Roforofo latest: Obasanjo’s $1billion Dollars In London Bank?
- Post 15 September 2006
- Last Updated on 23 April 2008
- By Various reports
Bombshell: Obasanjo’s $1billion Dollars In London Bank! As the messy fight between President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Abaubakar Atiku get messier, more revelationa of financial impropriety are beginning to surface. The Times of Nigeria can reveal exclusively that President Olusegun Obasanjo has over the years wired close to $1billion dollars to foreign accounts through his girlfriend, Lamide Adegbenro and other associates. The Times of Nigeria is currently in possession of a “Payment Credit Advice” document from a British bank, “NatWest Bank PLC” advising one Ms. Lamide Adegbenro of 15 Teresa close Nottinghill, Londo W2 4DA that the sum of $110,000 United States dollars has been wired into her account from Habib Bank Nigeria Limited on 474 Langtang Close, area 3, Garki Abuja.
The total amount of USD 109,987.47 was paid into Ms Lamide Adegbenro’s account number 140-00-08664641 after subtracting the commission fee from the original amount. The payment was authorized by Bodunde Adeyanju, the personal assistant to President Obasanjo who has been in the center of allegations and counter allegations between the President and his Vice over the operation of the MOFAS account.
The transfer, with reference number “031030CHBSES33CXXX164641” was dated October 31st 2004. A commission of $12.53 cents was paid for the transfer.
Our source, who is based in the United Kingdom, has promised to reveal documents detailing deposits of about $1B dollars deposited in United Kingdom by the President through his proxies.
“Over the next few days therefore, I will be releasing a number of documents for Nigerians to read and see the degree of decadence of Mr. President. It is the evidence that will demand a verdict.”
“Based on what is available, I have a rough calculation of about $1billion dollars that have been laundered? There is also Obasanjo’s purported resignation letter which was secured in London just in case the Third term issue goes haywire.”
“We will also talk about Alam, Nigeria and the British intelligence? Who is telling the truth?”
“What about Dariye? Did he not use his diplomatic passport to enter Nigeria?”
"Obasanjo never sanctioned diversion of public funds"
September 14, 2006
Our attention has been drawn to the latest attempt by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation to divert public attention from the serious matter of the Vice President's indictment for diversion of public funds, fraud and abuse of office.
It is most unfortunate indeed that the Vice President and his cronies and rented voices have chosen not to heed the wise counsel of those who have pointed out that making false and baseless allegations against others is no defence for those against whom damning evidence of wrongdoing has been established.
For the records however, President Olusegun Obasanjo has never directed or forced any individual or organisation to make donations to any of the many associations and non-profit making causes which he supports, including the National Mosque and the National Christian Centre in Abuja. Neither has he ever sanctioned the diversion of public funds to any political party.
In the same vein, it cannot possibly be President Obasanjo's responsibility to account for any presents which others voluntarily choose to give his relations, aides or associates."
It is important to note that the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation is wilfully trying to becloud the main issues of his indictment by attempting, in its latest statement, to equate or confuse public funds held by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) with the MOFAS account owned by Otunba Fasawe.
PTDF must also not be confused with the Marine Float Account which is owned and controlled by the Vice President since 1992, and which has received sundry 'donations.'
The fact of the present matter is that while there is glaring evidence of direct payments to the Vice President and his personal assistant from a primary beneficiary of the illegal diversion of PTDF funds, none of the photocopies of cheques maliciously issued to the press yesterday by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation shows any such payment to the President.
The effort should therefore be dismissed as a pitiful attempt to tar the President with the same brush as the Vice President has wilfully and consciously tarred himself.
Remi Oyo
Senior Special Assistant to President Obasanjo
Statement by OHL Trustees Daniel Etsu and Lucky Egede On President Obasanjo and Investment in Transcorp
September 14, 2006
Our attention has been drawn to a raging debate in some of the national newspapers on allegations that President Olusegun Obasanjo invested in Transcorp.
There is no truth in the allegation and we therefore wish to state as follows:
Companies are legal persons distinct from their shareholders and particularly when the shareholders are neither directors nor engaged in the day to day running of the company."
Shortly before the inception of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 1999, a Non-recourse Trust deed was executed by the President in favour of Elder Daniel Atsu and Barrister Lucky Egede. This was in compliance with constitutional requirements and the President's moral and ethical persuasion and on legal advice to disengage from these interests.
By the said Trust, Elder Atsu and Lucky Egede were to run the business and the social service interests of the President at their absolute discretion. This conforms to what is done by all fair minded and honest leaders all over the world.
For the purposes of introduction, Elder Daniel Atsu is an accountant of noble character who has been Managing Director of Obasanjo Holdings Limited since 1995 and an employee of the same organisation since 1985, about 21 years of meritorious service.
Also named in the Trust was Barrister Lucky Egede, a member of the Nigerian Bar since 1987 and has worked with Obasanjo Holdings Limited since 1988.
These gentlemen have over a period of almost two decades earned the President's trust and it is no surprise that upon his election, he appointed the two to manage everything that has to do with his business and social service interests.
It must be remembered that at the roughest of times the Trustees, Messrs Daniel Atsu and Lucky Egede have remained the back bone of all family business and social service interests of the President since 1995.
Opportunity to invest in Transcorp came to the Trustees in the normal course of business like so many other business opportunities. Furthermore, it is well settled in law that Trustees have absolute discretion to invest trust funds as they deem fit. What should be important to the Trustees and indeed all Nigerians, is that such investments are legitimate.
Like all progressive business concerns, we have borrowed and are still borrowing from various banks in the ordinary course of business and we do not believe that a President should conduct winding up proceedings for his businesses before assuming office.
One of the subsidiary companies named in the Non-recourse Trust is Ibad Limited. The company is engaged in the manufacture, distribution and marketing of agricultural equipment and materials and we have supplied and installed agricultural equipment and materials for people in and out of government in the ordinary course of business.
We accept responsibility for all investments of Obasanjo Holdings Limited and its subsidiary companies and state that it is absolutely unfair to associate the person of the President with the running of any business because the Trust gave us absolute powers.
Signed
Mr. Lucky Egede
Obasanjo Holdings Limited (OHL)
Click Next below to review earlier statement from Atiku's camp "Obasanjo, Family and Businesses Benefitted from PTDF Account"
{mospagebreak}Obasanjo, Family and Businesses Benefitted from PTDF Account", Says Atiku Abubakar's Camp
Claims by President Olusegun Obasanjo that he did not personally benefit from the PTDF deposit in Trans International Bank (TIB) as well as from campaign funds in the account of MOFAS shipping line, are not consistent with facts on ground.
Mrs. Oyo in her statement, said yesterday that, and we quote: "Concerning Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju, the Special Assistant to the President who was mentioned as a beneficiary of PTDF fund, Otunba Fasawe or any campaign fund on behalf of the President, we repeat that nothing can be further from the truth." This has necessitated the need for our campaign office to supply the missing facts to the Nigerian public.
The documents available to us, some of which we are attaching to this statement, show that the President, his family, businesses, native community and the PDP of which he has proclaimed himself a life leader, have benefited tremendously from money deposited in the accounts he is now dissociating himself from. The President's Personal Assistant, Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju made over 100 sorties to TIB Abuja (located at Tofa House in the Central Business District) between 1999 and 2004.
The truth of the matter, is that there is a "big linkage" between Chief Obasanjo and Otunba Fasawe contrary to the claims that the President has made. There are cheques worth over N100 millon issued to IBAD Nigeria Limited, a construction company solely owned by Obasanjo from Fasawe's MOFAS TIB accounts. There are also payments Fasawe directly made to the Obasanjo Africa Leadership Forum and to Obasanjo Campaign Organisation. (Please see attached documents).
Documentary evidence also reveals that the President even bought a brand new Peugeot 607 for woman friend, Ms. Lamide Adegbenro, from the MOFAS account. The President also bought a Prado Jeep for Mrs Ajoke Mohammed, wife of the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed.
The vehicles were supplied by R.T. Briscoe in December 2001. The company also supplied two Coaster buses for Obasanjo's Bells Comprehensive High School in Ota at about the same time. (see attached documents).
It is false and malicious to allege that funds from the PTDF deposit were used to fund the private projects of the Vice President. Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, a long time friend of Atiku donated only a building at ABTI Academy in Yola.
The N61m cheque in the name of Atiku Abubakar is a forgery. It was issued in someone else's name which the President's camp erased and then superimposed Atiku's name and re-photocopied. That cheque does not exist either in the bank or EFCC record. When EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu met the Vice President in the course of their investigation, he never showed these particular cheques. Even the EFCC Report that dripped of blood and hatred did not make any such claim. Where did the draft come from?
Instead of Atiku, it is the President who has personally benefited from both the PTDF accounts and campaign money sourced from a ministry under the direct supervision of Mr. President.
The purchase of two Coaster buses valued at N11million for Obasanjo's Bells Comprehensive School, Ota is proof that the President has personally benefited from Fasawe's MOFAS accounts at TIB and from the Marine Float account at Habib Bank. The TIB Abuja branch cheque was issued on December 20, 2001. An additional N1.95 million was also issued to R.T Briscoe on TIB Apapa branch on 7th December 2001.
Also, a TIB Abuja branch cheque of N4 million was issued to Ibogun-Olaogun Development Association on 26 th February 2004. Ibogun-Olaogun is Obasanjo's village. From 1999 until after the elections in 2003, the President through Bodunde Adeyanju collected over N3billion from MOFAS account at TIB Abuja branch.
The MOFAS account is a dedicated account run by Otunba Fasawe which was made available to the Presidency and the party is well aware of movements into and from the account.
Marine Float was a dormant account placed at the disposal of the campaign.
The N500 million Umar Pariya was said to have collected was for campaign activities and for the settling of debts arising from the election expenditures by the party. Cheques drawn on this account and paid to the party, post-2003 election are available and some attached here.
Congressman William Jefferson is not credible. He took $6.5M from a Nigerian businessman and refused to supply equipment. He only managed to refund $1.7M.
Jefferson also lied that he gave the Vice President $100,000 only for the money to be found in his refrigerator by the FBI, as revealed in the affidavit deposited before a judge to obtain a search warrant for his Capitol Hill office.
It is not true that the President decided to probe his deputy after he was tipped off by a Jefferson associate. The President wants to punish the Vice President for frustrating his third agenda. It is an act of vendetta.
The President has always been privy, to all transactions as evidence in the flow of cash from TIB MOFAS account to his family, friends, political party, community and businesses.
The Payments were made to the campaign.
As regards the refund of Dariye donation, Governor Joshua Dariya has confirmed paying N100m from ecological fund to the PDP. In the course of investigating Plateau State Accounts, Nuhu Ribadu stumbled on this payment, he brought it to the attention of the Vice President who was the chairman of the campaign, and the Vice President took it up with the President who accepted that they had no option but to return the money. The President paid N50million and insisted since it was a joint ticket, that the Vice President would have to pay the balance. Anyway, Oyo's new admission that Obasanjo refunded N50m of the Dariye donation contradicts earlier claim by the President and PDP that the donation did not exist.
It is sad and unfortunate that the President would claim to have assisted the Vice President with the money. The Vice President and Otunba Oyewole Fasawe are known to have contributed N200million in 1998 to pay off Obasanjo's debt to banks. Since then, the Vice President has provided various financial assistance to the President.
Concerning Bodunde Adeyanju, the claim that the money he collected could not be more that N5million is also false as shown in the copies of cheques hereby attached. Or did Remi Oyo mean Bodunde collected about N5billion which is more in the region of withdrawals by Bodunde from the MOFAS accounts on behalf of President Obasanjo.
We would like to reaffirm that the so-called EFCC and administrative panel reports are politically motivated. The Atiku probe is motivated by malice and bitterness over the President's life presidency project. The Vice President has no regrets over his principled stand. The Nigerian people know that what is playing out now is the politics of vendetta and small-mindedness.
Finally, we note the fact of Mrs Oyo's uncharitable presentation of the Vice President as a beggarly junior, who is having to be helped out from time to time by an ever generous boss. Let it be said here that the Vice President will remain grateful to the President for whatever favours he had done to him. But it is also important that we don't forget where we are coming from. When the late Alhaji Mahmud Attah raised the pertinent issue of the alleged bankruptcy of the then Chief Obasanjo as an obstacle to his Presidency in 1998, the Vice President in consort with some others did take up the challenge, and with the debt on his neck now paid, threats to the General in his bid for power was starved off.
As Fela Anikulapo Kuti said in one of the songs, if we don't know where we are coming from, we won't know where we are going.
Signed:
Garba Shehu
Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation
Jabi, Abuja
September 13, 2006
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