of Next
International by police who were acting
on a tipoff by a policeman attached to
the governor.
“All circumstantial evidence suggests that
His Excellency was behind the money
which was part of the state’s security
vote of N300million for the month of May,
2009”, argued the group which recalled
that once the news of the arrest broke
out the governor hurriedly flew by Dana
Airline to Lagos to personally cover up
the story, thus cancelling his official trip
to Abuja.
Besides, noted the activists, the
governor’s closest personal aides quickly
went into a frenzy of spins to cajole
Anambrarians in particular and the
Nigerian people in general but ended up
with contradictory versions of the
storyaccounts.
“”One of the accounts denied that Mr Obi
went to Lagos and held an emergency
with journalists, but when confronted
with strong evidence of the hurried trip,
the story was changed to read that the
money belonged to a person who
‘hitched hiked into His Excellency’s three-
man convoy’.
“The spin doctors now hit upon another
idea: that the raw cash belonged to one
Ejike Onwusogbulu who won a contract
to supply vehicles to local governments
and security agencies in the state.
“But the Commissioner for Transport,
Emeka Ojukwu Jr, was to deny any
knowledge of the transaction and
immediately resigned from the cabinet to
protect his family’s name.
Emeka Ojukwu Jr
Emeka Ojukwu Jr
“The spin doctors, as expected, refused
to disclose that Mr Onwusogbolu, the fall
guy, is the brother in law of Ndibe Obi,
the governor’s younger brother and the
manager of his Next International
business”.
The coalition threatened “to sue the
Lagos State government for grievous
dereliction of duty if it fails to investigate
within two weeks the grave offence
committed within its territory by its
Anambra State counterpart ”.

Easy oil money abeg leave him jare

Onye ube ya ruere ya racha..

Easy oil money abeg leave him jare

Onye ube ya ruere ya rachaa..

SHUT THE BLEEP UP