RuudVanNisteroy:
OK2NVME we need your insider information on the whereabouts.

edogirl2:


I was very much involved with the Yacht in question - right at the highest level. I had meetings with very high level officials of the bank that financed the purchase, and as such had access to tons of real and genuine information and documents concerning this yacht. I know the names of the owners, and I was on the yacht up to a few weeks before it was sold.

I can tell you a lot about this yacht.

BELOW IS THE 100% TRUE STORY OF THE YACHT!

______ The 'Princess' Sunborn yacht hotel was constructed around 2002 by Sunborn International Finland.

______ Sunborn International placed and managed the Yacht in London docklands up till 2007 or thereabout.

______ Around 2007, a Nigerian team made up of a former AD - turned PDP (?) Senator and his partner bought the yacht.

______ Purchase price was ridiculously above true market value and transaction was financed by a local bank (name withheld).

______ By & large, the loan was secured on the yacht itself! No other security!! - very common amongst banks during the Soludo bubble.

______ The Senator was able to use his lingering contact with ACN govt in Lagos, to get the then Lagos State commissioner
for tourism to throw govt embrace around the project on the basis that it would boost tourism and raise Lagos's international profile.

______ On the day the yacht arrived in Lagos, thousands of Lagosians and several state officials and the said commissioner were there before TV cameras smiling and basking in the glory of this new toy that would catapult Lagos's international standing to new heights.

______ Unfortunately, by the time it arrived Lagos, the owners had spent so much buying it, they had nothing left to run it. And the bank would not lend a kobo more! To make matters worse, the two buyers fell out over how to take the business forward.

______ Few months passed, then years. Now the yacht was becoming so badly degraded that it risked becoming a health hazard.

______ With AMCON on the rampage, and rumour sipping out about the shoddy nature of the financing of the yacht purchase, the financing bank, wanting to avoid public embarrassment, decided to exercise its right to sell.

______ By mid-2012, the bank put the yacht up for sale.

______ The senator protested placing warning notice in some national newspapers against anyone buying. But he couldn't pay the bank what he owed it, so the bank paid no attention.

______ After several months on the market, the bank found an Asian buyer. The Yacht was quietly towed out of Lagos I believe on boxing day 2012 with most people getting wind only after the yacht was out of Nigerian waters.


Based on what I know, the yacht cost around N4.5 billion, but the bank got back less than 20% of that money.

Moral of the story

1. Lagos State did not invest one kobo in the yacht and so Lagosians have lost nothing
2. Tinubu had nothing to do with this yacht
3. This was a private project that failed largely because of financial incapacity, greed and infighting between two owners
4. The big loser was the lending bank which got back a fraction of what it lent and has no prospect of getting more from the debtors.

LegendHero:
This is what I found about the story behind the Yacht.

RuudVanNisteroy:


Joe Igbokwe countered that version of the story. We need an investigation by the Lagos House of Assembly to find the true story.

The state finances are opaque and the way inventory assets are handled are not transparent. A freedom of information request on Alpha Beta contracts for example was also denied.

LegendHero:


This is diamond bank below listing it as part of their asset and indicating that they sold it off.

Can you please present Joe Igbokwe version so I can also learn?

RuudVanNisteroy:

Saharareporters version

http://saharareporters.com/2009/09/11/sunborn-yacht-hotel-lagos-floating-white-elephant-video

LegendHero:


Saharareporter sometimes dish out lies and there have been numerous cases where Sowore just utter nonsense.

Even from the report you wrote, he was just beating around the bush. You can see that the commissioner Tokunbo said Lagos state government spent no dime on the project.

What other proof did Saharareporter brought besides the speculation?

RuudVanNisteroy:

Joe Igbokwe version correlates with Saharareporters version about the deal. The state invested in the project.

LegendHero:


Joe Igbokwe was just answering an online interview on the spot and thought he can be a party man by saying it was a bad business. What should he have said?

Igbokwe is just a spokesperson of the ACN and is not a party to the transaction. So normally that is what he would have said.

At least I’ve shown the bank documents and what they included we in their statement as part of the sale. What evidence can you at least show besides this Igbokwe online brief interview and the PDP opposition statement I read in the link you provided.

RuudVanNisteroy:

Your bank documents confirms Saharareporters version it was a private-public partnership as confirmed by the then Commissioner of Tourism. The true ownership of the Sunborn Yacht Hotel will never be known.

Banks like Diamond Bank don't go out of their way to buy Yachts for business. The person that approached them for the financing is shrouded in mystery. And Saharareporters of who is behind it is plausible, given the personality past and current antecedents.

LegendHero:


What we know is that the Managing Director of Diamond Capital Limited then, Mr. Tony Onwu, said the Lagos State Government and the taxpayers in Lagos State do not have any financial commitment or otherwise to the entire investment that brought the project.

So that one is Diamond problem.

The main crux of the argument is that Lagos state has no hand in the purchase of the yatcht. Simple!

RuudVanNisteroy:

LegendHero:


The Assembly had two weeks ago summoned the Commissioners for Tourism and Intergovernmental Relations, Budget and Economic Planning, Finance and Justice: Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Ben Akabueze, Rotimi Oyekan and Supo Sasore, respectively to appear before it to clarify grey areas surrounding the procurement of the Sunburn Yacht.

The matter which was discussed at the plenary session lasted for about two hours with each member asking pointed questions. At the end of the session, the Speaker, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, directed all the parties involved to produce and submit all valid documents in the transaction of the Sunborn Yacht on or before the day’s sitting for further clarification.

Ikuforiji explained that the documents are important in order for the house to establish the truth as well as correct any wrong public impression over the development.

Every document that has to do with the procurement of the yacht should be brought to the House… in order to really clarify every grey area surrounding the vessel, Ikuforiji stated.

On Monday, the Assembly even threatened to sanction Senator Afikuyomi if he failed to appear before it with the said documents. Diamond Capital Limited, has however come out to deny that the state government was financially involved in the Sunborn Yacht Hotel project, saying it has no hand in the hotel.

Making this declaration at a recent press briefing, the Managing Director of Diamond Capital Limited, Mr. Tony Onwu, said the “Lagos State Government and the taxpayers in Lagos State do not have any financial commitment or otherwise to the entire investment that has brought this project this far.

He expressed gratitude to Gov. Fashola for his wise counsel in ensuring the protection of what is a private enterprise between Diamond Capital Limited and its business customers.

The Managing Director further declared: We have every confidence in the programmes of the Governor in ensuring a conducive environment for commercial enterprises in Lagos State and we look forward to working with Lagos State in actualising this dream.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2009/10/sunborn-a-yatch-hotel-floating-on-controversy/amp/

mascot87:
This is quite interesting but before we proceed, what can be said about the 3 missing helicopters too? We don't have to leave any stone unturned.

eagleu:
At the end of the day, all roads led to the doorsteps of the godfather, Tinubu.

baby124:
I am sure South Africa has starving children who desperately need your news reporting skills OO.

RuudVanNisteroy:


I am not from South Africa. I am Dutch Nigerian.

baby124:

Nothing like Dutch Nigerian. No Dutch tribe exists in Nigeria. Where your papa village?

RuudVanNisteroy:

From Osun state, but grew up in Netherlands and have family there.

eagleu:
At the end of the day, all roads led to the doorsteps of the godfather, Tinubu.

baby124:

Lol. You are a white man. A Dutch who dreams that Nigeria can be taken over by the Dutch. Remember you opened a thread saying this nonsense? Being Nigerian is more than holding the passport.

helinues:
Obsession about Lagos for make some people payin ooo...

Chinedu, be proud of your lineage

RuudVanNisteroy:

Who approached Diamond bank to finance the deal and why was Lagos state sued?

"Investigations shows that Afikuyomi succeeded in joining the state government with Diamond bank, (a Lagos-based commercial bank), Lone Seed Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), representing Diamond Capital Ltd; Financial advisers and lead arrangers, M.I.D.C Ltd and the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism under Private Public Partnership (PPP) and acquired the floating hotel at a cost of 22 million Euros.

At present, the Lagos Sunborn Hotel is subject of a lawsuit no. FHC/L/ CS/1099/09 at the Federal High Court, Lagos where Loneseed Nig. Ltd. instituted a legal tussle with the state government for ownership of the Yacht. The dispute in the suit arose essentially from a loan transaction for the acquisition of the Sunborn Yacht Hotel with Diamond Capital & Financial Market Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Diamond Bank Plc, who amongst others are defendants in the counter claim filed in the said suit by MIDC, against Loneseed Nigeria Ltd. As a result of this pending lawsuit, none of the mentioned parties involved in the hotel’s acquisition could make remarks."
https://dailytrust.com/in-lagos-sunborn-yacht-hotel-sinks-further

Until an investigation is done by the Lagos House of Assembly and EFCC we will never get the true story.