I’m Not Fraudulent, Okiro Set Me Up For Trial: My Position, By Aaron Kaase



I am compelled to react to several statements from the police Service Commission in a desperate bid to discredit my person linking me with alleged U.S visa scam. I have deliberately avoided commenting on it because it is in court but the ferocity with which Mr. Okiro and his paid agents are misleading the public has compelled me to react.

In Sept.2014 while serving as the Protocol Officer to the Commission, I was approached by Insp. George Todunu the orderly to Mr. Okiro who brought one Mr Hart,whom he introduced as Okiro’s friend. Insp. George said Sir Okiro wanted me to help the man, his P.A and his younger brother acquire U.S visa without appearing at the U.S embassy.

My response was a swift “NO” ;and the reason (according)to him and Mr. Okiro was that his friend was (neither) a staff of PSC nor a government official and even (if)he was any of the above, there are laid down procedures for people travelling abroad on official assignment.

I advised Mr Okiro’s friend whom I suspected to be a man of fraudulent character because he and his co travellers have been denied visa previously by the same U.S embassy, U. K and other embassies despite the fact he claimed he had enough money to fund their trips. I thereafter advised him to follow the normal procedure allowed for private citizens to access visa in the embassy.

I want the world to know that I never solicited nor received any money from Mr. Hart,Okiro’s friend, if I had done so in my official or personal capacity Okiro would have published the official files at his disposal .

When it became obvious in the Police Service Commission that I had enough information to send Mr. Okiro to prison over his fraudulent acts, suddenly a petition from his dubious friend emerged in May 2015 that I collected money from him and in almost commando style the zone 7 Abuja police arrested me in Mr. Okiro’s office took me to my house and ransacked my house claiming to be looking for PSC documents in my possession, took me back to their station where I slept on the bare floor and was charged to court on frivolous charges the following day based on Okiro friend’s petition.

Despite the fact that I was given bail and met all the conditions, the police apparently acting on instructions from Mr. Okiro rather took me to Kuje prison where I spent the night. It took the intervention of the angry magistrate before the police left me off the following day.

[b]I want to put it on record that I worked as Head of Protocol for 6 years where I served two Chairmen including the respected former Chairman, Parry Osayande DIG (rtd) without blemish.

As a matter of fact it was during Okiro time that I realised how (dis)honest some top government functionaries could be. It was also in the cause of my investigation and exposure of Okiro fraud that I realised that his girlfriend, (name withheld) whom he gave mock training to was the same person Okiro lied to me that she was a consultant to the PSC and I should include her name in the application for his official visa to Ireland, which he never did despite collecting government money.

The embassy obviously sensing a foul play refused her visa. Mr. Okiro asked me to write an appeal attaching her so called links with the Commission. The embassy rejected the appeal again. It took a desperate Okiro to pay ‘ courtesy call’ on the ambassador before she was reluctantly issued a visa.

I am not fraudulent, have never been involved in crime .So I want Nigerians to know why I am so labelled by Okiro in a desperate bid not (to)answer to fraud allegations but attack and discredit me.[/b]

More Trouble For Okiro As Whistleblower Slams N500m Suit Against Ex-IGP…24 Hours After Being Quizzed By ICPC

June 05, 2015



The rumbling at the Police Service Commission (PSC) over alleged misappropriation of funds meant for the last general elections has taken a legal dimension with a N500 million lawsuit hanging on the neck of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Chairman, Police Service Commission(PSC), Chief Mike Okiro. This is coming barely 24 hours after Okiro was quizzed by operatives of ICPC now investigating the former Police IG over the alleged N275 million fraud brought against him.

Also joined as respondents in the suit, now before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT), Abuja, are the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 7, the Commissioner of Police FCT Command, Abuja and Mr. Suprem Kayode Ibitomi.

The suit was instituted by an aggrieved staff of the Commission, Aaron Kaase who is alleging gross violation of his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights by the respondents. His lawyer, Kenneth Achabo who filed the suit, anchored under the fundamental rights enforcement procedure rules and sections 33, 34(1) (a), 36 and 37 of the 1999 amended constitution, sought an order of court, restraining all the respondents perpetually from further violation of the applicant’s fundamental human rights.

[b]Achabo hinged the case of his client, (as contained in the motion on notice) on the grounds that, the respondents have violated his right as guaranteed by Article 5 of African charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and enforcement) Act (CAP10) laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

In a 39 paragraphs affidavit in support of the motion of notice, the applicant averred that he was wrongly accused of an attempt to blackmail the Chairman of the PSC and was made to appear before a panel set up by him (Okiro) but was not allowed to defend himself.

Specifically, he stated that the said panel which sat in the office of the Chairman of the PSC talked about a disgruntled staff (s) that had written an unsigned petition against the Commission’s Chairman at the Economic Crimes Commission (EFCC) for misappropriation of funds meant for the last general elections. The applicant further averred that he was shocked by the accusation because he had no knowledge of any petition against the Commission’s Chairman.

He stated that he was pained by the fact that he suffered serious humiliation at the panel whose composition included the Chairman of the Commission, Permanent Secretary, Directors, Senior Police and security officers, and several others, who took turns to disparage him without allowing him to utter a word.

To crown it all, Kaase said he was arraigned before Magistrate Ubani Chukwuamaka of the Wuse II Magistrate court on trump up charges and was subsequently detained at the Kuje prison for two days. He told the court further that the respondents have continued to intimidate him by the continuous threat to his life.

The applicant therefore urged the court to declare that parading him before a panel made up of all the Directors of the PSC, Permanent Secretary and officers of the Inspector General of Police on May 5, 2015 on the prompting of the Chairman of the Commission amounted to gross violation of his rights to dignity and fair hearing as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution.

In addition, his lawyer is seeking a declaration by the court that the invasion of the applicant’s privacy by down loading of call logs and bugging of his private mobile GSM line by the officers of the IGP on the prompting of 1st respondent (Okiro) is a violation of his right to private and family life as safeguarded by the 1999 constitution.

He further prayed the court to make an order directing the 1st respondent, his agents, proxies, or subordinates not to act or take any official further step on the outcome of the panel as it is a product of a breach of the applicant’s fundamental human right.[/b]

The motion on notice also sought for an order of court directing the IGP, AIG and Commissioner of Police FCT, their agents, proxies, officers, subordinates in any form not to take any further step in executing the outcome of the trial in the panel which is a product of a breach of applicant’s fundamental right, an order perpetually restraining all respondents from tapping, recording and down loading applicant’s call log and another order of court perpetually restraining all the respondents from using the contrived illegally tapped recorded and down loaded of applicant’s call log.

The applicant is seeking an order directing the respondents to compensate him with the sum of N500 million as damages for the unlawful infringement of his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights.

Besides, the applicant has prayed the court for its order directing the respondents to issue a public apology in three National Dailies circulating in Nigeria. No date has been given for the hearing of the case.

Okiro reeks of corruption, appointment as head of PSC a national tragedy – Ribadu

Sep 24 2013



Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has reacted to remarks in newspapers on Tuesday by former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okire where he denied that convicted former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, facilitated his appointment then to head the police.

In a statement by Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, his Media Assistant, Ribadu described as a perennial peddler of falsehood who reeks of corruption, adding that “it is a national tragedy that a man of such flawed character has now been appointed to head an important institution like the Police Service Commission.”

The statement reads; “Our attention has been drawn to the shameless lies a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro recklessly spewed to the media yesterday (on Tuesday). [b]The cause of Mr. Okiro’s anger, the statement, in a London court, by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that James Ibori was instrumental to his emergence as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) needs no further equivocation as it was an open secret to everybody in the government circle then.

“If Okiro is now denying this in public, there is no way he can deny this open secret to a number of people including an influential governor from the North-Central then, and a couple of other people who helped facilitate his selection by Ibori.

“It was this same shameless method of desperate lobbying that Okiro, a chronic political jobber and sycophant of the first order would use in getting subsequent appointments as Chief Security Officer to the PDP national chairman and later, regrettably, as the chairman of the Police Service Commission.

“The assertion by Okiro that Ribadu wanted to be the IGP further underlines the former IGP as a perennial peddler of falsehood. The truth is Nuhu Ribadu’s focus then was consolidating on his modest efforts at the EFCC, especially at a time when he was working on high-profile cases, including that of Okiro’s godfather, James Ibori. We therefore challenge Okiro to name those people he called Ribadu’s friends that narrated the fictitious story of Ribadu’s interest in becoming the IGP to him.

“The highest distortion in Okiro’s statement, however, is his attempt to rewrite the well-known and widely documented assassination attempts on the former EFCC chairman, and Okiro’s hands in it all. It is ridiculous that Okiro is now desperately trying to paint himself in another colour after all the schemings he orchestrated.

“It beats our imagination that Okiro would want a Nuhu Ribadu he was fighting to destroy to report those incidences to him. It would have been a case of having a culprit to be a judge in his own case. At the time, the trio of Micheal Aondoakaa, the former Attorney General of the Federation, Okiro and Mrs Farida Waziri, the former EFCC chairman, had created a hell out of the world for Ribadu.

“The only sensible thing to do was to avoid these characters and seek solace somewhere else. This notwithstanding, it is a blatant lie that Okiro telephoned Ribadu “several times” but that he did not answer his calls. “What Ribadu and other Nigerians easily recall was an elated Okiro rushing to address the press to deny something he knew nothing about. The bullet-riddled car Ribadu drove during that unfortunate life threatening incident is still there, if Okiro or any other person would want a further proof.

“On the issue of withdrawal of Ribadu’s personal security, if Okiro is suffering from selective amnesia, let him be reminded that that was exactly what he did. He also redeployed Ibrahim Lamorde out of EFCC, to Bauchi State Police Command as Area Commander in Ningi. “He did the same thing to other top EFCC operatives that Nigeria spent a fortune to train as investigators. One of them suspected to be close to Ribadu was even locked up for months in police custody. This also belie his statement that as IGP he could not have altered the postings of police within the EFCC.

“As for Okiro’s corruption credentials, we would like to alert the retired IGP that he is dancing naked in the gallery as his nasty record is something known to a lot of people.

“A man who clearly reeks of corruption, is Okiro denying that he is corrupt when we all know he cannot account for the source of the wealth he used in building a shopping mall in Jabi, a hotel with casino in Lugbe and a private school, all in Abuja? This is not to mention his property in Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was still serving in the police.[/b]

“If a public servant, one tasked with the responsibility of protecting the lives of Nigerians and instilling discipline in the police, managed to amass such wealth, what gut does he have to talk of corruption? “It is a national tragedy that a man of such flawed character has now been appointed to head an important institution like the Police Service Commission. May God rescue Nigeria.”

In Abuja high court today ordered former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, to pay N50 million as well as accrued interests over a landed property he bought under the table while he was head of the Nigerian police. Mr. Okiro was not in court as Justice A.M. Talban gave the ruling earlier today.

Acting Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, his immediate predecessor Sunday Ehindero and several other serving law enforcement top brass have been implicated in a cash scandal currently rocking the police.

We can authoritatively report that John Obaniyi, a commissioner in charge of finance at the police headquarters, and a principal target of investigations into the source of N21 million seized while being moved out of Police Headquarters in Abuja, has named Okiro, Ehindero and others in shady financial deals.