₦airaland Forum

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101029345965

By Tony Amokeodo
Friday, 29 Oct 201

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday, refused the bid of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), to withdraw the charge against Anosike brothers over the alleged dissipation of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc’s assets as Justice Pat Ajoku dismissed the AGF’s application on the matter.


The Federal Government had through the AGF, filed a 20-count charge against some purported directors of DTN- Fidelis Anosike, his brother, Noel, their associates: Nicholas Okoye and Gogo Kurubo and their firm, Folio Communications Limited.


The Government had accused the suspects of allegedly stealing about N3bn assets of DTN shortly after another judge of the FHC, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, voided the sale of the majority stake in the DTN to Folio.


The judge had held that due process was not followed in the sale, saying that the action was illegitimate.


In his ruling on the AGF’s application to withdraw the charge, Justice Ajoku held that although the AGF had the powers under Section 174 (1) (C) of the 1999 Constitution to institute criminal charge against anyone and discontinue it at any stage, such powers must be exercised in accordance with the provision of sub-section three of the section.


The sub-section 3 states, “In exercising his powers under this section, the AGF shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process.”


According to the judge , such condition requires that the AGF appears in person to either apply orally or through a written permission, for the court to allow such discontinuance.


She further observed that the prosecution was acting without the consent of the complainant in the case, saying that the practice was that the complainant and prosecution ought to be in harmony in the trial of criminal cases.


The judge consequently fixed November 30 for the arraignment of the accused just as they were represented in court by their lawyers.


The AGF’s lawyer, Mr. E. Akissa, had earlier stunned the court when he acknowledged the absence of the accused, claiming that their absence was sequel to the inability of the prosecution to serve them with the charge.


He further informed the court about the AGF’s instruction, asking him to withdraw the charge while he refused to profer any reason for the AGF’s decision.


But the lawyer to some the DTN’s owners, Mr. Linus Idu, raised objection against the AGF’s application, claiming that the action was strange and irregular.


He also alleged that the AGF was acting to protect the accused persons at the expense of the complainants, saying that the proper thing was for the AGF to ensure that the accused persons were in court and not to argue on why they were absent.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/exxonmobil-principal-lakshmi-tombush-and-mrs-comfort-ewang-regain-freedom-kidnappers-n60-m


By SaharaReporters, New York
Mrs. Lakshmi Tombush, Principal of ExxonMobil's elite Pegasus Schools in Eket, Southern, Akwa Ibom abducted by unknown gunmen on Oct. 13 was released last night with Mrs Comfort Ewang, wife to former Military Governor of Rivers and Ogun states.

Mrs. Tombush and Mrs. Ewang were reportedly released on Thursday night in a location in Okon area of Eket according Police sources in the state.

SaharaReporters checks in Eket indicated that that Tombush’s release was negotiated by an aide to Akpabio Chief Assam Assam (SAN), Special Adviser to Akwa Ibom Governor on Legal matters.

The involvement of the governor's aide who was sighted amongst family members and security officials on Friday in Eket, in securing Tombush’s release raises further suspicion about the involvement of the state government in the kidnap saga.

Mr. Ewang had accused the governor of using his wife's kidnap to wring his hands over his political ambition in the state.

It was gathered that when ExxonMobil management washed its hands off the kidnap incident, the SAN who is an Eket indigene compelled the kidnappers to review the ransom downward from the initial N1 billion to N30 million for each of the women.

Sam Ewang, a Governorship Aspirant in ANPP had earlier accused Akpabio of complicity in the kidnap of his wife following the request by the kidnappers that he drops his governorship ambition as part of the conditions to secure his wife’s release.

Members of Tombush family said that the sum of N30 million was paid as ransom to secure her release and berated the management of ExxonMobil in Nigeria for abandoning her to kidnappers.

“It is unfortunate and inhuman of Mobil to deny the innocent woman who was kidnapped while on her way to the office in her official car and security provided by the same company she works for."

“It is the height of cruelty that they could dissociate themselves from this incident and abandon her and her family at this crucial moment,” A member of the family who wished to remain anonymous said.

Ewang who spoke with SaharaReporters on phone from Uyo, Akwa Ibom confirmed the release of his wife

“I confirm that she has been released and she is in good form, I am extremely grateful to the media for their unflinching support during the traumatic experience” Ewang said.

On ransom , Ewang was reluctant to disclose the amount and said, “Whatever was paid is not important and cannot be compared to the life of my wife, it is not really the issue I am gratefull that she returned alife”.

Ewang had in a statement on October 17, claimed that her wife’s abductors collected a ransom of N25 million and declined to release her but rather seized his Personal Assistant who sent the ransom.

The Akwa Ibom state commissioner for information confirmed to Saharareporters that both Mrs. Tombush and Comfort EZwang have been released by the kidnappers.

http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/jonathan-refutes-us-strategists-report-pdp-primaries
Posted: October 28, 2010 - 18:09

By Ima Niboro
Our attention has been drawn to a report published in an online news medium, alleging that President Goodluck Jonathan plans to bribe yet to be identified PDP delegates with cash from Federal Government funds to influence his widely anticipated victory at the PDP primaries.

The story itself explains its source, in a desperate campaign of calumny to portray the president in bad light and pre-judge the outcome of the forthcoming PDP presidential primaries, in which he is evidently the man to beat.

But if it is about calumnious material, then there are others who have more to fear, including rattling skeletons in dusty cupboards, than President Jonathan would ever have.

In spite of this, the president in pursuit of fair play and an impartial contest, has urged all his aides and supporters to stay away from the line of calumny. There is hardly any need to ruffle feathers since we would need all the other contestants when, by the grace of God, the president wins the primaries in a fair and square contest.

We advise purveyors of these repugnant stuff to desist forthwith, for it is indeed a game two can play! We only desist in the interest of peace and our avowed commitment to fairplay.

Others must needfully emulate the candour and uprightness of the president and step back from the path of wilful malice and character assassination.

The president is confident in the power of discernment of those who will emerge as PDP delegates, and as such does not require to pay any one, least of all from the public till, for his or her vote.

Nigerians know the masters of governance by settlement and it is not Jonathan.

Ima Niboro
Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to the President.

October 28, 2010

Obama to be crowned Ashiwaju of Washington DC today! - Tribune

Obama doesn't have to be citizen to be US president, says AGF Michael Aondokaa - ThisDay

"Elder statesmen" and "party stakeholders" converge on Chicago for inauguration - Punch

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Sport/Football/5635212-146/no_time_to_waste_says_maigari.csp

By Tunde Eludini

October 27, 2010 12:06AM


Aminu Maigari, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President has promised to swing into action swiftly to make up for lost time occasioned by the court case instituted against it by National Association of Nigerian Footballers. The case was withdrawn on Monday.

“I am resuming duty immediately and the board will be meeting on Wednesday (today). There is no more time to waste, there are issues begging for attention”.

According to Maigari, some of the issues seeking prompt attention include the commencement of the Nigeria Premier league, which has suffered series of postponement in recent times.

Many issues to resolve

Other issues requiring the board’s attention include the Super Falcons’ trip to South Africa to feature in the Africa Women Championships where the team hopes to regain the African title it lost two years ago.

The appointment of a substantive coach for the Super Eagles’ is also top on the new board’s agenda.

Former U-20 and U-23 coach, Samson Siasia, has been on the fore front of coaches interested in the Eagles job with others like Stephen Keshi is also showing interest.

“What is left for us now is to move Nigeria football forward, we are carrying everybody along, it will not be Maigari’s board alone but Nigerians too.

“The court verdict has reinstated my confidence in the judiciary; I want to appreciate them, NFF counsel, NANF and other stakeholders who brokered the peace,” Maigari said.

The Maigari-led NFF board had been declared illegal by a Federal High Court in Lagos after the NFF flouted its order by holding the August 26 election, which Maigari won. The court had asked that the election be suspended pending the outcome of a case before it.

The court’s rulling was part of the reasons for the FIFA ban, which was provisionally lifted on October 8, in time for the country to play a 2012 Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea.

In lifting the ban FIFA warned government against interferring in the running of football and asked that all cases in court be withdrawn so the board can resume its duties.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101027113953

By Agency Reporter
Wednesday, 27 Oct 2010

More than 3,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State, on Saturday defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria.

The PDP members were Ied by Chief Richard Izegaegbe. He described the move as a formidable and astute political strategy. They were drawn from wards eight and nine in Owan East Local Government area of the state.

Izegaegbe said during the formal declaration for ACN that he took the decision, alongside his supporters, as a result of the developmental strides of Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

‘’It is only a selfish politician, who is not cut out for service to his people that will not want to be associated with developments,” he said.

Izegaegbe cited the massive road construction across the state; youth employment; inauguration of the 100 air-conditioned intra city buses; renovation and unveiling of the astro turf at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium as some of the laudable achievements of the Oshiomhole-led administration within a spate of two years.

Izegaegbe, who described the PDP as a directionless party fraught with division, acrimony and godfatherism, said he decided to join the “progressives than remain with the conservatives.”

He, however, cautioned that the ACN must work together to score 100 per cent success in the forthcoming elections, stressing that “we have only come to join forces with the ACN to ensure that we realise 100 per cent victory in the forthcoming elections.”

While promising to further deplete what is left of the PDP, Izegaegbe expressed gratitude to God for making the declaration a reality.

Receiving the defector, on behalf of the governor, at Oluma Town Hall, Otuo, venue of the declaration, the Secretary to the Edo State Government, Mr. Pally Iriase, commended Izegaegbe and his followers for their vision, assuring them of equal opportunities in the ACN.

“That you have today, decided to join the progressive party, I want to assure you that we have all become equal stakeholders as there are no new joiners in the ACN,” he explained.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/x2/XFactor/Features/5633882-147/story.csp


By Gbenro Adeoye

October 26, 2010 02:14AM


Residents of Alpha Beach Village, a seaside community in the Lekki area of Lagos, have fled from their homes following the annual flooding experienced by the community, due to the overflowing of the Atlantic Ocean.

The residents were reacting to the latest flooding, experienced on Monday, which invaded homes, hampered small-scale businesses and threatened their survival. According to them, the situation has failed to attract any response from state or federal emergency agencies. However, there was no casualty recorded in the incident. "This is the worst in recent times," said Caro Austin, a trader. "It started around 3am till day break, and we lost over N50,000 worth of goods to the flood. All the sacks of rice, beans and garri in the shop are soaked and the kegs of kerosene pushed down by the water have also spilled, spoiling everything; and this is only in the shop, it's another story at home." "Many people have left already for nearby communities," added Umughene Austin, Mrs Austin's husband and business partner. "We don't know what to do now and we don't even know where we will sleep tonight yet; we are already tired of living in this place, but it is the money to relocate that is not available now."

More tales of woe

Major parts of the community, populated by over 10,000 residents, was affected by the flooding which left many homes flooded and heaped with sand and debris. Owode Road, the major link between the community and about 15 adjoining communities, including Lafiaji, Mopo Iwaju, Eleko, and Mopo Akinlade, was also flooded by the water, limiting trading in the community's chief occupations - fishing and farming.

Residents had to stay away from work for the day to clear their homes and assess the level of damage as many of them had lost important documents and domestic goods like electronic gadgets to the water. "I've been scooping the water out and trying to clean up the place for over five hours and I still have a long way to go," said Olatunji Kehinde, another resident, who could not put a figure on his loss. "This will take the whole day for me and I still don't know what my oga (boss) will do to me for staying away from work today." The Community's Residents' Association Secretary, Afeez Elegushi, said, "all road has been damaged, and it's making it difficult for our people to do business; government should please come to our aid."

Blame the government

The residents have, however, blamed the government for the continued incidence of flooding in the community, and its response to emergency situations was not spared either. The earliest government response came eight hours after the incidence, when a delegation from the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), led by the agency's Director of Environmental and Management Department, Juliana Gunwa, visited the community. "They are coming long after the damage has been done," said a resident, who did not wish to be named. "Anyone could have died long before now. We have so many little children in the community who were in danger, and anything could have happened to them."


Moreover, the residents claim that nothing has ever been done by the government to prevent the flooding from occurring in the area. Sixty-two-year-old Mufutau Ayodele, who traced the flooding back to his childhood days, said the government has never done anything about it in that period. "It's the community king, Ojomu Ilase of Ajiran Land, who has even been helping to block the sea with sand, to serve as embankments; we have not been seeing the work of the government so far," he said.


Addressing the community leaders, Mrs Gunwa said the delegation will make a "report" and take necessary actions. However, the Managing Director, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, promised to deploy the agency's officials to the community to render assistance. "You are just telling me; I will send my men there right away," he said.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/Military/5634675-147/trying_moments_for_edo_action_congress.csp

By Jethro Ibileke

October 26, 2010 12:44AM

This is certainly not the best of time for Edo State Action Congress of Nigeria. The party had experienced tranquility until recently, when the fever of membership registration threatens to turn the party to shreds.

The influx of a large number of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seems to be responsible for the discontent in the Action Congress.

Riding on the back of Governor Adam Oshiomole's popularity, these former PDP members' sole aim is to clinch the ticket for re-election, with a do-or-die desperation. Two people have so far lost their lives in clashes allegedly attributed to this desperation.

At the centre of the latest crisis is the deputy speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Paul Ohonbamu, and the chairman of Egor local government council, Crosby Eribo. The duo, who decamped from PDP into ACN, are locked in a re-election battle to the state House of Assembly and House of Representatives by attempting to forcefully hijack the ongoing party membership's registration process in the council area.

John Aigbogun, the chairman of Egor chapter of CAN and other local government chairmen in Edo south senatorial district, converged on the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre, Benin City, on October 23, to receive party registration materials for their council areas, as instructed by ACN officials.

According to Mr. Aigbogun, it was during his turn to collect the cards when the party chairman in the state, Tony Omoaghe, secretary, Gentleman Amegor, and another official of the party from Abuja, identified as Mr. Momoh, allegedly noticed some suspected hoodlums who rushed into the venue with the intention of forcibly seizing the cards.

Distribution gone awry

"At that point, the party officials decided to suspend the distribution of the cards to forestall hijacking the process. They thereafter instructed me to come with the 10 ward chairmen to the party secretariat at Airport Road the following day to collect the cards," said Mr. Aigbogun.

During the meeting at the party secretariat on the following day, however, Mr. Paul Ohonbamu allegedly showed up with some hefty looking men and five policemen.

"We were surprised to see Paul Ohonbamu there. I did not know his mission to the place because he was not supposed to be there. He was not invited. He came with thugs and heavily armed policemen. He instructed the thugs that on no account should they allow the ward chairmen and secretary to go away with the registration materials since he was not sure of their support for him," Mr. Aigbogun said.

Having lost trail of Mr. Aigbogun who managed to escape, the hoodlums descended on other party members present with dangerous weapons. Several of them sustained various degrees of injuries. During the distribution of the cards, chairman of Ego local government council, Crosby Eribo, allegedly in connivance with Mr. Paul Ohonbamu, sent hoodlums to hijack the registration at the house of ward five chairman's house.

When contacted, Egor council boss, Crosby Eribo, admitted attacking the chairman of ward six, who took the registration exercise to his house, instead of the designated party secretariat. Mr. Paul Ohonbamu, however, did not pick calls on his mobile set.

Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has suspended its ongoing party registration exercise in some wards in the state due to a breach of the rules guiding the exercise.

The affected areas are Wards 4, 5, 6 and 10 in Egor local government area; Ward 3 in Etsako East local government area; and Ward 3 in Ovia North-East local government area (Ohen).

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5634576-146/edo_dissolves_local_councils.csp

October 25, 2010 04:56PM


Edo State Government has dissolved the 18 local government councils in the state; and has also frozen their accounts until further notice.

Pally Iriase, the Secretary to the State Government, stated that, "I am directed to inform the general public that, in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Law 2000 as amended, the Governor, Mr Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, has dissolved the 18 Local Government Councils in Edo State. Following the dissolution, the former Chairmen of the various Local Government Councils are hereby directed to handover to the Heads of Local Government Administration in the respective Local Government Areas immediately. Furthermore, the Bank accounts of the Local Government Councils are hereby frozen until further notice."

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/video-turmoil-okah-family-sonny-bowie-okah-speaks-i-will-help-destroy-my-killer-family


**YOU CAN VIEW THE VIDEO ON SAHARAREPORTERS.COM**


Home » News & Reports » News
News and Reports
VIDEO: Turmoil In The Okah Family, Sonny Bowie Okah Speaks: "I Will Help Destroy My Killer-Family"
Posted: October 23, 2010 - 13:29
Posted by siteadmin
By SaharaReporters, New York

SR: Ah, yes, I just have some questions to ask… First, what is your reaction towards the arrest of your two brothers, Charles and Henry?

Bowie: Errrm, as a matter of fact, when a criminal is arrested, you should – you should be happy

SR: Not mind…(interrupted)

Bowie: When a criminal is arrested…sorry?

SR: Okay, not minding that they are your blood brothers…were meant to…

Bowie: I don’t give a damn. Anybody who kills anybody, you know, I am not happy with killing of people – innocent people especially, and anybody who kills anybody, I don’t , I don’t care if it’s my blood brother or whatever

SR: But…

Bowie: I regard the people as killers

SR: But you will admit that they are still innocent until proven guilty…they’ve not been…

Bowie: But,  when I know of their activities, when I have an insight of their activities, it’s just the court that can prove that, you know, but …it is just the court that can (inaudible) but someone who is used to their activity , not now but for many years, I mean, I have already decided on my verdict for them

SR: How would you say you are a credible person to speak with when there are allegations you are not mentally sound, you‘ve attempted to kill your father at one point in time, it’s alleged you’ve claimed you are a medical doctor, when you are not one. Some people would say that you are not a credible person to be taken serious. How would you react?

Bowie: Let me tell you the story gradually. First and foremost they mentioned the place where I claimed to be a medical doctor, right?

SR: Yes

Bowie: You know you can make enquiries from that place? Thank God the name is there? I worked there on a two-year contract as a technologist? Okay? To ensure that their (inaudible) does not get forged – as simple as that. You can find out…

SR: So there was never a time you operated on patients

Bowie: On patients? There were doctors there who operated on the patients – I was working on the machines

SR: Okay, how about the Nigerian Defence academy? You left the Nigerian Defence academy or…?

Bowie: Nigerian Defence Academy is still there till tomorrow. I left the Nigerian Defence Academy on my own

SR: So you…

Bowie: Do you understand that?

SR: Yes I…I heard you now

Bowie: We have Senators serving now, who left the Nigerian Defence Academy, the same way I left it. I was never dismissed. I was never charged for any offence whatsoever while I was at the Nigerian Defence Academy

SR: Do you believe in the Niger Delta Struggle at all?

Bowie: Initially I did believe in it, initially. But, when I saw that my brothers were trying to use it as a business venture, I lost interest

SR: When you are talking about your brothers, you are talking about both Charles and Henry, now?

Bowie: Both of them, both of them. They are even more than that. They are more than that. There are two other members of the family who are involved in this criminal act

SR: How would you …members of the family…How would you …Now that is a serious allegation, if you are saying members of the family, are there names?

Bowie: Of course there are names. There is, there is Julie Okah, who is there, that is the only one I want to mention for now, who is the EA to the governor of Bayelsa state. She is the criminal. She is the one who has all the money and is funding all the, all the, all the, all the, all the, all the, act.

SR: So you …

Bowie:….from the government purse…

SR: So you are saying that a senior member of the Bayelsa state government who happens to be your blood sister is funding terrorism…
Bowie: Exactly. She has been funding it.

SR: And do you have evidence to that effect? Money, dates…?

Bowie: I know monies that have been paid to them in the past for one thing or the other, even when they wanted me, me that they say I am not sound, they are paying me N9m to go and remove Henry from detention. Does that make sense? Someone who is not sound will be given N9m to go and remove somebody who is in detention?

SR: Now who paid you N9m, specifically?

Bowie: Charles paid me N9m and formed an operation that I should go into Chitakwa park in Bauchi where he was detained, and open the place, kill people around him, soldiers around there and bring Henry out of that place…
SR: And when you got the N9m, did you refund the money? Or did you just keep…?

Bowie: For what? I confiscated the money, for sending me on such a silly mission

SR: Now. let us speak about Charles. What would say would be Charles’ role in MEND and the bomb blast that took place in Abuja?
Bowie: Charles is a criminal. He is a… he is Henry’s coordinator for Nigeria. He has been, there are people in the past. You can ask, you can find out from other militants who have their weapons down? You can find out from Boyloaf, find out from Tompolo. Even in the times of bombing and all the attacks, he was involved with them. You can find out from them. They will confirm my story

SR: On the issue of wanting to rescue Henry Okah from the government when he was detained in Nigeria, there were suggestions that it was you who suggested that Henry should be rescued, is that true?

Bowie: (inaudible)… How can I, as a mad man suggest such a thing and they accept my position, as a mad man?

SR: Are you aware of who Jomo Gbomo is?

Bowie: Initially it was Henry, when Henry got the mail account. That was him writing all the mails from the (inaudible). It is being passed from one person to the other. Even when Charles knows he is going to be detained, he will pass it to someone, maybe his wife is now Jomo Gbomo.

SR: Now that is another allegation that Charles’ wife could be, ?

Bowie: I said maybe. I said maybe now. I am not saying emphatically that she is. I am saying maybe now, knowing that he was going to be detained, he might have passed it to her , or passed it to Henry’s wife, as the new Jomo Gbomo.

SR: Now, it means the whole MEND structure, you are saying is surrounded around the Okah family, is that what you are saying?

Bowie:  The MEND structure, the original MEND structure was not. The original MEND had Boyloaf there, it had Tompolo there, but they have broken up with Henry , immediately after the Amnesty. Immediately after Amnesty, I broke up with him, Tompolo broke up with him, Boyloaf broke up with him, (inaudible) broke up with him, everybody broke up with him, because we were all sure he was just after financial benefit.

SR: With all these things going on, don’t you think it will have a negative effect on the Niger Delta struggle, the struggle for…

Bowie: Of course, it is already having a negative effect on the struggle! You know, when one faction, the criminal faction, broke out and all they are doing is to cause problems to meet their financial needs. I learn they have been asking for an oil well.

SR: Who is asking for an oil well?

Bowie: Its Henry asking government for an oil well, and Charles is backing him up on that. So they think the only way to get that oil well they are asking for is by causing problems

SR: You are referred to as Python, and that is just by the way. You are referred to as Python Bowie. Why are you called Python Bowie?

Bowie: That has to do with me, when I was in school. I was very very patient, just like the python. It odes not strike until they strike it

SR: SO you are telling readers of Sahara Reporters categorically that, one , you are not a mad person,  you are not a person of unsound mind, two…

Bowie: They said I was taken to psychiatric hospital in Yaba, don’t they have records?

SR: Because the version of the python nickname was said that it was a result of you knocking someone dead. No names were given.
Bowie: Where was that?

SR: That you had a fight with someone…and you knocked them…(Bowie interjects) yea, and that is why you are called python…

Bowie: Never have I had a fight with someone

SR: That was in the Nigeria Defence Academy

Bowie: The Nigerian Defence Academy sporting competitions were authorised. I had that name before I got into the Nigeria Defence Academy

SR: So, when you had that fight, which was a legitimate fight, did your opponent get knocked out, as in die as a result?
Bowie: I had many opponents that were knocked down and knocked out but never anyone that died

SR: Now Mr Bowie, let us come back to this other issue of you being nominated into a board of Nigerian er, , by the Jonathan government.
Bowie: I am just hearing that from you…
SR: So, at no point was your name nominated by the Jonathan administration into the board of…

Bowie: Board, board …? What have I got to do with the Jonathan administration? What have I got to do with any …? I am a business man; I am doing my business in Lagos? What have I got to do with PDP whatever?
SR: SO you have no links whatsoever with the Jonathan government?
Bowie: I have no links with them whatsoever

SR: We were also told that you are quite determined to see your two brothers go to jail. What if they are found innocent of this very heinous crime?

Bowie: Then I will know that there is no justice in this country if they are because I have an insight into the operation! It’s just like you, maybe you know your wife so well and you know the things she does in the bedroom, and somebody comes and says she is not guilty of certain things you know about her – it does not make sense

SR: If you are called upon by the government to serve as a prosecuting witness, would you…?

Bowie: I would do that now! I would do that now!! And (inaudible)….

SR: And you would not say this is being vindictive? Are you doing this for patriotic reasons?
Bowie: For what reason? For what reason? I would do it gladly now Because of all the lives of people and because of the image they are trying to depict

SR: So Mr Bowie Bowie Okah. Why did you drop the Okah from your family name and you are now known as Bowie Bowie?
Bowie: That name has been dropped since 1992. It is not now that I dropped that name, because I have always had problems with that family… I’ve never really belonged. I have always seen them as people who do not do the right thing.

SR: I know now that you have problems with Charles, problems with Henry and you have mentioned Julie who is a senior government officer in Bayelsa state government. Are there any members of the Okah family that you have any good relationship with?

Bowie: I have good relationship with almost every other person
SR: Except the other people you mentioned? Do you have any plans for reconciliation with members of the family?

Bowie: I actually don’t need it. I actually don’t need their reconciliation because they are creating a bad name for the Okah family which I do not belong to any longer. I don’t need it.  Why should I reconcile with people who are not accepted in the society. It does not make sense to me. I’ll do better as who I am.

SR: Mr Bowie Bowie Okah, thanks for speaking to Sahara Reporters.
Bowie: Thank you.

Shortly after the Interview Sonny sent this text message to all his brothers and sisters:



“Now people are on the internet saying i'm a psychiatric patient, wanted to kill my dad, claimed i'm a doctor, ran to Olumba etc etc. Thank God reasonable people are reacting in my favour and know that it is one of the Okahs who did that to further disgrace themselves. It doesn't affect me in anyway so I refused to read it even though a number of people called me. I'll go back to the net and start with everyone from Charles down to Pamela and give a truthful x ray of them. Then I'll go to the papers and the govt and declare who they are, everyone’s role in all…A new battle just begun since the Okahs have decided to wake the sleeping dog. I’ll help in destroying that family of killers completely”

Saharareporters also contacted Barrister Julie Donli who described herself as the Executive Assistant to the Bayelsa State Governor Mr Timipre Sylva on the allegation made by Mr Bowie that she funds her brother’s terrorist activities, she sent in the following as her reaction.

“Dear Editor My name is Julie Donli the immediate older sister of Sunny Bowei Okah. I was told you did a report on him and he later granted an interview where he mentioned my name and said I sponsor terrorist. I have never granted SaharaReporters any interview and do not believe in discussing my family on the internet or the pages of newspapers. I plead that you respect the privacy of the Okah family henceforth. In spite of the obvious blackmail and assault to my integrity by Sonny, I shall not trade words with him. He remains my family. Please let it be told that I never gave Sahara Reporters any story on Sonny Bowei Okah, I am not the only one in the family I wonder why he chose to pick on me.”

Link to video --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAh78g76l4&feature=player_embedded

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5633368-146/daniels_warns_of_rocky_future_for.csp

BY Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji

October 22, 2010 12:24AM


Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel yesterday warned of collapse of the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} in the South-west of the country as a result of the incessant internal wranglings within the ruling party, especially following loss of two states of Ekiti and Ondo.

Mr Daniel made the prediction at the second stakeholders meeting and inauguration of Coordinators of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign, held at his Aseludero Private Residence in Sagamu, Addressing the meeting, which comprises the Jonathan South-West Campaign team,

Daniel said the only way out is for the party to put its house in order.

“We must tell ourselves the truth, we have not managed our victory well,” he said. “The capacity of our party to manage crisis is nil.” The governor, who is the South-west Coordinator for the campaign team, linked the fear of winning next elections to the loss of Ondo and Ekiti states to the opposition.

Scary news

Lamenting the ouster of Segun Oni by the court ruling, Mr Daniel frankly declared, “The worst came recently when we legally lost Ekiti.

What happened in Ekiti State is a shame for all of us, nobody expected it” adding that for those in Osun State, “what I am hearing is scary.”

Admitting that the party has challenges and hurdles to cross to win impressively in the forthcoming elections, the governor said: “We must not take things for granted, what we have in our hand is major. If we should again lose Osun, PDP is gone. If we are not careful, that may be the end of our party. He then appealed to all stakeholders to take a second look at the problems and find ways of resolving the internal wrangling.

A United Kingdom-registered ship, the Grand America, has escaped from the Lagos port, raising questions about security lapses at the nation’s sea ports.

The ship had off-loaded seven containers suspected of holding electronic waste before leaving between Sunday and Monday, the British Broadcasting Corporation reports. It is not known who released the ship, which was was detained at the port about a week ago, together with another ship carrying a similar cargo.

The containers are still at the port and the Federal Government has ordered an investigation into the matter. The report said the disappearance of the ship raised the possibility of complicity by security and port authorities.

Director-General of the Nigeria Environmental Standards Enforcement Agency, Ngeri Benebo, told the BBC that the Grand America had arrived at Lagos via Antwerp in Belgium. She said the other ship, the MV Veradin, was originally from New York and had arrived via Spain.

When contacted on the telephone, Benebo told THE PUNCH on the telephone on Wednesday night that the disappearance of the was a big surprise to NESREA.

She said, “We got information that the ship, carrying electronic waste, would arrive by October 16. But it berthed on October 14. There were seven containers in the ship and we were supposed to do our inspection on board.

“But surprisingly, the ship was allowed to offload the cargoes and we later discovered that it had sailed back. We have reported the case to the minister of environment and the Nigerian Ports Authority.”

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010214221825

By SaharaReporters, New York
A Dubai court of First Instance today ruled that the former governor of Delta state, James Ibori, has case to answer in the UK.

The court therefore ruled that Ibori be extradited to the United Kingdom to face charges of money laundering, credit card fraud and official theft. UK authorities have successfully prosecuted Ibori’s sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori, and his mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo) on those charges. Both women are serving jail terms in a UK prison.

Ibori's wife, Theresa Nkoyo, and one of his UK-based lawyers, Bhadresh Gohil are also currently facing trial in a London courtroom. A legal analyst familiar with the evidence against them told Saharareporters that they are likely to be convicted and sentenced to jail terms as well.

A source close to Ibori told Saharareporters that the former governor was distraught by the verdict as some of his friends in Dubai had promised him that they could reach the judge and get him a favorable ruling. “I can assure you that Chief Ibori will ask his lawyers to file an appeal before the appellate court in the UAE,” said the source.

Mr. Ibori has 30 days to file for and receive an appellate decision.

Ibori’s associates in Nigeria had been preparing for a victorious outcome for him. In fact, several sources close to him revealed that he had ordered the renovation of his country home in Oghara, Delta State, for what he envisaged as a triumphant return. Instead, as one UK prosecutor told Saharareporters this morning, “the day of reckoning for this fugitive in a UK court is near at hand.”

Last week, Turai Yar’adua, the wife of former Nigerian ruler Umaru Yar’adua reportedly visited Mr. Ibori in Dubai. Former Governor Ibori was a close associate and confidante of Mr. Yar’adua who died last May. One source said Turai Yar’adua’s visit to Ibori was to express her gratitude for all Ibori did to sustain her late husband in power. Mrs. Yar’adua had earlier traveled to Saudi Arabia to mark the end of her mourning period and to perform the lower hajj-(Umrah), according to a source close to her.

Saharareporters has learned that Mrs. Yar’adua, who is suffering from an ovarian disorder, will spend some time in the UK to receive more diagnosis and medical attention for her health condition.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/dubai-court-rules-james-ibori-be-extradited-uk

Written by Robin Urevich Friday, 23 April 2010 11:27

In July 2004, police lay in wait at an airfield in the far northeastern corner of Nigeria. Gilbert Chagoury (www.gilbertchagoury.com), a Lebanese businessman and one-time adviser to the late dictator Sani Abacha, was set to touch down in his private jet. Nuhu Ribadu, then the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor, says that Chagoury was a kingpin in the corruption that defined Abacha's regime. "You couldn't investigate corruption without looking at Chagoury," Ribadu tells me in a recent interview in California.
Six years after Abacha's death, Ribadu's officers stood ready to take Chagoury down. Ribadu says that Chagoury made it possible for Abacha to steal billions of dollars and lined his own pockets in the process. The prosecutor says he indicted Chagoury and ordered his arrest for relatively minor violations related to Chagoury's businesses so that he could later bring additional charges for his activities in the Abacha era.

But, no sooner had Chagoury's plane hit the ground, than it took off again. Ribadu says it's likely that an airport official tipped him off, and Ribadu's big catch slipped away, literally into thin air.

Chagoury was among the last of the all-powerful middlemen who served the heads of oil-rich African states, says Philippe Vasset, longtime editor of Africa Energy Intelligence, one of a series of influential energy industry newsletters. "He [Chagoury] was the gatekeeper to Abacha's presidency," Vasset says.

In many African countries, a Western entrepreneur might hand over money to a fixer or middleman, who would then pass it on to a political leader in exchange for support for a business venture. In Nigeria, Vasset explains, Chagoury was just such a figure in the mid-1990s, when Abacha ruled the country and held the key to much of the country's oil wealth.

Today, Chagoury is a diplomat representing the tiny island nation of St. Lucia. He is also a friend of former President Bill Clinton and a generous philanthropist, who, since the Abacha years, has used his money to establish respectability. He appeared near the top of the Clinton Foundation donor list in 2008 as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. (His name made the list again in 2009.)

Chagoury's contribution to the Louvre in Paris some years back was large enough for the museum to name a gallery for him and his wife. In recent years, he has put up $10 million for the construction of medical and nursing schools in Lebanon, his parents' country of origin, that also bear the Chagoury name.

Unlike his friend, the former president, Chagoury conducts his affairs largely out of public view. He rarely talks to reporters.

But on a cool day in late 2008, I headed up a gently winding road in Beverly Hills, where Chagoury's Moorish-style villa sprawls across the top of a steep canyon. The home once belonged to entertainer Danny Thomas, and Richard Nixon, Raquel Welch, and Michael Caine have all lived in the neighborhood.

After a written request for an interview and many follow-up phone calls, Chagoury invited me to meet him. "We'll see if we can get along," he said. Chagoury's home is packed with art, antiques, and crystal chandeliers, and offers a staggering view across West Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean.

As I'm taking it all in, Chagoury climbs a thickly carpeted, winding staircase to the living room to greet me. He's a stout man, dressed in a navy blue sport coat with buttons that strain against a barrel chest. His fingernails are buffed and manicured, and he has a full head of salt-and-pepper hair.

Almost immediately, he has a proposal: Do your story, but don't sell your work to a media outlet. "Do it for me," he says, offering me access and contacts -- even the chance to write a book. In exchange, I would get cash, and he would get full control of the product. I politely turn him down, but he brings up the offer several times during the interview.   

As we talk, I learn that much of what Chagoury says about himself is so out of sync with the public record and what others have told me -- even those who are friendly toward him -- that it seems he's not just in the market for positive spin, but for all-out reinvention.
When I bring up his days in Nigeria, he tells me that he detests his reputation as Abacha's middleman. "I am not in that business," he says. Rather, he has worked hard since he was a teenager, building a conglomerate called The Chagoury Group, which employs 20,000 people in Nigeria in construction, real estate development, telecommunications, and other sectors.

"I am an industrialist," he says in lightly accented, near-perfect English. "I spend a lot of time with my family. I don't have time to do all that people say I do."

"I have never bribed anyone," he says, looking me straight in the eye. "I have never had to make a crooked deal." He is absolutely sure of himself, even though he has offered me a bribe of sorts just minutes earlier.

As for Ribadu, the Nigerian investigator who says his officers nearly made that 2004 arrest on corruption charges, Chagoury says, "He's not such hot stuff." He tells me that Ribadu -- who until 2007 headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, an agency similar to the FBI -- was an attack-dog set against the enemies of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who appointed him.

Ribadu was pushed out of his job after Obasanjo left office, and says he was given the freedom to act independently during his tenure and was ousted because of his zealous prosecution of high-level officials.

Chagoury, who turns 64 this month, was born in Lagos and is the eldest of eight children. He has dual citizenship in Lebanon and the United Kingdom because of his parents' heritage and because he was born in Nigeria while it was still under British rule.

His father came to West Africa in the 1930s from the northern Lebanese town of Miziara. The elder Chagoury followed what was by then a well-worn migrant trail to Nigeria, where he traded in textiles and helped his brother in a small trucking operation.

Chagoury is part of the Lebanese diaspora, which is by some estimates several times larger than the population of Lebanon, and includes such influential members as Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, the world's third richest man, Columbian entertainer Shakira, and American activist Ralph Nader.

Like their Palestinian and Jewish neighbors, the Lebanese have scattered about the world, and Chagoury seems equally at home in Lagos or Beverly Hills. He has also maintained close ties to his parents' home town of Miziara.

Today, Miziara survives -- and even thrives -- because of Chagoury and his brothers, says Gilbert Aoun, who was Lebanon's ambassador to Nigeria during Abacha's rule. Still, nine months of the year, the mountainous settlement of some 15,000 is a ghost town, Aoun says, because most Miziarans old enough to work are employed by the Chagourys in Nigeria.

Chagoury didn't grow up rich, but he says that he always wanted the security and prestige that money brings. He went into business with his father-in-law, and later with his brother. The family established several flour mills in Benin and Nigeria, a construction company in Nigeria, and a club in Lagos.

An Indispensable Adviser
Chagoury says he met Abacha by chance on a flight to the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt, when the future dictator was a young officer. The two struck up a friendship, and when Abacha seized power in a 1993 coup, Chagoury became the general's indispensable adviser.

General Abacha was an eccentric man and a brutal leader, who consolidated his power by declaring martial law and jailing political rivals. He kept a menagerie of exotic animals and rarely removed his sunglasses. The regime drew worldwide condemnation in 1995, when activist playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other men who had campaigned against the environmental degradation of the oil-rich Niger Delta were executed for what most observers say were trumped-up murder charges.

From his earliest days in power, Abacha set the tone for an administration that would become the most corrupt in Nigeria's history. Today, more than a decade after the dictator's death, investigators from Washington DC to the Nigerian capital of Abuja are still unraveling the web of shady dealings around Abacha's rule.

Within months of taking office in 1993, Abacha began to divert money from Nigeria's central bank to the overseas bank accounts of his family members and associates, including Chagoury's. A lawsuit brought by the Nigerian government against Abacha's heirs and associates in the United Kingdom shows that the dictator fraudulently ordered the bank transfers for national security purposes.

By the time of Abacha's death in 1998, those so-called security payments would total $2 billion, but they would represent less than half the funds that money-laundering investigators around the world estimate that Abacha and his associates stole from their country.
However, Abacha found other ways to pad his bank accounts. A $180 million bribery scheme -- the largest ever discovered as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation -- was hatched the first year Abacha was in office.

Halliburton's Nigerian Bribes
The scheme began in the early 1990s, when Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), at the time a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation, led a joint venture that bid for a $6 billion contract to build a sprawling liquefied natural gas facility in the Niger Delta.

The group won the bid, but not before Abacha had agreed to accept a $40 million bribe that he would share with other Nigerian officials, according to Department of Justice court papers. It was the first installment of $180 million in bribes that KBR would pay, not only to officials of the Abacha regime, but to officials of the two heads of state who succeeded him.

A few months before I interviewed Chagoury, former KBR CEO Jack Stanley had pleaded guilty in a Texas courtroom to charges related to organizing the bribery scheme that went on for a decade in Nigeria, and to taking millions in kickbacks for himself. Since then, two more KBR contractors have been indicted, and Halliburton entered a guilty plea and paid the government a record fine of more than $500 million.
Chagoury denies any involvement in the bribery case, but his name surfaces in notes taken by one of the indictees, Chodan, who kept detailed records of so-called cultural meetings, where bribes were discussed.

One entry reads, "$250 ,  to IPCO via Chagoury."
When I ask Chagoury about these records, he doesn't dispute that the note refers to a sum of $250 million, but he argues that it refers to a contract, which, he says, was legitimately awarded to one of his companies, IPCO Nigeria Limited, for construction related to the liquefied natural gas plant.

Chagoury has not been named by the Department of Justice or charged with any crime related to the KBR affair.

His work as an intermediary for Abacha went beyond business affairs. He was also deeply involved in diplomacy, even though he held no official government post. In the mid-1990s, when Nigeria came under increasing pressure from Washington to hold elections, Chagoury gained access to high-level U.S. emissaries like Jesse Jackson and Bill Richardson as well as to a number of senior State Department officials, according to Donald McHenry, a former American ambassador to the United Nations, who worked in U.S.-Nigeria diplomacy at the time.

The Clinton Connections
Chagoury, along with his wife and three of his children, were guests at a the Clinton's White House holiday dinner shortly after Chagoury gave nearly half a million dollars to a voter registration committee, Vote Now '96, according to a report in The Washington Post. (Chagoury would have been barred from donating directly to the Clinton campaign because he is not a U.S. citizen.) Since then, Chagoury and Clinton have traveled together and seen each other socially.

"Every one knows I'm friends with the Clintons," Chagoury says.

As Abacha's health began to fail in the late 1990s, Chagoury made major efforts to prop up the dictator. A State Department memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, entitled "The Health Watch on the Head of State Continues," shows that Chagoury appeared to have brought medical specialists and sophisticated medical equipment to the presidential residence in Abuja, while publicly downplaying the seriousness of Abacha's condition.

When Abacha died in June 1998, a second State Department memo notes that Chagoury placed an in-flight call from his private plane to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to report that he was in touch with Nigeria's Provisional Ruling Council, which would be meeting later that day to discuss a successor to Abacha. In the phone call, Chagoury asked what governmental structure would be acceptable to U.S. officials, according to the memo.

Immediately after Abacha's death, Ribadu, then a young police investigator, says he began looking into the dictator's financial affairs. "It wasn't uncommon for Nigerian leaders to put money elsewhere," Ribadu says. "But the magnitude was beyond anybody's comprehension."
The money -- estimated at more than $4 billion -- was stashed in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and the Isle of Jersey in the names of dozens of individuals and companies. Ribadu argues that it was Chagoury who vouched for Abacha's sons at banks where the source of their assets might otherwise have been questioned.

Indeed, Chagoury's Swiss attorney, Luc Argand, told me that his client served as a reference for Abacha's sons at Credit Suisse. The Nigerian government eventually requested help from law enforcement around the world in tracking the stolen assets. In 2000, Chagoury was convicted in Geneva, Switzerland, of laundering money and aiding a criminal organization in connection with the billions of dollars stolen from Nigeria during the Abacha years.

Argand has insisted that Chagoury used the money for diplomatic missions on behalf of Abacha. Asked if he had records to substantiate that claim, Argand said he couldn't produce any. He also conceded that the money was "stolen by Abacha, and had to be returned."
However, Argand says that Chagoury had already decided on his own to return it. In the end, he says, his client agreed to a plea deal: Chagoury would pay a fine of a million Swiss francs and hand over $66 million to the Nigerian government. Swiss authorities promised to expunge the conviction after two years, which they have done.

In 1999, Chagoury won immunity from prosecution in a separate looted-assets case in Nigeria by agreeing to return money that he held in Swiss bank accounts. The precise amount that Chagoury returned is unclear.

Meanwhile, the hunt for Nigeria's stolen treasure continues. A panel appointed by Nigeria's current president, Umaru Yar'Adua, is currently investigating which Nigerian officials took bribes in the Halliburton case and has reportedly requested U.S. Department of Justice cooperation in the probe. However, some Nigeria watchers, including Ribadu, doubt the seriousness of the inquiry.

While the Nigerian government struggles to recoup the losses it suffered under Abacha, Chagoury has prospered and continued to win acceptance from influential people around the world.

Last year, he was knighted by the Catholic Church and inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honor bestowed upon those who serve the church, including many who are big donors to the institution. Bob Hope, Ricardo Montalban, and Rupert Murdoch are among past recipients.
The Clinton Foundation did not respond to emailed questions and repeated phone calls about the nature of Bill and Hillary Clinton's relationship with Chagoury. Former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe, who, according to The Washington Post, was a sponsor of Chagoury's invitation to the White House in 1996, also failed to return phone calls. A spokesman for former Clinton political advisor James Carville, also a Chagoury acquaintance, said that Carville could not comment on the relationship.

And Chagoury hasn't stopped earning his fortune. Knowledgeable sources say that Chagoury controls South Atlantic Petroleum, a company that was awarded a choice oil exploration license before Abacha's death. Three years ago, the company sold a portion of its government-granted concession to the Chinese oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, for $2.7 billion.

In our interview, Chagoury didn't deny that he profited from the deal, but he said rumors that former President Clinton helped make the deal happen were untrue.

Chagoury is unfazed by the crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department on foreign bribery, exemplified by the Halliburton case, and waves off the recent spate of prosecutions like an elder statesman: "You have lobbyists; we have agents," he says.

"You are never going to stop corruption," because it's favoritism, and that's human nature, which laws won't change, he tells me.
It's no wonder he is so confident. He is now free to come and go in Nigeria, while his nemesis, corruption hunter Nuhu Ribadu, left the country last year, he says, after an attempt on his life.

Robin Urevich is a reporter in Monterey County, California. Her work has appeared on NPR, Marketplace, NPR affiliates KQED and KPCC, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Las Vegas Sun. She is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley School of Journalism.

This story was originally published by PBS Frontline.
http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/hot-topic/5893-chasing-the-ghosts-of-the-corrupt-abacha-regime-gilbert-chagoury-clinton-donor-and-diplomat-with-a-checkered-past.html

By Reuben Abati
June 27, 2010
I started writing this on a day when Nigeria received two heavy blows to its image: one in football with the Super Eagles, the country’s national team crashing, woefully, out of the 19th edition of the World Cup in South Africa: the flat-footed, pounded yam-affected, disoriented, careless and unambitious performance of the Super Eagles is a reflection of our national character: if anything has been seen at this year’s World Cup it is how football is about national identity and character.  The sad message about Nigeria, represented by Sani Kaita and his colleagues, and their inability to rise to the occasion, is that this is no longer a nation of winners in football as in many other areas. It is perhaps not an accident that the same day, a scuffle broke out at the National Assembly with members of the House of Representatives turning the Chambers into a wrestling arena, with lawmakers losing their clothing, receiving wounds to the head, and a female lawmaker beaten (by shameless men!) and dragged out, with her feet jumping off and on the ground. The House leadership has apologized to Nigerians but who needs their apology when we do not yet know what other acts of infamy they may yet come up with? But it is not about this failing set that I set out to write.
This as the title indicates, is about the life of a man who grew up and lived, and helped to build a different Nigeria where values still counted for much, and men were praised or chastised on the basis of their efforts, not necessarily the positions they occupied. Alhaji Jimoh Odutola who died last weekend was a frontline Nigerian entrepreneur, a pioneer in many respects, a pacesetter, a man of quality, a good man. The last time I saw Baba as I called him, was in March, a few days before his 105th birthday. He had stopped by at The Guardian as usual to see me: I was one of his favourite boys, he was very fond of me, it is a friendship that I will forever cherish.   
For many years, even in his nineties, he would climb the stairs at Rutam House all the way to the Editorial Board, with no one assisting him. If I offered to come down to the car to see him, he would disagree and insist on coming upstairs. Even at 100, he was strong. But last March, he could not climb the stairs. He sat in the car, his voice was not as energetic as it used to be, his pace had slowed down considerably. He had always been such a strong and hardworking man, it was difficult to imagine him in a weak state. When I returned to the office after promising Baba that I’d find time to see him in Ijebu-Ode later, I told my secretary: “Baba is getting old; he is now an old man.” “He is just getting old at over 100?,” my secretary quipped. She knew Baba very well; we all used to admire Baba’s energy level up and down the stairs, much younger men would climb the same stairs and pant.  It didn’t take long to figure out part of Baba’s secret. He was a compulsive workaholic. Even if any serious illness wanted to settle down in his body, it would have had a tough time finding home. It turned out that our meeting in March was the last.
I wasn’t privileged to know Baba Odutola in his younger days, but the little I saw of his winter years gave me an idea of the kind of man he was.  He commuted between Ijebu Ode and Lagos regularly either coming to the courts in Lagos in pursuit of one land case or the other, or to attend to other obligations. He had invested heavily in real property, and where there were issues of conflict, Baba Odutola was always quick to head to the courts. He valued justice and he pursued it till the last minute. He used to remark that he could not stand cheats and that in his business dealings, honesty was always his watchword.  He was a quiet, self-effacing man; he avoided partisan politics with as much passion as he hated the idea of chieftaincy titles. He often remarked that he was contented being simply Alhaji Odutola. He was a devout Muslim. To mark his 100th birthday in 2005, he had built a big mosque and also renovated the primary school which he built many years earlier.
I recall that at his 100th birthday anniversary held in the vast grounds of his home in Ijebu Ode, he was pleased that many dignitaries honoured his invitation, including the then Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. In a country that so easily forgets its heroes, it is easy to see why Baba Odutola felt that way.  A stickler for details, he was well-organised almost to a fault. He kept a phone book; whenever he had a meeting, his secretary who always travelled with him, was on hand to take notes. When you met him again or he spoke with you on phone, he had a capacity to recall the details of the previous meeting. He always wanted everything to be done right. He dressed well always. He also knew how to keep relationships. If he didn’t hear from me for a long time, he would phone just to ask after my work and family. In the last month or so before his death, his number would show up on my phone but there would be no sound at the other end, my “Hello”, “Hello” was greeted by silence. It is painful: that silence is now permanent. It was his phone number that I saw again and I picked up my phone, excited, when I heard a voice at the other end for the first time in about a month, but it was the voice of a young lady, a granddaughter, breaking the news of his departure.  I miss him.
Baba Odutola is a national legend although unknown to many young entrepreneurs of today, in part because they no longer teach history in the schools and so many of our icons are under-appreciated.  Alhaji Jimoh Akitola Odutola started his business career in 1921, after completing his apprenticeship under Sanni Bilesanmi, his stepfather. Bilesanmi had set him off with a capital of six pounds, adding only one pound to the original amount that Odutola’s mother had invested for his training. This infuriated the young Jimoh Odutola and he had considered taking his stepfather to the local traditional court, but an elderly man advised him against taking legal action: “Take it light. That is enough. Go, my son. God will bless it.” That prayer was answered as Odutola ended up turning the six pounds into an enormous business empire. By the end of 1921, he was already a successful textile trader, in 1927, he ventured into the transport business, by 1929, he went into cocoa produce merchandise, achieving great success both in terms of resources and reputation. In 1932, at his mother’s instance, he went into partnership with his brother, Adeola Odutola, who had been a court clerk and a part-time trader, with considerable experience as an administrator.
The two brothers established the Odutola Brothers. The partnership was electric. The brothers were involved in produce marketing and export, weaving, gold mining and by 1941, they won a wartime quota and had contacts in Europe.  But in 1948, the partnership failed with each brother going his own way, they became each other’s rival, their rivalry was bitter, but both men helped to promote Ijebuland, and to establish the Odutola phenomenon as one of the high points of business and industry in Nigeria in the 20th century, and to lay the foundations for modern business in Nigeria along with the likes of Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, Lawrence Omole, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, Igwe Mathais Ugochukwu, and J. K. Ladipo.  In Ijebuland and the rest of the Western Region, the Odutola brothers were the pathfinders for the later generation of entrepreneurs including the likes of Otunba Subomi Balogun and Otunba Michael Adenuga. The collapse of the partnership between him and his brother may appear to be a sore point in the story but in retrospect, the Odutola brothers together will always be remembered for the industries that they built, the opportunities that they created and the brands that they established which will always form a part of the Nigerian story.
In 1950, Jimoh Odutola lost interest in buying and selling after one of his expatriate friends had told him: “any fool can buy and sell, but not every fool can produce.” That year, he set up J.A Odutola and Company Ltd as the corporate umbrella for his business. Four years later, he set up the West African Tyre Retreading and Company Ltd, the first tyre retreading company in Africa, so successful was this company that Jimoh Odutola was invited by the governments of Ghana and Kenya to come and set up factories in their countries. In 1960, he was awarded a pioneer certificate by the then Governor General of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. Odutola was also a pioneer in the manufacturing of rubber and plastic foam with his establishment of the Nigerian Rubber Foam Company in 1958, and the Nigerian Plastic Foam Company in 1960. He also got a pioneer certificate for this. Till the end, he remained actively engaged in business and investment, long after the failure of the Nigerian state, wrong-headed government policies and the corruption of staff had crippled his factories. He devoted much of his energy to philanthropy and he was quiet and humble about it. These days, when a Nigerian nouveau riche donates a miserable borehole to a hamlet, he spends more money advertising it on national television. But that was not the Jimoh Odutola style.
Jimoh Odutola did not enjoy the benefit of formal education, but he had the discipline and ambition of an educated genius. By 1951, he had opened an office in the United Kingdom, in Oldham. In 1967, he was awarded a certificate of merit as the first African to visit the North Pole. The same year, he was the first African to fly on Lufthansa Airline from Tokyo to Alaska, Alaska to Copenhagen. He made sure that all his 24 children were educated to the best of each person’s ability. He built a school and he supported many universities and educational causes without making a hue and cry about it.  God blessed him with the gift of longevity, but he was also a man of Spartan self-discipline. It is surprising that later-day Nigerian governments did not deem it necessary to include Jimoh Odutola in the national honours list. He was a good man and a patriot. Goodbye Baba; thank you for your friendship.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/reuben-abati/jimoh-odutola-1905-2010.html

In July 2004, police lay in wait at an airfield in the far northeastern corner of Nigeria. Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese businessman and one-time adviser to the late dictator Sani Abacha, was set to touch down in his private jet. Nuhu Ribadu, then the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor, says that Chagoury was a kingpin in the corruption that defined Abacha's regime. "You couldn't investigate corruption without looking at Chagoury," Ribadu tells me in a recent interview in California.
Six years after Abacha's death, Ribadu's officers stood ready to take Chagoury down. Ribadu says that Chagoury made it possible for Abacha to steal billions of dollars and lined his own pockets in the process. The prosecutor says he indicted Chagoury and ordered his arrest for relatively minor violations related to Chagoury's businesses so that he could later bring additional charges for his activities in the Abacha era.

But, no sooner had Chagoury's plane hit the ground, than it took off again. Ribadu says it's likely that an airport official tipped him off, and Ribadu's big catch slipped away, literally into thin air.

Chagoury was among the last of the all-powerful middlemen who served the heads of oil-rich African states, says Philippe Vasset, longtime editor of Africa Energy Intelligence, one of a series of influential energy industry newsletters. "He [Chagoury] was the gatekeeper to Abacha's presidency," Vasset says.

In many African countries, a Western entrepreneur might hand over money to a fixer or middleman, who would then pass it on to a political leader in exchange for support for a business venture. In Nigeria, Vasset explains, Chagoury was just such a figure in the mid-1990s, when Abacha ruled the country and held the key to much of the country's oil wealth.

Today, Chagoury is a diplomat representing the tiny island nation of St. Lucia. He is also a friend of former President Bill Clinton and a generous philanthropist, who, since the Abacha years, has used his money to establish respectability. He appeared near the top of the Clinton Foundation donor list in 2008 as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. (His name made the list again in 2009.)

Chagoury's contribution to the Louvre in Paris some years back was large enough for the museum to name a gallery for him and his wife. In recent years, he has put up $10 million for the construction of medical and nursing schools in Lebanon, his parents' country of origin, that also bear the Chagoury name.

Unlike his friend, the former president, Chagoury conducts his affairs largely out of public view. He rarely talks to reporters.

But on a cool day in late 2008, I headed up a gently winding road in Beverly Hills, where Chagoury's Moorish-style villa sprawls across the top of a steep canyon. The home once belonged to entertainer Danny Thomas, and Richard Nixon, Raquel Welch, and Michael Caine have all lived in the neighborhood.

After a written request for an interview and many follow-up phone calls, Chagoury invited me to meet him. "We'll see if we can get along," he said. Chagoury's home is packed with art, antiques, and crystal chandeliers, and offers a staggering view across West Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean.

As I'm taking it all in, Chagoury climbs a thickly carpeted, winding staircase to the living room to greet me. He's a stout man, dressed in a navy blue sport coat with buttons that strain against a barrel chest. His fingernails are buffed and manicured, and he has a full head of salt-and-pepper hair.

Almost immediately, he has a proposal: Do your story, but don't sell your work to a media outlet. "Do it for me," he says, offering me access and contacts -- even the chance to write a book. In exchange, I would get cash, and he would get full control of the product. I politely turn him down, but he brings up the offer several times during the interview.

As we talk, I learn that much of what Chagoury says about himself is so out of sync with the public record and what others have told me -- even those who are friendly toward him -- that it seems he's not just in the market for positive spin, but for all-out reinvention.
When I bring up his days in Nigeria, he tells me that he detests his reputation as Abacha's middleman. "I am not in that business," he says. Rather, he has worked hard since he was a teenager, building a conglomerate called The Chagoury Group, which employs 20,000 people in Nigeria in construction, real estate development, telecommunications, and other sectors.

"I am an industrialist," he says in lightly accented, near-perfect English. "I spend a lot of time with my family. I don't have time to do all that people say I do."

"I have never bribed anyone," he says, looking me straight in the eye. "I have never had to make a crooked deal." He is absolutely sure of himself, even though he has offered me a bribe of sorts just minutes earlier.

As for Ribadu, the Nigerian investigator who says his officers nearly made that 2004 arrest on corruption charges, Chagoury says, "He's not such hot stuff." He tells me that Ribadu -- who until 2007 headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, an agency similar to the FBI -- was an attack-dog set against the enemies of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who appointed him.

Ribadu was pushed out of his job after Obasanjo left office, and says he was given the freedom to act independently during his tenure and was ousted because of his zealous prosecution of high-level officials.

Chagoury, who turns 64 this month, was born in Lagos and is the eldest of eight children. He has dual citizenship in Lebanon and the United Kingdom because of his parents' heritage and because he was born in Nigeria while it was still under British rule.

His father came to West Africa in the 1930s from the northern Lebanese town of Miziara. The elder Chagoury followed what was by then a well-worn migrant trail to Nigeria, where he traded in textiles and helped his brother in a small trucking operation.

Chagoury is part of the Lebanese diaspora, which is by some estimates several times larger than the population of Lebanon, and includes such influential members as Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, the world's third richest man, Columbian entertainer Shakira, and American activist Ralph Nader.

Like their Palestinian and Jewish neighbors, the Lebanese have scattered about the world, and Chagoury seems equally at home in Lagos or Beverly Hills. He has also maintained close ties to his parents' home town of Miziara.

Today, Miziara survives -- and even thrives -- because of Chagoury and his brothers, says Gilbert Aoun, who was Lebanon's ambassador to Nigeria during Abacha's rule. Still, nine months of the year, the mountainous settlement of some 15,000 is a ghost town, Aoun says, because most Miziarans old enough to work are employed by the Chagourys in Nigeria.

Chagoury didn't grow up rich, but he says that he always wanted the security and prestige that money brings. He went into business with his father-in-law, and later with his brother. The family established several flour mills in Benin and Nigeria, a construction company in Nigeria, and a club in Lagos.

An Indispensable Adviser
Chagoury says he met Abacha by chance on a flight to the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt, when the future dictator was a young officer. The two struck up a friendship, and when Abacha seized power in a 1993 coup, Chagoury became the general's indispensable adviser.

General Abacha was an eccentric man and a brutal leader, who consolidated his power by declaring martial law and jailing political rivals. He kept a menagerie of exotic animals and rarely removed his sunglasses. The regime drew worldwide condemnation in 1995, when activist playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other men who had campaigned against the environmental degradation of the oil-rich Niger Delta were executed for what most observers say were trumped-up murder charges.

From his earliest days in power, Abacha set the tone for an administration that would become the most corrupt in Nigeria's history. Today, more than a decade after the dictator's death, investigators from Washington DC to the Nigerian capital of Abuja are still unraveling the web of shady dealings around Abacha's rule.

Within months of taking office in 1993, Abacha began to divert money from Nigeria's central bank to the overseas bank accounts of his family members and associates, including Chagoury's. A lawsuit brought by the Nigerian government against Abacha's heirs and associates in the United Kingdom shows that the dictator fraudulently ordered the bank transfers for national security purposes.

By the time of Abacha's death in 1998, those so-called security payments would total $2 billion, but they would represent less than half the funds that money-laundering investigators around the world estimate that Abacha and his associates stole from their country.
However, Abacha found other ways to pad his bank accounts. A $180 million bribery scheme -- the largest ever discovered as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation -- was hatched the first year Abacha was in office.

Halliburton's Nigerian Bribes
The scheme began in the early 1990s, when Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), at the time a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation, led a joint venture that bid for a $6 billion contract to build a sprawling liquefied natural gas facility in the Niger Delta.

The group won the bid, but not before Abacha had agreed to accept a $40 million bribe that he would share with other Nigerian officials, according to Department of Justice court papers. It was the first installment of $180 million in bribes that KBR would pay, not only to officials of the Abacha regime, but to officials of the two heads of state who succeeded him.

A few months before I interviewed Chagoury, former KBR CEO Jack Stanley had pleaded guilty in a Texas courtroom to charges related to organizing the bribery scheme that went on for a decade in Nigeria, and to taking millions in kickbacks for himself. Since then, two more KBR contractors have been indicted, and Halliburton entered a guilty plea and paid the government a record fine of more than $500 million.
Chagoury denies any involvement in the bribery case, but his name surfaces in notes taken by one of the indictees, Chodan, who kept detailed records of so-called cultural meetings, where bribes were discussed.

One entry reads, "$250 , to IPCO via Chagoury."
When I ask Chagoury about these records, he doesn't dispute that the note refers to a sum of $250 million, but he argues that it refers to a contract, which, he says, was legitimately awarded to one of his companies, IPCO Nigeria Limited, for construction related to the liquefied natural gas plant.

Chagoury has not been named by the Department of Justice or charged with any crime related to the KBR affair.

His work as an intermediary for Abacha went beyond business affairs. He was also deeply involved in diplomacy, even though he held no official government post. In the mid-1990s, when Nigeria came under increasing pressure from Washington to hold elections, Chagoury gained access to high-level U.S. emissaries like Jesse Jackson and Bill Richardson as well as to a number of senior State Department officials, according to Donald McHenry, a former American ambassador to the United Nations, who worked in U.S.-Nigeria diplomacy at the time.

The Clinton Connections
Chagoury, along with his wife and three of his children, were guests at a the Clinton's White House holiday dinner shortly after Chagoury gave nearly half a million dollars to a voter registration committee, Vote Now '96, according to a report in The Washington Post. (Chagoury would have been barred from donating directly to the Clinton campaign because he is not a U.S. citizen.) Since then, Chagoury and Clinton have traveled together and seen each other socially.

"Every one knows I'm friends with the Clintons," Chagoury says.

As Abacha's health began to fail in the late 1990s, Chagoury made major efforts to prop up the dictator. A State Department memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, entitled "The Health Watch on the Head of State Continues," shows that Chagoury appeared to have brought medical specialists and sophisticated medical equipment to the presidential residence in Abuja, while publicly downplaying the seriousness of Abacha's condition.

When Abacha died in June 1998, a second State Department memo notes that Chagoury placed an in-flight call from his private plane to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to report that he was in touch with Nigeria's Provisional Ruling Council, which would be meeting later that day to discuss a successor to Abacha. In the phone call, Chagoury asked what governmental structure would be acceptable to U.S. officials, according to the memo.

Immediately after Abacha's death, Ribadu, then a young police investigator, says he began looking into the dictator's financial affairs. "It wasn't uncommon for Nigerian leaders to put money elsewhere," Ribadu says. "But the magnitude was beyond anybody's comprehension."
The money -- estimated at more than $4 billion -- was stashed in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and the Isle of Jersey in the names of dozens of individuals and companies. Ribadu argues that it was Chagoury who vouched for Abacha's sons at banks where the source of their assets might otherwise have been questioned.

Indeed, Chagoury's Swiss attorney, Luc Argand, told me that his client served as a reference for Abacha's sons at Credit Suisse. The Nigerian government eventually requested help from law enforcement around the world in tracking the stolen assets. In 2000, Chagoury was convicted in Geneva, Switzerland, of laundering money and aiding a criminal organization in connection with the billions of dollars stolen from Nigeria during the Abacha years.

Argand has insisted that Chagoury used the money for diplomatic missions on behalf of Abacha. Asked if he had records to substantiate that claim, Argand said he couldn't produce any. He also conceded that the money was "stolen by Abacha, and had to be returned."
However, Argand says that Chagoury had already decided on his own to return it. In the end, he says, his client agreed to a plea deal: Chagoury would pay a fine of a million Swiss francs and hand over $66 million to the Nigerian government. Swiss authorities promised to expunge the conviction after two years, which they have done.

In 1999, Chagoury won immunity from prosecution in a separate looted-assets case in Nigeria by agreeing to return money that he held in Swiss bank accounts. The precise amount that Chagoury returned is unclear.

Meanwhile, the hunt for Nigeria's stolen treasure continues. A panel appointed by Nigeria's current president, Umaru Yar'Adua, is currently investigating which Nigerian officials took bribes in the Halliburton case and has reportedly requested U.S. Department of Justice cooperation in the probe. However, some Nigeria watchers, including Ribadu, doubt the seriousness of the inquiry.

While the Nigerian government struggles to recoup the losses it suffered under Abacha, Chagoury has prospered and continued to win acceptance from influential people around the world.

Last year, he was knighted by the Catholic Church and inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honor bestowed upon those who serve the church, including many who are big donors to the institution. Bob Hope, Ricardo Montalban, and Rupert Murdoch are among past recipients.
The Clinton Foundation did not respond to emailed questions and repeated phone calls about the nature of Bill and Hillary Clinton's relationship with Chagoury. Former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe, who, according to The Washington Post, was a sponsor of Chagoury's invitation to the White House in 1996, also failed to return phone calls. A spokesman for former Clinton political advisor James Carville, also a Chagoury acquaintance, said that Carville could not comment on the relationship.

And Chagoury hasn't stopped earning his fortune. Knowledgeable sources say that Chagoury controls South Atlantic Petroleum, a company that was awarded a choice oil exploration license before Abacha's death. Three years ago, the company sold a portion of its government-granted concession to the Chinese oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, for $2.7 billion.

In our interview, Chagoury didn't deny that he profited from the deal, but he said rumors that former President Clinton helped make the deal happen were untrue.

Chagoury is unfazed by the crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department on foreign bribery, exemplified by the Halliburton case, and waves off the recent spate of prosecutions like an elder statesman: "You have lobbyists; we have agents," he says.

"You are never going to stop corruption," because it's favoritism, and that's human nature, which laws won't change, he tells me.
It's no wonder he is so confident. He is now free to come and go in Nigeria, while his nemesis, corruption hunter Nuhu Ribadu, left the country last year, he says, after an attempt on his life.

Robin Urevich is a reporter in Monterey County, California. Her work has appeared on NPR, Marketplace, NPR affiliates KQED and KPCC, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Las Vegas Sun. She is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley School of Journalism.

This story was originally published by PBS Frontline.
http://saharareporters.com/real-news/hot-topic/5893-chasing-the-ghosts-of-the-corrupt-abacha-regime-gilbert-chagoury-clinton-donor-and-diplomat-with-a-checkered-past.html

Shocking stuff - see "http://www.pointblanknews.com/os2887.html" for pictures

Date Published: 02/15/10

How Ohakim brutalized citizen Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha


The despicable act of insult, abuse, let down and desecration of the office of the governor of Imo State by Chief Ikedi Godson Ohakim (The State governor) started on the 7 th of January 2010.

On this day, this writer (Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha) had distributed a document in the internet and media houses through e-mails. I entitled the document “OPERATION RESCUE IMO FROM BONDAGE”. In that document I reeled out 100 (one hundred) reasons why Imo people should reject the Ohakim evilcractic, jezebelic and fraud-infested leadership.

On the 9 th of January 2010 this writer (Mr. Ikenna samuelson Iwuoha) wrote a letter to the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly. In that letter I urged the Speaker to set up a special probe panel that would invite me to come and prove my allegations of fraud and criminalities against chief Ikedi Ohakim. I also copied over 54,000 people through the internet.

Few days later I followed my desire to expose the criminal activities of Governor Ikedi Ohakim by posting an article in the internet, media organizations and to prominent Nigerians. I entitled that articles “STOP CHASING THE WIND: LET US FOLLOW PRECEDENCE”.

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On the 18 th of January 2010 I sent a reminder letter to the speaker of Imo State House of Assembly still urging him to set up a probe panel that would invite me to prove that Chief Ikedi ohakim is a monumental criminal. On the 19 th of January 2010 I posted another article in the internet entitled “WILL FRAUDSTERS AND MONEY LAUNDERERS CONTEST ELECTIONS IN IMO STATE? PART ONE”.

On that same 19 th of January 2010 by 3:34pm, the Commissioner of Police in Imo State (Mr. Aloysius Okorie) called my telephone number requesting that I should come and see him for “brief” discussion. So I agreed with the Police Commissioner that I would come and see him on Friday 22 nd of January 2010 by 9:00am. The following day being 20 th of January 2010 by 5:30pm I personally called the police boss to reconfirm my appointment with him on Friday 22 nd January 2010. I was therefore dumbfounded and flabbergasted the following morning Thursday, 21 st January 2010 by 6:31am when I heard a knock at my personal apartment (Plot 98 Ikenegbu Layout Extension Owerri). When I drew my curtain, behold I saw five heavily armed men. The men told me that the Police boss asked them to bring me along with them. I quickly objected telling them that my appointment with the Police Commissioner was on Friday 22 nd of January 2010. The armed men pulled their guns at me telling me to open my iron protector. I told them off by saying “Taaa”. I picked my phone and called the Police Commissioner by 6:34am. I asked Police Commissioner Aloysius Okorie when my appointment with him was to the hearing of those heavily armed men. The Police Commissioner said “tomorrow Friday by 9:00am”. He went further to add “I thought we had agreed on Friday 22nd January 2010”. Why this sudden call. I now told CP Aloysius Okorie that before me were five heavily armed men saying that he asked them to bring me to his office. The police Commissioner responded by saying “Em, Em, Em, Ok, Ok follow them”. I then told the police Commissioner that I would follow them but should anything happen to me that I would hold him responsible. I also told him that those armed men would remain outside while I dressed up. I also told the police boss that I would inform my people all over Nigeria of the development. The Police Commissioner then pleaded with me to hand over my phone to those men so that he would talk to them. I responded by telling him that I was not a “mugu”.

So I made calls to my people nationwide informing them of the development. After that, I instructed my wife (Chioma) to get me water for bathing which she did. I took my bath and dressed up. Of course I left my phone in my house. I knew that Ikedi Ohakim was the person looking for me based on Police Commissioner’s “Em, Em, Em, Ok, Ok, follow them”. My 5 1/2yrs (Five and half) old son Nwachinemerem was in the palour, so I told him, “Ogbuefi let me go and see that foolish man”. The little boy nodded his head. I then asked him “who is that foolish man?” my son responded “Dr Ikedi Ohakim”. The armed men were shocked. So I opened my iron protector and followed them. When we came outside my compound I saw a PRADO JEEP with registration number Imo 849 NKR, I told those men that I know the jeep to be among the Governors convoy. So I entered the car and we drove off. When we got to government house owerri by 7:04am, the driver of the jeep diverted to the multi-purpose hall where he packed. So the leader of the team that picked me up made a call to “somebody” informing him that I was with them at the multi-purpose hall premises. On three different occasions those armed men asked me about my phone of which I responded that I was with it.


By 9:00am, a call came to those armed men that Chief Ikedi Ohakim was in his Office. By 9:03am the Chief security Officer to the Governor walked to where we were packed. The driver of the jeep came down while Chief security officer entered the jeep. He turned back and asked “ My friend, who are you?” I responded “I am Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha”. The CSO nodded his head and drove off and entered the Governor’s lodge and packed. I came down and I was marched straight to Ohakim’s Office. When I entered the governor’s Office, I saw Ikedi Ohakim. He quickly shouted “lock the door, lock the door”. The door was locked leaving me only with Ohakim and his CSO in the office. The CSO pulled his gun at me. Ikedi Ohakim on his own shouted at me to pull off my clothes completely. At that point I knew that I was in danger, so I played along. As I was removing my clothes, Ohakim stood up from the Office chair and came to me and forcefully removed my clothes. Another young man of about 33yrs wearing an ash coloured suit came into the governor’s office to assist Ikedi Ohakim to completely remove my clothes. I became completely naked before Ikedi Ohakim in the office of the Governor. The young man then left the Governor Office. The CSO was still pointing a gun at me. Then Ikedi Ohakim gave me a blow on my mouth, he gave me a head butt. He hit me with his hands and legs severally. Then Ohakim went to his office table and brought a “koboko” (horse whip). He started to flog me all over my body. After he ordered me to lie down on the rug in the office and I obeyed. Ikedi Ohakim flogged, flogged and flogged me ruthlessly, heartlessly and without mercy. He kicked me severally without mercy. He kicked me severally with his shoes. He also marched me with his shoes. The pains was much. I cried, cried and called on Almighty God to come to my rescue. Ikedi Ohakim personally brutalized me right inside his office. I must have received well over 120 strokes of koboko. My blood completely stained the rug in the governor’s office. I was in pains. I saw hell with my two eyes, Almighty God did not allow me to die. Ikedi Ohakim continued to flog me. His brother Emma Ohakim walked in and said “Chinekee, His Excellency, His Excellency”. Ikedi Ohakim said to his brother “Emma, this is Ikenna Samuelson I will kill him today”. Emma simply left the Office. The CSO also continued to point his gun at me. When the pains became unbearable, I decided to take a risk. I boldly grabbed Ikedi ohakim legs. I shouted at him as follows, “What you are doing to me in this office is wrong”. “You are abusing the office of the Governor” “you are desecrating the office of the Governor of Imo State”. “Moreover my wife is from your place Mbano, conversely you are my children’s Nnaochie”. This was the miracle that saved me from Ikedi Ohakim’s brutality. He stopped beating and flogging me. He then shifted a chair and sat down with the koboko still in his hands. I was seriously in pains. Then Ikedi Ohakim started to shout “Samuelson you have disgraced me in this country. You have finished me. I will kill you and nothing would happen. I will prove to you that I am not an ordinary Governor. I know those sponsoring you. But you must mention their names to me with your mouth”. Then flogging started again. Ohakim flogged and flogged me that I became helpless. So I begged him to leave me alone. But Ohakim said he would leave me alone on his conditions. He brought out a copy of NATIONAL DAILY Newspaper of 1 – 7 December 2009 edition with the caption “HOW OHAKIM LOOTS IMO STATE. Then Ikedi Ohakim said to me “Samuelson, look at how you disgraced the Governor of Imo State”. “Your own Governor”. “You have finished me in this country”. “I no longer have respect in this State.” “What have I done to you?” “They sent you to come and monitor all my activities”. “Why must you team up with my enemies against me”.

Then Ohakim brought out another document entitled “HOW OHAKIM LOOTS IMO STATE PART TWO”. HE SHOWED IT TO ME AND SAID, “SAMUELSON, WHO WROTE THIS PETITION AGAINST ME TO THE Office of the Inspector General of Police”? He then ordered me to read the contents of that petition to the Office of Inspector general of Police. I refused so he started to flog me again. I pleaded with him to leave me alone. Then Ohakim said “Samuelson you must cooperate with me”. “I want to call a press conference where you will come and denounce those allegations against me. Once you do that, I will give you anything you want. Ohakim continued “last Christmas I gave scholarship to 60 people in my home town OKOHIA, so I can give you anything. “Just do me a favour”. Then the CSO still pointing a gun at me said “just cooperate with his Excellency”. Ikedi Ohakim continued his sermon by saying “Samuelson, where is your laptop, your numerous e-mail addresses, their passwords, flash drive and documents. I did not respond but continued to look at the man who says he is the Governor of Imo State. We stared at each other for about 15 seconds. Then the next thing I saw was tears flowing from Ikedi Ohakim’s eyes. At this point I was moved but I stood my ground because I know Ohakim and his antics too well.

The CSO then told the Governor that Commissioner of Police and another person was coming. Ikedi Ohakim then told me to put on my boxers only. I was in pains but I managed to put on my boxers and sat on the rug. The Commissioner of Police Aloysius okorie walked into the Governors Office with a woman I later discovered to be the State Director of SSS.

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Immediately they walked in, Ohakim stood up and said “CP Aloysius Okorie, Samuelson has confessed”. I was shocked at Ohakim’s statement to Commissioner of Police. Ikedi Ohakim then started shouting and saying all sorts of things. At a point Ohakim said “it is Willie Amadi that caused their problem for me, Owu kwa willie Amadi ooo”. “He destroyed your kerosene business at Douglas road and you now turned around to focus on me.” I smiled in my mind because I never had my kerosene business at Douglas road. I had my kerosene businesses at Prefab, Aladinma, Ikenegbu Layout and inside the market. Thereafter, Ohakim said before the Commissioner of Police and the State Director of SSS “Samuelson just cooperate with me and I will restore your business. I can do anything for you”. The Commissioner of Police Aloysius Okorie then told me “Ikenna look at your Governor and cooperate with him”. The state director of SSS said to me “My son why don’t you cooperate with his Excellency”. I did not say anything. At a point I turned to the Commissioner of Police and said “Nna-anyi Ukwu Aloysius Okorie, you have put yourself into trouble. I followed those armed men because you asked me to follow them. My people will, hold you responsible if anything happens to me. Just look at my body”. Then the Police boss told Ohakim that I called him when those men came to pick me and that I made calls to people. At that point Ohakim ordered me to wear my clothes which I did painfully. The CSO led me out of the Governor Office. At the corridor I saw the chief press secretary to the Governor Mr Henry Ekpe. I also saw Mr. Chikwem Onuoha, the boy that does money laundering for Ohakim. I also saw four other people whose names I cannot readily re-collect. At this point let me say that Mr. Henry Ekpe pitied me. He saw my condition. When I was to enter the PRADO jeep (Imo 849 NKR), I staggered, Mr. Henry Ekpe said “jide nu ya aka ka ohara ida” meaning hold him properly so he does not fall. The CSO drove off to another section of Government House. At that section I sat on the veranda while the CSO pulled his gun at me and demanded for my laptop, my email addresses, passwords etc. I did not respond but just stared at him. He continued to demand for those things. Then I said to him “please leave me alone I am tired. “Tell your Governor that I would like to see him one on one”. The CSO left and drove off. The security men there came to me and said “Ndo nnu” meaning “sorry you hear”. They now brought water and poured on my head. They also used water top soothe my back. Honestly I was in severe pains. The CSO drove in and saw what they were to me and shouted “what are you people doing”. He ordered them to put me in the car. The CSO and three other people in the car drove me straight to the Commissioner of Police Office. The CSO then handed me over to the Police boss and left. The Commissioner of Police and the State Director of SSS were in the Office when CSO handed me over to the Commissioner of Police.

The Commissioner of Police asked me to sit down which I did. I said to the police boss “you have put yourself into trouble. I followed those men because you asked me to follow them. Look at my body” The Commissioner of Police with his own mouth and in the presence of the woman who is the State Director of SSS said “Ikenna when you were led out of the Governor’s Office I told His Excellency that he did wrong by personally beating you up”. I then told the police boss to be ready to repeat what he just said when the time comes, because I would fight to the end. I added “As for that foolish Ikedi Ohakim I will deal with him”. The police boss said to me “Ikenna, look at what you are saying in my Office”. “Just cooperate with His Excellency and everything will be ok. The woman who is the State Director of SSS then showed me that petition I wrote to the Inspector general of Police and said “Did you actually write this petition?. I looked at her and said “I signed it with my name, my address is there, my phone number is there, I attached my passport. Therefore I take full responsibility of that petition. Ikedi Ohakim is a criminal”. Both the Commissioner of Police and the woman just looked at me and said simultaneously Na – Wao.

Then the woman said to me “My son you are very intelligent. I want to investigate the governor myself. So hand over the documents to me so that I can do proper investigation”. I just looked at her and did not say anything. After a while the police Commissioner then sent for a senior Police officer who now took me to his office. When I told the man how Ohakim beat me up in his office. The man was shocked. He left me in his office with another police officer looking after me. He later came back and handed me over to another officer who wanted to interrogate me but I told him that I can only respond if my lawyers were around.

I was thereafter locked up at the CIB police cell containing 48 people.

The next day I was brought out to get ready for court. I wrote my statement narrating what happened from my house to the time the Governor personally beat me up. In that statement I owned up to be the writer of that petition against the Governor to the Inspector general of Police. And my readiness to prove all my allegation against the Governor. Suddenly the police said that they won’t take me to court again. That it will be Monday 25 th of January 2010. I was then locked up again. On Monday 25/1/2010 I was taken to court where a three court charge was read against me. Of course I pleaded not guilty. I was refused bail and was therefore reminded in prison custody till 2/2/2010.

When I appeared in court on 2/2/2010 six new court charges were added to the earlier three. So hey have a nine court charges against me. I was later granted bail to the sum of N500,000. The next hearing is on the 19 th of February 2010. I am 100% sure that the koboko which Ikedi used to flog me was poisoned. I say this because I am seriously in pains and receiving treatment in a private hospital. Nonetheless I make bold to say that the lion is back.

At this point and juncture let me state it very clearly that this debilitating monster called Ikedi Ohakim has done his worst. I will go to any length to take my own pound of flesh raised to the power 1000. I must prove my allegations against him. I will unearth everything about Ikedi Ohakim and his fraud infested leadership. In short I will jail him. At least he knows that I have the ability.

The battle is now full blown. Ikedi Ohakim has given me the bullet to shoot him. Ikedi Ohakim is now in my firing range.

By

Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha
From http://www.pointblanknews.com/os2887.html

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Facilitator – SLAP Initiative

07032934037

Plot 98 Ikenegbu layout extension Owerri – Imo State

5 th February 2010

Copies forwarded to over 60,000 emails

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201001091403943

At 29, I’m still searching for my Canadian father
By SEBASTINE EBHUOMAN, Published: Saturday, 9 Jan 2010


Mark Goodway Davidson is a 29-year-old man in search of his father. In this interview with SEBASTINE EBHUOMAN, he reveals why he does not know his father and the difficulties he had growing up under the care of a single mother.

What is your name?

My name is Mark Goodway Davidson.

What is your state of origin?

I am a native of Umukwata town in Ukwuani Local Government Area, Delta State.

How old are you?

I am 29 years old. I was born in Lagos on the 20th April 1980.

Where did you spend your childhood?

I grew up partly in Lagos State and partly in Delta State where I later lived with my grandmother and other members of my maternal family. In Lagos, I grew up in Itire, Surulere Local Government Area, where my mother was living with us.

How many siblings do you have?

At present, I am the youngest of three children, which survived out of the five that my mother gave birth to. Also, I am the only male child, the other two are female and already married. But the issue there is that the other two are fathered by someone else, for which reason the colour of my skin and my looks generally are also different from those of the others.

What is the name of your father?

My father’s name is Mr. Paul A. Davidson, a citizen of Canada who was then working in Nigeria as an engineer with Mobil.

Do you have a picture of your father?

No. It was actually one of the mistakes my mother said she made–not remembering to take a picture of my father with her before he left the country.

What is your mother’s name?

My mother’s name is Mrs. Clara Obi, a businesswoman who was then dealing in itinerant goods. She hailed from Umukwata in Delta State. But she is late. When I was growing up, I had no doubt that she was my mother.

At what age did you discover that you had no father around you or that there was really nobody you could call your father?

That was actually when I was six years old or thereabout. As a young boy, I used to play with other children, male and female. I used to see them with their fathers and mothers, but when I look around, I only saw my mother. So, I had to ask my mother, “Mum, where is my Daddy?” Each time I ask her the question, her response was not positive. She would just start shedding tears. That prompted me to ask her why she cried each time I asked about my father. She later told me the whole truth.

What did she tell you?

She told me that she met my father in Lagos as a mere friend in 1973. According to her, they dated for some time. About the time that she became pregnant was also the time that he left the country. Then I asked where he was working, and she told me he was working with Mobil as an engineer, and that he served here after he was transferred to Nigeria from the company’s headquarters. At that time, the Nigerian headquarters of Mobil was in Lagos, called Bookshop House.

Was there anytime he was moved from Lagos to another part of Nigeria?

No. He worked for Mobil in Lagos until he possibly retired from the job. After his retirement, he took up a two-year contract with the same company. He was then living in Ikoyi, Lagos. At the end of the two-year contract, he prepared to move his belongings out of the country, promising to inform her about his whereabouts once he had settled down. It was based on this promise that my mother lost contact with him after he left the country. That was the promise he gave my mother before he left. And since he left, my mother had no information from him till she died.

So, could one safely conclude that as at the time your father was leaving Nigeria, your mother was not aware she was pregnant for him?

When I asked my mother, she said that she was not fully aware that she was pregnant as at that time. But that when she became aware, she tried pass the information across to him, even as it was not possible for her to change the situation again.

So, how has growing up without a father been for you?

Well, really, it was not easy. My mother was not wicked even though she was the only one around. She was the one that took care of my education in Lagos. When I finished secondary school in Lagos, we made efforts to locate my father. At a time, we went to the former headquarters of Mobil, then situated at Bookshop House, to make enquiries. Our search was not fruitful, based on the company’s unfriendly disposition to helping us with information and the people’s inability to offer relevant information. Only one old employee admitted that he had an idea of who the man was and how he resigned from the company. Mobil did not offer any help even though we believed the company had adequate record to respond to our enquiries.

When did your mother die?

My mother died on the 4th of November, 1997. After her death, I went to live with her relatives in Delta State before I relocated to Benin, Edo State, where I presently work in a private hospital.

What is your relationship with them now?

My relationship with them is very cordial. The family cared for me when she died. It was from there that I was able to ‘manage’ myself and reach where I am now. Although everybody may seem to be on his own now, no thanks to the tough economic environment, they have done their best.

Would you really say they accepted you as a child of the family even without knowing your father?

I would say yes. They have accepted me, but not fully. Not fully in the sense that yes, this is the child of our mother but not the son of our family. In this case, the acceptance is partial.

Which schools did you attend?

I attended Aje Primary School at 1, Onitolo Road, Surulere and Ansarudeen Secondary School at Randle Avenue also in Surulere. I could not further my education beyond secondary school because there was nobody to finance my education after the death of my mother. After her death, I thought I could work to earn a living and raise money for my education, but that has been a bit diificult.

Can you recall any particular situation or circumstance you were affected by the absence of your father?

To answer this question, I remember what a psychologist once said in a book I read; that a child that grows up without any of the parents is usually not vibrant academically. This has been the case with me. When I read that book, I was touched. One, the child is prompted when he sees his father. So, this has affected me in so many ways. Emotionally, I am affected when people recall my background as a boy or man who does not have a father. This is an emotional feeling that has prompted me to find out who my biological father is, meet him, know his family and trace my historical background. Although he did not care for me, at least, I would be able to testify that I have a father, this is where my family is, and this is where I came from.

Since it is clear to you that your father was an employee of Mobil Nigeria, what do you think the company can do to help your search?

The first thing is that Mobil is a multinational company with an information department that should have information about my father. As someone who worked and retired in the company, it should have his last known address and status, an information that should help in the search for him.

Before your mother died in 1997, was she married to any other man?

No. She was not married. I am the only surviving male child and the last born as well. She had given births before she gave birth to me. So, I had half brothers and sisters. But the brothers are all dead now and I am left with the two half sisters who are now married. My relationship with them is very okay. They advised me to make efforts to locate my father.

Are you married?

No. I am still single. The issue of marriage requires carefully searching for a capable mate. As you have seen already, I am coming from a long background. So, I need to search for a mate that would be a source of support to me. I am still searching for a woman that would accept me for who I am. I am patient enough to search and find that woman. It has nothing to do with poverty. Anybody going into a marriage should be ready to cope with the situation of the marriage.

What is your religion?

I am a Christian. I am a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. My understanding of God is that of the creator. I am privileged to know even as He has been my sole comforter. That is why I am able to cope with this kind of situation.

If you find a woman you would like to marry today and she insists on meeting your father, what would you tell her?

Well, I will tell her my mother’s family is the family I know. I will be sincere to her. If she does not accept my sincerity, I will let her go. Life goes on. It is no longer a big deal to me, because it is an issue I have been coping with.

Have you made any effort to go to Canada to search for your father?

Well, I made an effort before by going to the High Commission to complain. Then I could not follow up the issue from Lagos to Abuja. However, I have been hoping since then. At present, I am just trying to make ends meet even if I would have loved to go to the country to search for my father.

Finally, do believe you would meet your father someday? And if you do, what would you tell him?

Yes, I have that belief. But I am also aware that human beings face different circumstances in the world. So, I do not know what circumstance he may be facing if he is still alive. Again, maybe he was not aware of the situation, because if my mother had not put herself in this situation, I would not have been in it as well. Although my mother often regretted the situation when she was alive. If I see him today, of course, I would welcome him and let him know that it is a privilege for me to know him. It does not go well to bring the past into the present situation. It is just like the parable of Jesus about the prodigal son. The father did not bring the past into the return of his son. Rather, he welcomed the son. I will still welcome him as my father, whatever he is.

I am perplexed! Why isn’t this shocking story on the front page of ALL Nigerian newspapers? WHY?

http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/news/headlines/8394-four-kids-kidnapped-from-school-murdered

Four Kids Kidnapped From School Murdered
Written by By Chika Otuchikere and Michael Oche, Abuja
Sunday, 15 November 2009 02:07

Four children who were allegedly kidnapped from their school premises were reportedly found dead the day after they were abducted.

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt that the children's corpses were discovered in a bush with their heads cut off. The incident was said to have occurred last Wednesday when a vehicle which eye witnesses said had three occupants parked directly opposite the gate of a school located somewhere in Suleja, Niger State. They were neither apprehended nor queried while they waited for several hours, the witnesses said. LEADERSHB SUNDAY gathered that the suspected kidnappers, who were also suspected to be ritualists, had in a brisk manner, whisked four children who were just strolling out of the school's gate, bundle them into their vehicle and zoomed off to an unknown destination. The school authorities, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY further learnt, immediately raised an alarm on receiving the news of the abduction. They were said to have contacted the police who were said to have swung into action to rescue the children. They were also said to have contacted the parents of the kidnapped children and the traditional ruler of the town. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY was told that as soon as information about the abduction went out, a search party commenced to trace the kidnappers. Every attempt by both the police and the school authorities failed to yield any result. It was learnt that the bodies of the four children were discovered the next day in a nearby bush with their heads severed from their bodies. The incident caused pandemonium in Suleja and other parts, including the Federal Capital Territory. Parents who heard of the ugly incident are now reportedly afraid to send their children to school while the authorities in the areas have adopted measures to ensure the safety of their pupils The principal of a school in Abuja who heard of the incident, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY how they have decided to make sure that the school gate was locked and pupils not allowed to leave the premises until after school hours. According to her, the story of the kidnap of the pupils sent fear into every teacher in her school and so they resolved not to take any chances. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY’s investigation reveals that before this incident, fear had reigned in Suleja following a notice which was pasted in strategic locations warning the residents to beware of people who claimed to be in search of human heads. Another poster was said to have merely passed information that they were looking for a certain number of human heads. When contacted, the information officer of the Suleja Local Government Area Jubril Bisala, said he had heard about cases of missing children in Suleja and had also heard about the posters calling for human heads but pointed that they were all rumours. He described the stories as an attempt to create panic in the town The police at the B divisional police headquarters, Suleja, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue saying that they were not permitted to speak to the press. However, one officer who spoke under condition of anonymity said they had heard about the kidnap and other similar incidents but were still looking into them. He also confirmed the posters which he said had cause panic in the town.