Mohammed Babangida, polo player and first son of former military president Ibrahim Babangida was arrested earlier today by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from his Abuja hotel suite, sources told Saharareporters.
A source within the EFCC confirmed that his arrest was part continuation of a prolonged probe into the ownership of GLOBACOM, a telecom company owned by Mike Adenuga who was recently arrested by the EFCC.
Mohammed Babangida is alleged to posses 24% ownership in the $1.5 billion company. He had earlier been invited by the EFCC to explain how he came about the wealth used in purchasing the shares and he denied knowledge of such investments. The EFCC source said their investigation finally paid off after Mike Adenuga revealed this to the EFCC during his arrest and interrogation. Mike Adenuga had long been rumored as a front for retired General Babangida, who is unarguably one of Nigeria’s most corrupt past leaders.
When he was arrested, Mike Adenuga who was the largest donor to President Obasanjo's Presidential Library Project last year, was said to be involved in so many shady deals and illegal transfer of funds on behalf of public officials in Nigeria to foreign accounts.
Mohammed, according to our sources also owns oil blocks in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea as well as several buildings in London even though he never held a real job his entire life.
Mohammed is married to Rahama Indimi, daughter of another IBB’s associate and front man, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, Chairman of Oriental Energy Resources Limited which owns Oil Mining License (OML) 115 and Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 224 which covers around 61,000 acres located in shallow waters 35 miles offshore Nigeria's prolific southeastern producing area, Texas based Sovereign Oil and Gas company provides technical support to Oriental.
Sovereign's President Joseph M. Bruso, Jr. once said, "OML 115 is located in one of the richest oil tracts in the world. The block lies at the center of a 1.2 million-acre tract with over 7 billion barrels of proved oil reserves. The area produces over one million barrels of oil per day."
There is no official word from the EFCC about plan to bring charges against Mohammed Babangida. As at press time, IBB and his political associates were making frantic efforts to bail Mohammed from the EFCC in Abuja.
Also three days ago, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ricky Tafa was arrested by EFCC operatives for a deal involving EFCC operatives. Ricky Tafa was alleged to be in possesion of $500,000 from one of his clients. EFCC operatives claimed he collected the money from his client under the pretext that he will help bribe EFCC officials to free him from probe. Saharareporters could not ascertain the identity of the individual involved.
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