Maurice Iwu, the controversial former chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), has capitalized on the outbreak of deadly and
incurable Ebola in West Africa to restate his scientifically unproven and dubious
claim that he had found a cure for the virus in a drug synthesized from kola nut.
More than 600 people have died in several West African countries in what is
seen as the most serious outbreak of the Ebola virus. The former INEC chair, a
pharmacist by training and a former professor at the University of Nigeria,
appears determined to exploit the growing alarm over the virus to renew
unfounded claims that he had achieved a breakthrough in the treatment of
Ebola. But Mr. Iwu has a long history of fraudulent claims.
In 2007, SaharaReporters had written a series of investigative reports exposing
gaps in Mr. Iwu's academic and professional background. Our extensive
investigative reports ran weeks before the then INEC chief oversaw the 2007
general elections that local and foreign observers described as one of the most
fraudulent elections in any part of the world. Among other revelations, our
investigative team discovered that Mr. Iwu had forged his bachelor’s degree
from Cameroon and fraudulently used the certificate to obtain admission to
Bradford University in the UK where he undertook graduate studies.
Following our expose, Mr. Iwu lied to a Nigerian online blogger that he had also
received his bachelor’s degree from Bradford University, a claim the institution
denied. In an email dated Monday, January 22, 2007, Oliver Tipper, who was
then Senior Press Officer for Marketing and Communications at the University of
Bradford, stated: “Iwu did not do an undergraduate degree at Bradford. He was
enrolled here in 1975 for the Masters degree in Pharmacy, but we have on our
records that he studied Pharmacy in Cameroon during the late 1960s before
coming to Bradford.”
Since those revelations, Mr. Iwu has never addressed the inconsistencies and
discrepancies in his academic profile. A source close to then President Olusegun
Obasanjo told SaharaReporters that Mr. Obasanjo was fully aware of Mr. Iwu's
fraudulent background. “Andy Uba recommended Professor Iwu to chair INEC,
and President Obasanjo decided to choose him because of his questionable
background. Chief Obasanjo knew it would be easy to blackmail Iwu to rig
elections for candidates handpicked by Obasanjo and his cronies,” said the
source.
Those declared winners in the fraudulent 2007 elections included the sickly and
now deceased former President Umaru Yar’Adua, and Mr. Andy Uba. The latter
was rigged into office as the Governor of Anambra State, but was in office for a
mere 17 days before the Supreme Court kicked him out in a ruling that drew
nation-wide celebration. SaharaReporters had also written a series of
investigative reports that exposed Mr. Uba’s fraudulent certificate claims. We
revealed that Mr. Uba’s claims that he earned degrees from Concordia
University in Canada, California State University in the US, and a so-called
“Buxton University” in the UK were mere concoctions.
On his part, Mr. Iwu has a history of deception, misrepresentation and
dishonesty with regard to claiming pharmaceutical breakthroughs similar to the
latest one about Crofelemer drug invention. At the 16th International Botanical
Conference in 1999, Mr. Iwu made the startling announcement that he had
found the cure for the dreaded Ebola virus. He claimed that the cure resulted
from groundbreaking research carried out under the auspices of his non-profit
outfit, BDCP. He told participants that Garcinia kola extract stopped the
replication of the Ebola virus. Mr. Iwu followed his proclamation with a call for
more funds. “Our limiting factor is funds,” he declared. “If we have a sponsor,
we can do it in no time.”
The battle cry got Mr. Iwu a lot of attention. Soon, he received millions of
dollars to fund the development of his ostensible cure. BDCP’s financial
earnings outlined in Form 990 and obtained by SaharaReporters in 2007 show
that Mr. Iwu received grants and donations in the amount of $425,947 in 1999,
$367,870 in 2001, $640,917 in 2002 and $980,771 in 2003—a total of more
than $2.4 million.
Mr. Iwu reported in the form that all the monies were spent for the purpose of
“medical research on the use of African herb for medicine.” However, till date
there appears no mention of further development of Garcinia kola extract to cure
Ebola or any significant discoveries beyond some patents, one of which was an
“Alkaloids of Picralima Nitida used for treatment of Protozoal diseases ” invented
by Maurice Iwu et al., and assigned to the U.S. Secretary of the Army,
Washington, D.C. The patent, designated 5,290,553, was issued March 1, 1994,
before Mr. Iwu’s claims on Ebola research.
Interestingly, no U.S. or European pharmaceutical companies has shown any
interest in following Mr. Iwu’s much-touted leads.
In the Form 990 tax documents submitted to the United States Government, Mr.
Iwu and his partners deliberately failed to list names of their Board of Trustees.
But in the Article of Amendment of Bioresources Development and Conservation
Program—completed in November 1994—the body listed five members of the
Board of Directors: Professor Maurice Iwu, Dr. Lisa Messerole, Cosmas N.
Obialor, Thomas F. Tata, and Dr. Chris Okunji.
Mr. Iwu's questionable lifestyle did not start in 1999. In another 2007
investigative report by SaharaReporters, our reporters unearthed how Mr. Iwu
contrived to steal thousands of dollars from Citibank in the US.
According to official documents obtained by SaharaReporters from the Circuit
Court of Montgomery, on August 10, 1992, Mr. Iwu’s son deposited a bank
check drawn on the United States Treasury Department in the amount of $5,000
payable into his father’s Citibank checking account (Acct. number XXXX2549).
Instead of crediting Mr. Iwu’s checking account with a $5,000 deposit, Citibank
erroneously credited his account with a $50,000 deposit on August 11, 1992, an
excess of $45,000. Mr. Iwu, who noticed the error on August 17, 1992, acted
immediately to transfer the sum of $20,000 into his savings account on the
same day. Three days later, on August 21, 1992, he transferred the remaining
$25,000 out of the checking account into the same savings account. On the
same day of August 21, 1992, Mr. Iwu withdrew $35,000 from his savings
account and converted it into a cashier’s check that was then transferred to
London through Chevy Chase Bank in Maryland to National Westminster Bank in
London. The $35,000 was then transferred to Bioresources Development and
Conservation Program (BDCP) in Nigeria “to pay for expense connected with the
International Congress being hosted by BDCP.”
According to BDCP financial statement prepared for the event and signed by Dr.
Chris Okunji, the conference treasurer, the transferred amount of $35,000 was
recorded in the document as “donations from overseas through Prof. Iwu”.
Prior to traveling to Enugu for the conference, Mr. Iwu was approached by the
bank to repay the excess amount credited to his account. He told the bank that
he had completely spent the money because he thought that the money came
from one of the grants he had applied for. This was before Mr. Iwu testified in
court that he brought the overage to Citibank’s attention immediately he
noticed it.
Before Mr. Iwu was dragged to court, he and Citibank had reached an
agreement on a repayment plan both verbally and in writing. In a letter dated
December 23, 1992 and addressed to Mr. Iwu, Mr. Ruppert, a vice president of
Citibank, acknowledged Iwu’s initial payment of $5,000 and outlined the agreed
repayment plan. The plan required Mr. Iwu to repay $10,000 in January, 1993
and the balance of $30,000 in March 1993. But Mr. Iwu stopped repaying and
left for Enugu to facilitate his BDCP conference.
Upon returning from Enugu, Mr. Iwu was informed by Citibank of the lapses in
payments. A letter by Mr. Ruppert dated March 18, 1993 stated in part: “on
February 3, 1993 you called and left a voice mail message indicating that you
had just arrived home from an overseas trip and you would not be able to make
the $10,000 payment until the end of February 1993. To date we have not
received this payment.” Mr. Ruppert continued: “your unwillingness to commit
to a satisfactory repayment schedule implies to us that you do not intend to
repay your debt.”
A defiant Iwu reacted by refusing to repay as agreed. On March 29, 1993, he
wrote to Mr. Ruppert that “I was never indebted to you and that this whole
transaction arose because Citibank messed up my project account which I
operated at the bank.” In the same letter, Mr. Iwu stated, “I have been away to
Europe and Africa since December 18, 1992 on previously scheduled travel in
connection with my work. I returned to the USA briefly in the first week of
February and promptly informed you of my inability to make any payments to
you by the end of February and that I was traveling. I discussed with you during
the meeting, I will pay $5,000 on or about November 15, and make subsequent
payments in February, May, September and December 1993. If, however, I
receive a reimbursement from UNIDO (based on the request I have submitted)
then I will pay the entire amount in full by March 1993.”
Mr. Iwu made additional payments that totaled up to $17,000 before being
dragged to court by Citibank seeking reimbursement of the remaining $28,000.
Following nearly two years of litigation, both parties reached a settlement
agreement and mutual release on February 22, 1995 that mandated Mr. Iwu to
repay the said amount. The details of the agreement stipulated that Mr. Iwu
would make a first repayment to Citibank in the amount $4,000 no later than
March 10, 1995, and then a second repayment of $4,000 on April 15, 1995. The
remaining $20,000 owed was to be repaid through monthly automatic debits of
$750 into a new checking account that the court ordered Mr. Iwu to open no
later than March 10, 1995. The debits were said to begin March 10, 1995 to be
fully repaid in May 1997.
SaharaReporters could not ascertain whether the amount was eventually repaid.
Our correspondent placed calls to Mr. Iwu's son, Samuel Iwu, but he never
responded.
In a separate development, SaharaReporters discovered from official documents
obtained from the District Court of Maryland for Montgomery County that on
October 19, 1998, Mr. Iwu and Mr. Okunji, serving as president and treasurer
respectively to the BDCP, received a $25,000 loan on behalf of Bioresources
Development and Conservation Program Inc. from Riggs National Bank. Mr. Iwu,
who acted as the personal guarantor for BDCP, failed to repay the loan within
the stipulated time, again leading the bank to file a lawsuit.
Interestingly, on December 4, 2006, Mr. Iwu’s son, Samuel, presented a
cashier’s check drawn on Chevy Chase Bank in Bethesda, Maryland in the
amount $25,619.08 for repayment of the loan. It is curious that the loan was
suddenly repaid after Mr. Iwu assumed office as chairman of INEC, raising
questions about the source of the funds.
Following the scandal of his term as INEC chairman, Mr. Iwu has sought every
opportunity to shore up his battered image. One of his strategies appears to be
to inflate or fabricate his role in developing new drugs for diseases, especially
one as deadly and alarming as Ebola virus.
He has also tried to portray himself as a devout Christian. At the end of his
tenure at the commission, Mr. Iwu had become so rich that he singlehandedly
built and donated Saint Michael’s Catholic Church in Umakabia in Ehime Mbano
Local Government Area of Imo State. The huge cost of the cathedral provoked
condemnation of church officials who enthusiastically accepted the “gift”
without asking how Mr. Iwu made the money.
A professor of pharmacy told SaharaReporters that Mr. Iwu’s attempt to claim
that he knows of a cure for Ebola was “a highly unusual practice.” He added:
“Professor Iwu ought to know that before announcing that a drug can cure a
disease, the drug should have gone through series of tests and lab trials, in this
case, Prof. Iwu’s claims has not been through any test since he made a public
claim about his so-called discovery in the 90s.”
http://saharareporters.com/2014/08/02/ebola-virus-spreads-alarm-former-inec-chairman-maurice-iwu-dusts-fraudulent-claims-about

yet the man moves so freely without an iota of fear..rubbing shoulders,dinning and wining with people in power.

Well, show me your friends and il tell you who you really.

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM SAHARA REPORTERS OTHER THAN BLACKMAIL

is this about bitter kola and the Ebola virus, or the sins of Iwu?
im lost!

Wat a joke.. if he were a white man they would gadfly accept it..
The serum the American took has some compounds found in bitter kola. Do your research.
Bitterkola is free, but the serum will cost several millions of dollars, and that's the real idea.