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A retired detective with the Metropolitan
Police in London, Mr. Peter Clerk, on Monday,
narrated to a High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory in Gudu, Abuja, the operations that
led to the arrest of a former Governor of
Plateau State, Mr. Joshua Dariye, in September
2004.
Clerk was testifying before Justice Adebukola
Banjoko as the ninth prosecution witness in the
trial of the former governor on charges of
alleged diversion of about N1.162bn Ecological
Fund meant for Plateau State in 2004.
He gave details of Dariye’s alleged extravagant
spending, including the purchase of a pen for
£7,000 in London, before the former governor
was arrested.
He said, “From the examination of Mr. Dariye’s
account, he travelled all over the world. From
his passport, we saw stamps of several
countries.
“We found seven pairs of shoes which cost £700
per pair. He paid £7,000 for a pen. He
purchased a lot of things in high luxurious
stores.”
Dariye was Governor of Plateau State between
1999 and 2007, though his tenure was
interrupted by an impeachment in November,
2006, which lasted for months until he was
reinstated by the Supreme Court in April,
2007.
The former governor, who is being prosecuted
by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, is now the Senator representing
Plateau Central in the National Assembly.
Led in evidence by the lead prosecution
counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Clerk said he
was also involved in the investigation of the
former Governor of Bayelsa State, the late
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, for money
laundering in London before he
(Alamieyeseigha) jumped bail.
The witness, who indicated that he started
investigating Dariye in January 2004, said the
former governor Plateau State was arrested in
his hotel room on September 28, 2004, while
on a visit to London.
He said, “On September 28, 2004, we were
informed that Joshua Dariye was in London in a
hotel. I went there with two other officers who
also identified themselves as police officers.
“I informed him (Dariye) that we were
investigating his accounts and we arrested and
informed him under caution that we believed
that the money was stolen and proceeds of
money laundering. He said nothing.”
He stated that on September 28, 2004, when
Dariye was arrested, £43,000 was found in the
former governor’s hotel room.
He said on the same day, £50,000, out of which
£40,000 belonged to Dariye, was found with a
lady, Christabel Bentu, who was said to have
claimed to be a Personal Assistant to the
former governor, in another room in the same
hotel.
Clerk added, “In September 2004, £43,000 in
cash was found in Dariye’s room when it was
searched. There were various denominations
and currencies including Scottish notes, dollars,
euros.
“The cash seized was packed into a container,
for which he signed. It was photographed. I
have copies of the photograph. Dariye and
Christopher Bentu were taken to the police.”
He said his colleague searched a property
belonging to Dariye and found £11,995.
Clerk stated that Dariye was later released on
bail and was expected to return to London in
December 2004, but never did.
The witness said a valid arrest warrant was, till
date, still pending against the former governor
after jumping bail to Nigeria.
Clerk added, “Dariye was informed that if he
attempted to move any money, he would be
charged for further money laundering.
“In September 2004, I looked at Joshua Dariye
in the eyes and said to him, ‘I know you are a
religious man’, I asked him if he would come
back on December 14, 2004. He said ‘yes’, he
would, but he failed to show up. Bentu also
failed to show up.
“My colleague searched his property and found
£11,995 on the premises and some flyers. They
also found three Barclays cheques. They were
all seized immediately we made an application
for his arrest in London. The arrest warrant is
still valid till today. It was circulated in all
computers that Dariye was wanted.”
He said the Metropolitan Police deliberately
did not ask for Dariye’s extradition to London
because he was under immunity as a serving
governor, but that soon after he completed his
tenure in 2007, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission filed charges against him.
He said, “He (Dariye) failed to return for his
bail. I immediately applied for a warrant of
arrest, which was granted by a Magistrate in
London. That is still valid. He is wanted in
London as of today.”
Clerk confirmed that the evidence he gave
before an impeachment panel led to Dariye’s
removal from office as governor in November
2006, though he was later reinstated by the
Supreme Court.
He, however, said he didn’t complete his
evidence before the investigating panel in Jos
“because the defence was playing games” and
he was already scheduled to fly back to London.
He said Dariye operated nine accounts with
Barclays Bank.
Under cross-examination by the defence
counsel, Mr. Garba Pwul (SAN), Clerk said the
former governor opened the accounts in 1995
but were not active until 1999.
“From 1995, when the accounts were opened in
Barclays Bank, there were very little activities
on the account until May 1999 when he became
the governor of Plateau State. I have six boxes
of materials on this case,” the witness said.
The witness said that a lot of huge cash funds
found in Dariye’s home in London, in his
accounts in Barclays Bank of London and some
with his cronies were seized and repatriated to
Nigeria.
The witness, who was of the Proceeds of
Corruption Unit of the London Metropolitan
Police, said £11,500, kept in a brief case, was
seized from one Christopher Mcquiney, who
said the money belonged to Dariye in January
2004.
He stated that there was one Joyce Oyebanjo,
who was helping Dariye to pay utility bills in
London and routinely receiving funds from
Dariye for the maintenance of the former
governor’s three children and his property.
Clerk said the woman was later arrested,
prosecuted and sentenced to three and a half
years imprisonment for money laundering.
He explained that a property in London worth
£395,000 was seized from Dariye by the UK
government and the proceeds repatriated to
Nigeria.
According to him, the purchase of the property
was funded by one Lucky Omohuwa of Pinnacle
Communication.
He added, “When I suspected that the money
came from Nigeria. I met the Nigerian
ambassador and informed him of the
proceedings and that if he was interested, he
might join the proceedings. He did and wrote
that the money be forfeited to the Attorney
General.
“The properties that were frozen were then
ordered to be sold and the money or proceeds
be sent back to Nigeria.”
Some Barclays Bank account statements and
cheques were tendered and admitted as
exhibits on Monday.
Justice Banjoko adjourned trial till June 6.

“Nigeria is awaiting receipt from Swiss Govt. of
$320 million, identified as illegally taken from
Nigeria under Abacha” – Buhari @NGR
President, 5:09 PM – 27 APR 2016 WHEN Twitter-addicted Nigerians stumbled on
this posting on President Muhammadu Buhari’s
Twitter handle last week, the whole Internet
went abuzz, with most people expressing their
dismay at Buhari’s refusal to call a spade by its
correct name.
Before we go on, let us try to reason out the
meaning of this statement, especially against
the backdrop of its nexus to our history where
Abacha and Buhari’s paths crossed.
It is obvious why the President or the operator
of his Twitter handle chose to describe this
amount (which is over N100 billion, a third of
what the Federal, State Local governments
shared in February 2016) as money “identified
as illegally taken from Nigeria under Abacha”,
rather than the usual “Abacha loot”. The answer
is simple.
Buhari, long before he was elected president,
stubbornly insisted that Abacha “never stole”,
and that he was not corrupt. “Illegally taken
from Nigeria” is a ploy to sidestep the word:
“stolen”. “Under Abacha” portrays it as if other
people, not Abacha himself, committed the
“illegality” without Abacha’s knowledge.
Some unknown individuals were taking money
from Nigeria and lodging it in Abacha’s Swiss
bank accounts? For what purpose? Perhaps,
they knew that our economy would be in
trouble in the future and decided to “save” for
this rainy day for us? If that is what President
Buhari wants to say, let him say so openly, so
that we all will join him in congratulating the
Abacha family for the sacrifices their patriarch
made for Nigeria.
In the past sixteen years, series of sums of
money in foreign currency have been brought
back from Western countries, especially
Switzerland, where former military Head of
State, the late General Sani Abacha stashed
funds which he looted from the Nigerian
treasury. These monies have always been
called “Abacha loot”. Abacha is the only former
ruler boldly ascribed, even in official circles, to
have “stolen” or “looted” our public funds. He
certainly was not the only one who did so. And
most of us believe that he was probably not the
biggest looter. Then, how come it is only his
loots that are being “identified” and
repatriated? Is it because he is dead?
If he were still alive like most of his fellow
former rulers, would there be any such thing as
“Abacha loot”? I doubt it, since his predecessors
and successors who probably took more have
never even been officially accused or made to
return their own “loots”. In fact, one of them
majestically struts over the landscape calling
other people corrupt without justifying his own
obvious affluence after his long stint in the
Presidency. Are we a nation of cowards and
dastards, mobbing Abacha and his estate simply
because he is dead?
More questions: if Abacha had not arrested,
tried and jailed General Olusegun Obasanjo for
his part in the 1995 coup attempt to unseat
him, would Obasanjo have launched the
campaign to recover Abacha loot? If Abacha had
not died and he played a role in the election of
Obasanjo as President in 1999 as Generals
Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar,
Theophilus Danjuma and their civilian Northern
cohorts had done, would Obasanjo have started
the campaign to retrieve the Abacha loot?
Still more questions: if Buhari had been the
one elected as the civilian president of Nigeria
in 1999, would he even be talking about
receiving money from Swiss Government
“illegally taken away” under his regime since he
maintains, against all concrete evidence, that
Abacha never stole our money? So, is it only
when a person deals with us and dies that he
becomes corrupt, but when he treats us nicely
(as Abacha did to Buhari) he becomes a “saint”?
If Abacha had not rehabilitated Buhari after
being jailed by Babangida; If Abacha had not
appointed him as the Executive Chairman of
the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), where
he was given unlimited powers to spend
billions of Naira between 1996 and 1998,
would Buhari have stuck out his neck for him
and say he was not corrupt?
Is this the mentality we take with us in fighting
corruption, making sure that those who helped
us are regarded as clean, while those who
wronged us are pursued with a single-minded
quest to retrieve their loot and sent to jail? Is
this our national standard for integrity? How
are we sure that retired Col. Ja’afaru Isa, a
close Buhari acolyte who was reluctantly
arrested, briefly detained by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC, and
released after a couple of days for allegedly
returning part of his share of Col. Sambo
Dasuki’s bonanza, actually returned anything?
Everybody calls President Buhari a “man of
integrity”, in spite of certain things we read and
hear which do not add up to conclusively justify
that branding. Buhari made his declared assets
public. But he never disclosed their financial
worth, nor did he let us know where they could
be found as late President Umaru Yar’Adua
voluntarily did. He never followed Yar’ Adua’s
exemplary footsteps of including the assets of
his wife. And from the look of things, ever-
smiling Madam Aisha Buhari is very well-to-do,
what with her reported donation of N135
million to displaced persons in Adamawa
during the campaigns last year, which has not
been denied.
I still cannot reconcile the fact that Buhari, as
the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) had to borrow N25
million from banks to pay for his form in
October, 2014 when his wife could so easily
have given it to him from her own resources.
There were even some reports that Buhari was
once ejected from his “rented” mansion, No
11, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Asokoro, Abuja in
2012. That report was never debunked.
Elaborate efforts have always been made to
brand Buhari as a retired general who lived on
his military pension before he became elected
President.
Yet, when he became President and the foreign
exchange crunch set in, he told parents who
have their children in foreign schools that they
should look for forex wherever they could find
it as the Federal Government could no longer
afford to provide it. When reminded that he
had his own children in foreign schools, he
simply retorted:
“I can afford it”.
These conflicting signals about our President
and his true mindset on corruption as well as
his real standing financially, is being noticed,
and nobody is a dummy. Even the younger
generation of Nigerians are watching, reading
and taking note of this confusion and
wondering what “integrity” actually means here
in Nigeria.
It is not only the youth that are confused. I am
certainly no longer a youth, but I am confused!

allthingsgood:
Looolzz...heroine ke?? How can shepopo be heroine

SeverusSnape:
I wish I read your epistle.

Lytech:
Learn to respect people personality...
Every being is entitled to his or her own opinion

SeverusSnape:
You people should stop comparing a dullard to a sagacious, smart and educated Ronald Reagan.

At 75, my mother can do little.”.

Odeyinigbin:
Pls in d name of God, change/amend ur way's
Dis forum is not for criticism
Its meant for decent,reasonable and matured minded pple

The presidential panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari through the Office of the National Security Adviser to probe arms procurement between 2007 and 2015 has allegedly uncovered massive fraud in the Nigerian Army, The PUNCH has learnt.

It will be recalled that the panel had, so far, submitted two reports on its probe to the President.

While the first interim report was submitted in November 2015, the second report was submitted in January following which Buhari ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate 18 serving and retired military officers, mainly from the Air Force.

The PUNCH’s investigation on Sunday revealed that the panel, which has Air Vice Marshal J. O. Ode (retd.) as its chairman, was concluding work on the probe of the Army.

It was gathered that part of the panel’s discovery was that the total amount involved in arms fraud was $15bn and not $2.1bn.

The PUNCH had, on Wednesday last week, reported that $15bn arms funds were diverted by top military officers.

According to the report, the $2.1bn earlier reported as the mismanaged arms procurement money was just for one transaction.

A top government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday, described the fraud uncovered by the panel in the purchase of arms in the Army as “enormous.”

“The committee is still working. What they discovered in the Army is enormous,” he said.

When asked when the third report would be submitted to the President and be made public, the source said Buhari had directed the panel to change tactics.

“The President has directed that we explore the option of prosecuting indicted persons immediately instead of first publicising their names, thereby giving some of them the leeway to escape justice,” he explained.

The source added that as of last week, efforts were ongoing by the committee to discuss the prosecution of the freshly indicted persons with the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).

He added that efforts were ongoing to make public some achievements of the panel, especially in the recovery of funds, ahead of a summit on anti-corruption that Buhari would attend alongside other world leaders in the United Kingdom next week.

In announcing the establishment of the committee last year, the Presidency had given its mandate to include identifying irregularities and making recommendations for streamlining the procurement process in the Armed Forces.

Following the submission of the panel’s second interim report, Buhari had, on January 15, directed the EFCC to carry out further investigation into the alleged misconduct established against some retired and serving officers of the Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Army.

Meanwhile, in a continuation of the probe into how the Peoples Democratic Party allegedly bribed some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission before the 2015 presidential election, the EFCC has arrested an oil tycoon, Mr. Laitan Adesanya, for his alleged role in the $115m (N23bn) bribe funds.

It was learnt on Sunday that Adesanya, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Lenoil Nigeria Limited, was arrested by the EFCC in Lagos on Friday.

The anti-graft agency had, last week, arrested the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo and the bank’s Head of Operations, Mr. Martin Izuogbe.

Adesanya was alleged to have handed $1.85m to the bank based on the instruction of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Other companies, which allegedly handed over money to the bank MD, included Northern Belt Gas Company Limited ($60m); Auctus Integrated ($17.8m); and Midwestern Oil and Gas ($9.5m).

Diezani was also alleged to have given the bank MD $26m in cash which was ultimately disbursed to officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the 2015 presidential election as bribes.



A reliable source at the EFCC said Adesanya was in the custody of the commission in Lagos and was being grilled as of Friday.

He said, “We are asking him about the $1.85m he dropped and what purpose it was supposed to serve.”

According to the United Kingdom Financial Times, Adesanya is an international oil businessman, who has been in the business for decades.

The newspaper states that Adesanya made huge profits during the military administrations of the 1980s and 1990s.

Also, sources within the EFCC have denied claims by Fidelity Bank Plc that it reported all its financial dealings to the appropriate authorities

The bank had, in a statement last week, stated that “transactions were duly reported as required by the regulators and the bank is cooperating fully with the authorities on the investigation.”

However, the source said the $26m, which the MD allegedly collected directly from Diezani, was neither reported to the Central Bank of Nigeria nor the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, which is domiciled in the EFCC.

The source added, “The $26m cash that was collected from Diezani was not deposited into any account. So, how could they say they reported it? They didn’t report anything because the money was given to the bank for safekeeping and there was no intention for it to be used to open an account.

“If it was put in the system, then, there must be records. Who brought the money? They don’t know. They were supposed to have reported the transaction to the CBN and NFIU, which is domiciled in the EFCC but there is no such report.

“The money was meant for distribution to INEC officials. When the bank MD was collecting $26m cash from a serving minister, why didn’t he ask her where she got the money from?”

Amusaopeyemi:
Na so. My mom ate sour sop so teyyy, yet I still lost her to ovarian cancer.

theV0ice:
I don't even need their help. They've already done enough by making me realize Fayose is the only responsible and brave governor nay politician in the whole of PDP (and FFK of course) so i'm running this campaign with or without their help but i trust them to get on the train as soon as protests in support of Saraki and Dasuki end.

Sheriff/Fayose for PDP 2019 ticket