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Joshua Dariye of Plateau State in a fresh “Charity Scandal”

May 18, 2007

A fresh scandal has engulfed Mr. Joshua Dariye the newly re-instated governor of Plateau state over his involvement in the conversion of charity donations from the US.


 Joshua Dariye and one Pastor Ornguze of Love Aflame ministry in Gboko, Benue State are both accused in the conversion of charity goods donated by a US –based parent church of Love Aflame known as “Love Aflame Church Aflame Worldwide” which listed its address as 3136 Lake Road, Horseheads, New York . The parent church is shepherded by Apostle Jim Pierce.

 

The church through a Build-A-Church project proposed by Pastor Ornguze donated series of equipments, mostly hospital equipments to Love Aflame ministry in Gboko, Benue state.

 

After receiving deliveries Pastor Ornguze started searching for buyers for the equipments and a source told Saharareporters that Pastor Ornguze found a willing partner in Joshua Dariye who used a front company, DANJAT and Co. to buy up the equipments from Pastor Ornguze for N200 million ($1.4million) and later sold it to the Plateau state government.

 

The equipment  included 2 ambulances, 400 hospital beds, 4 scanning machines, 2 incubators, 2 X-ray machines and 20 microscopes. A delivery receipt issued on May 31st 2005 was obtained by Saharareporters, it shows that the payment of N140 million was paid in cash to DANJAT & Co.of 54 Murtala Mohammed Way, Jos Plateau State by a one Nanle John who drove a vehicle with registration number AG 244BKK.

 

The receipts which were also issued on May 31st and June 14th 2005 for N140 million and N60 million respectively was issued by DANJAT &Co. to the Plateau State government. Our searches for DANJAT & Co. limited on the websites of the Corporate Affairs Commission return no query results.

 

After the equipments were delivered by Pastor Ornguze to Mr. Dariye, he was promised N100 million but the sudden arrest of Governor Dariye for money laundering in London and EFCC probe against him did allow him to pay more than N70 million to Pastor Ornguze before he was impeached from office and subsequently went into hiding.

 

The matter degenerated when a member of Pastor Ornguze’s church; Mr. Raymond Gordon a British citizen who works with ANGLO-JOS MINERAL PRODUCTS LIMITED noticed the disappearance of the charity equipments from the church’s custody and started investigating the disappearance and later confronted Pastor Ornguze and the parent church about the scam.

 

Mr. Gordon however under-estimated the power wielded by Pastor Ornguze in the larger society, before long Mr. Raymond Gordon was framed for bribery by the local police and hauled before a High Court judge in Jos who sent him to jail for 3 months . Mr. Gordon was convicted for bribery on September 13th 2006 and spent three months in jail.

 

When he was released from prison he fled to the United Kingdom to avoid getting assassinated by Mr.Dariye and Pastor Ornguze because the parent church in the US had contacted the Scotland Yard Police Africa Desk to investigate Mr. Dariye for conversion in addition to money laundering charges from which he had earlier jumped bail in the UK.

 

The Nigeria High Commission was also involved pressing for Dariye's prosecution, the second secretary Trade and Economic at the High Commission wrote to the anti-corruption agency in Nigeria referring the case of Mr. Dariye for investigation and prosecution.

 

A letter with reference numberTIP/308/02/68/111 was sent on behalf of the high commissioner by one Efe Clark, in it, the Nigerian high commission furnished the EFCC with details of the charges against Mr. Dariye and Pastor Ornguze. The EFCC has “invited” Pastor Ornguze to appear before it on May 22nd 2007 and wants to arrest Mr. Dariye as soon as his constitutional immunity expires on May 29th 2007.

 

Meanwhile, Governor Joshua Dariye is said to have concluded plans to bolt from the state before May 29th to avoid being arrested by the EFCC. Even though he states publicly that he does not intend to run away, Saharareporters gathered from reliable sources at the government house in Jos that Governor Dariye has applied for “annual leave” from the state legislators and intends to go on “leave” very soon before handing over.

 

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