February 3, 2008
Just last week, Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s handlers deftly leaked information to the local media to the effect that the resident of Aso Rock had not spent his security vote for 2007. The revelation was calculated to portray Yar’Adua as a squeaky clean politician.
But that image is undercut by exclusive information obtained by Saharareporters indicating that Yar’Adua sits on a mound of slush campaign funds worth N6.7 billion and $30 million in hard cold cash. The funds were never declared in his assets declarations form.
Our sources, who include aggrieved members of the ruling party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), revealed to Saharareporters that Alhaji Yar’Adua received immense cash donations from individuals and corporate bodies as soon as he was “nominated” as the PDP’s flag bearer, he has challenged Umar Yar’adua to publicly name those hefty donors.
In a country with weak, non-existent or un-enforced campaign laws, the practice of handing unrestricted amounts of cash directly to candidates perceived as likely to “capture” power is one of the least examined scandals of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Yar'adua tacitly admitted to benefiting directly from his presidential campaigns. In his famous "Assets Declarations Form" which he gleefully gave to the media at the beginning of his illegitimate tenure, Yar'adua included several vehicles inherited from his presidential campaigns as part of his assets.
But his widely lauded disclosure was tailored as an act of concealment, according to sources familiar with Yar’adua’s cash haul from the campaigns. He cleverly avoided declaring N6.7b billion and $30 million given directly to him for his campaigns, monies that were hidden by his close confidants.
Aggrieved party members, many of them tied to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, are now threatening to expose Yar’adua by revealing the list of such high caliber donors. They told Saharareporters that Yar'adua never spent the huge cash donations on any campaign activities. “In fact, he never printed a single T-shirt from the huge amount he received from individual donors for the presidential campaigns,” claimed a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP who preferred anonymity. The source worked closely with former President Obasanjo to get Yar'adua declared winner of the April 21 2007 presidential election that was marred by massive rigging.
The BOT member remarked that Obasanjo was miffed by Yar’adua’s efforts to add to the unpopular former president’s public relations crises. “The Nigerian press is attacking Obasanjo left and right, and Yar’adua’s people are behind many of the attacks,” said the source. “Obasanjo has therefore decided to make it clear to President Yar’adua that we know a few things about his dirty deals as well.”
In numerous interviews over the last two weeks, several sources told Saharareporters that Yar'adua's undeclared war chest was being managed by Tanimu Yakubu, a Katsina native who served as commissioner for finance during Yar’adua’s tenure as governor. Mr. Yakubu, who was director of Finance and Administration to Yar’adua’s presidential campaigns, is currently his "Chief Economic Adviser."
Jittery about the growing speculation that the Justice James Ogebe presidential election tribunal is very likely to invalidate last year’s presidential election, the Yar'adua camp has started spending heavily to restart his campaigns. Yar’adua’s campaign banners and billboards with giant photos of Yar'adua and his deputy, Jonathan Goodluck, have sprung up in the capital city of Abuja.
A taciturn Yar'adua, who had earlier planted stories in the media that he would walk away if the elections were annulled, has now stepped up his campaigns to re-run if, as expected, the tribunal rules against him.
But one of our sources boasted that Obasanjo, stung by Aso Rock’s covert release of information about his financial misdeeds, was determined to thwart Yar’adua’s electoral prospects. He said Obasanjo had already served notice to Yar’adua to embrace the former president or risk incurring their wrath. According to this source, one of the signs of Yar’adua’s vulnerability was his agreement to work quietly to ensure that Obasanjo retains his post as BOT chairman.
Another source told Saharareporters that Yar'adua's celebrated disclosure that he had not spent any of his security votes was a ruse and a non-issue. “Let me tell you now, President Obasanjo did not spend his security votes for three years combined. Go and check it, Obasanjo too didn't spend his security votes. So that is nothing to celebrate,” he fumed.
Along with its preparations for the prospects of new elections, Yar’adua’s team has also been strategizing on how to use some of the cash in the hidden war chest to bribe some members of the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal. A source within the judiciary told our correspondents that the tribunal was now somewhat evenly split between those who want the election cancelled and those leaning for its validation.
Both Yar’adua and Obasanjo are making high stakes maneuvers to influence the verdict. Yar’adua is making serious moves to corruptly enrich the tribunal members through direct bribes and contracts. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) currently managed by Abubakar Yar'adua, a close confidant of the “president,” has reached out to relatives of tribunal members with offers of no-bid contracts and oil lifting allocations. Another group is approaching tribunal members with direct financial bribes and inducements.
Last week, several serving ministers, including Odein Ajumogbia, the minister in charge of the NNPC, as well as the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, stormed the tribunal venue in Abuja in what was conceived as a show of force. A source told us that the move was aimed at intimidating the “stubborn judges,” especially one Justice Jega.
On their part, members of the Obasanjo group are working hard to punish Yar’adua for what one of them described as his “acts of disloyalty and hypocrisy.” Saharareporters has learnt that Mr. Andy Uba, Obasanjo’s former domestic aide, was recently accused of offering tribunal members several million dollars to ensure Yar’adua’s removal.
In one instance, Yar’adua’s use of proxies to make high level contacts with family members of the tribunal members had backfired, and was playing out in a dangerous way. Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe, a Washington, DC-based son of Justice Ogebe, chair of the presidential tribunal, has complained about Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa’s threat to his life.
Our sources revealed that, between May and December 2007, Aondoakaa had traveled to the U.S. at least three times for meetings with Emmanuel Ogebe. The meetings, held in New York, Houston, and Washington DC, were part of Yar’adua’s efforts to reach Justice Ogebe through his son, a U.S.-based attorney.
Aondoakaa, a Tiv from Benue State, sought to persuade Emmanuel Ogebe to prevail on his father to rule in Yar’adua’s favor. To persuade Emmanuel Ogebe to play the role of interceder, Aondoakaa dangled a sum of $2 million in the form of legal briefs for the younger Ogebe.
Our sources revealed that Emmanuel Ogebe was offered three legal briefs involving the Nigerian government in US courts, among them the General Abdulsalam Abubakar lawsuit that has been settled out of court, the Wilbros case in Texas, and a case in New Orleans that involved the NNPC. The last case has now been settled in favor of Nigeria.
After a series of meetings between Mr. Aondoakaa and the younger Ogebe, an Idoma native from the same state as the AGF, the younger Ogebe reportedly refused to play ball.
The younger Ogebe was reportedly concerned about the potential damage to his father’s judicial reputation if it ever leaked that the judge was unduly influenced in his electoral petitions verdict. A few years ago, the judge had ruled for Ibori who was accused of being an ex-convict. That verdict remains a blemish on the judge especially in light of documents from UK courts indicating that Ibori has indeed been convicted of stealing and dishonesty in that country. Justice Ogebe reportedly felt that Aondoakaa had “misled” him in that ruling.
Justice Ogebe, according to one source, is not a great fan of retired General Muhammadu Buhari whom he holds responsible for being cheated out of the Benue chief judge position in the 1980’s. Even so, those close to the judge say he is aware of the national and international searchlight on his tribunal and intends to deliver a verdict that would stand public scrutiny.
Apart from Abubakar Yar’adua’s use of lucrative oil contracts to secure a favorable verdict for Umar Yar’adua, Saharareporters has learnt of two other groups pushing the same agenda.
Former governors have regrouped under the leadership of DSP Alamieyeseigha, the ex-convict former governor of Bayelsa State. He is coordinating the group on behalf of James Ibori, the former Delta State governor who is facing corruption charges and has been remanded in Kaduna Prison for more than a month.
Tanimu Yakubu, Yar’adua’s Chief Economic Adviser, leads the third group. He is the one who manages and disburses Yar’adua’s cash haul of N6.7 billion and $30 million. In addition to trying to bribe tribunal members, he is also disbursing funds to jumpstart Yar’adua’s election campaign in the event of a negative ruling by the tribunal and Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Maurice Iwu, the Chairman of INEC, has been moved out of Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea where he is being put under pressure to support Yar'adua's position at the tribunal. Last week, INEC lawyers shocked Yar’adua's team when they aligned with opposition lawyers with respect to the commission’s response to Atiku Abubakar's interrogatories.
Our sources disclosed that the INEC boss had buckled under pressure from former President Obasanjo who threatened to reveal Iwu’s sordid secrets unless Iwu agreed to help foil Yar'adua's plans to remain in power.
Obasanjo group had finally decided to work against Yar'adua’s tribunal case after Yar’adua recently told World Bank Vice President Oby Ezekwesili that Obasanjo had frittered away $10 billion in the power sector without results.
A furious Obasanjo was said to have made up his mind to ruin Yar'adua's tenure. Several sources told Saharareporters that Obasanjo had actually put former Minister of Finance, Esther Usman Nenadi, on standby to reveal how the ballot papers printed in South Africa were paid for by the Presidency on behalf of INEC. According to our sources, Ms. Nenadi is highly familiar with the transactions that involved last-minute movement of large cache of cash on Obasanjo's presidential jet to South African printers.
Interestingly, Nenadi was also a member of the board of the Nigerian Mint alongside the Central Bank governor and others.
Iwu is currently in Equatorial Guinea holding a series of meetings to work out how he may cover up for Yar'adua at the tribunal.
Justice Ogebe and other members of the presidential election petitions tribunal are from Nigeria’s Federal Appeal Courts. Despite evidence of recent popular renewal of confidence in the judiciary, many Nigerians remained troubled by uninspiring and questionable verdicts emanating from the Federal Appeal Courts.
In the two recent high-profile cases involving Governor Peter Obi of Anambra and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, the appellate justices withheld justice from the litigants, forcing the Supreme Court to intervene decisively.
Interestingly, sources close to Yar'adua told us that he remains uncertain about how to read the current members of the tribunal, but that he has better “contacts” with Supreme Court justices, where Aondoakaa is his point man.
One source within Aso Rock revealed that the only reason Aondoakaa has been retained as the AGF, despite his many fumbles and well-known fraudulent activities, is his utility at the Supreme Court where he reportedly uses his connections to Justice Katsina Alu, a Tiv relative of the AGF, to steer cases in favor of his clients.
Justice Katsina Alu, who last week read the lead judgment against Andy Uba, is currently the number two man at the Supreme Court—since Justice Onu is sick.
But that image is undercut by exclusive information obtained by Saharareporters indicating that Yar’Adua sits on a mound of slush campaign funds worth N6.7 billion and $30 million in hard cold cash. The funds were never declared in his assets declarations form.
Our sources, who include aggrieved members of the ruling party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), revealed to Saharareporters that Alhaji Yar’Adua received immense cash donations from individuals and corporate bodies as soon as he was “nominated” as the PDP’s flag bearer, he has challenged Umar Yar’adua to publicly name those hefty donors.
In a country with weak, non-existent or un-enforced campaign laws, the practice of handing unrestricted amounts of cash directly to candidates perceived as likely to “capture” power is one of the least examined scandals of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Yar'adua tacitly admitted to benefiting directly from his presidential campaigns. In his famous "Assets Declarations Form" which he gleefully gave to the media at the beginning of his illegitimate tenure, Yar'adua included several vehicles inherited from his presidential campaigns as part of his assets.
But his widely lauded disclosure was tailored as an act of concealment, according to sources familiar with Yar’adua’s cash haul from the campaigns. He cleverly avoided declaring N6.7b billion and $30 million given directly to him for his campaigns, monies that were hidden by his close confidants.
Aggrieved party members, many of them tied to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, are now threatening to expose Yar’adua by revealing the list of such high caliber donors. They told Saharareporters that Yar'adua never spent the huge cash donations on any campaign activities. “In fact, he never printed a single T-shirt from the huge amount he received from individual donors for the presidential campaigns,” claimed a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP who preferred anonymity. The source worked closely with former President Obasanjo to get Yar'adua declared winner of the April 21 2007 presidential election that was marred by massive rigging.
The BOT member remarked that Obasanjo was miffed by Yar’adua’s efforts to add to the unpopular former president’s public relations crises. “The Nigerian press is attacking Obasanjo left and right, and Yar’adua’s people are behind many of the attacks,” said the source. “Obasanjo has therefore decided to make it clear to President Yar’adua that we know a few things about his dirty deals as well.”
In numerous interviews over the last two weeks, several sources told Saharareporters that Yar'adua's undeclared war chest was being managed by Tanimu Yakubu, a Katsina native who served as commissioner for finance during Yar’adua’s tenure as governor. Mr. Yakubu, who was director of Finance and Administration to Yar’adua’s presidential campaigns, is currently his "Chief Economic Adviser."
Jittery about the growing speculation that the Justice James Ogebe presidential election tribunal is very likely to invalidate last year’s presidential election, the Yar'adua camp has started spending heavily to restart his campaigns. Yar’adua’s campaign banners and billboards with giant photos of Yar'adua and his deputy, Jonathan Goodluck, have sprung up in the capital city of Abuja.
A taciturn Yar'adua, who had earlier planted stories in the media that he would walk away if the elections were annulled, has now stepped up his campaigns to re-run if, as expected, the tribunal rules against him.
But one of our sources boasted that Obasanjo, stung by Aso Rock’s covert release of information about his financial misdeeds, was determined to thwart Yar’adua’s electoral prospects. He said Obasanjo had already served notice to Yar’adua to embrace the former president or risk incurring their wrath. According to this source, one of the signs of Yar’adua’s vulnerability was his agreement to work quietly to ensure that Obasanjo retains his post as BOT chairman.
Another source told Saharareporters that Yar'adua's celebrated disclosure that he had not spent any of his security votes was a ruse and a non-issue. “Let me tell you now, President Obasanjo did not spend his security votes for three years combined. Go and check it, Obasanjo too didn't spend his security votes. So that is nothing to celebrate,” he fumed.
Along with its preparations for the prospects of new elections, Yar’adua’s team has also been strategizing on how to use some of the cash in the hidden war chest to bribe some members of the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal. A source within the judiciary told our correspondents that the tribunal was now somewhat evenly split between those who want the election cancelled and those leaning for its validation.
Both Yar’adua and Obasanjo are making high stakes maneuvers to influence the verdict. Yar’adua is making serious moves to corruptly enrich the tribunal members through direct bribes and contracts. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) currently managed by Abubakar Yar'adua, a close confidant of the “president,” has reached out to relatives of tribunal members with offers of no-bid contracts and oil lifting allocations. Another group is approaching tribunal members with direct financial bribes and inducements.
Last week, several serving ministers, including Odein Ajumogbia, the minister in charge of the NNPC, as well as the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, stormed the tribunal venue in Abuja in what was conceived as a show of force. A source told us that the move was aimed at intimidating the “stubborn judges,” especially one Justice Jega.
On their part, members of the Obasanjo group are working hard to punish Yar’adua for what one of them described as his “acts of disloyalty and hypocrisy.” Saharareporters has learnt that Mr. Andy Uba, Obasanjo’s former domestic aide, was recently accused of offering tribunal members several million dollars to ensure Yar’adua’s removal.
In one instance, Yar’adua’s use of proxies to make high level contacts with family members of the tribunal members had backfired, and was playing out in a dangerous way. Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe, a Washington, DC-based son of Justice Ogebe, chair of the presidential tribunal, has complained about Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa’s threat to his life.
Our sources revealed that, between May and December 2007, Aondoakaa had traveled to the U.S. at least three times for meetings with Emmanuel Ogebe. The meetings, held in New York, Houston, and Washington DC, were part of Yar’adua’s efforts to reach Justice Ogebe through his son, a U.S.-based attorney.
Aondoakaa, a Tiv from Benue State, sought to persuade Emmanuel Ogebe to prevail on his father to rule in Yar’adua’s favor. To persuade Emmanuel Ogebe to play the role of interceder, Aondoakaa dangled a sum of $2 million in the form of legal briefs for the younger Ogebe.
Our sources revealed that Emmanuel Ogebe was offered three legal briefs involving the Nigerian government in US courts, among them the General Abdulsalam Abubakar lawsuit that has been settled out of court, the Wilbros case in Texas, and a case in New Orleans that involved the NNPC. The last case has now been settled in favor of Nigeria.
After a series of meetings between Mr. Aondoakaa and the younger Ogebe, an Idoma native from the same state as the AGF, the younger Ogebe reportedly refused to play ball.
The younger Ogebe was reportedly concerned about the potential damage to his father’s judicial reputation if it ever leaked that the judge was unduly influenced in his electoral petitions verdict. A few years ago, the judge had ruled for Ibori who was accused of being an ex-convict. That verdict remains a blemish on the judge especially in light of documents from UK courts indicating that Ibori has indeed been convicted of stealing and dishonesty in that country. Justice Ogebe reportedly felt that Aondoakaa had “misled” him in that ruling.
Justice Ogebe, according to one source, is not a great fan of retired General Muhammadu Buhari whom he holds responsible for being cheated out of the Benue chief judge position in the 1980’s. Even so, those close to the judge say he is aware of the national and international searchlight on his tribunal and intends to deliver a verdict that would stand public scrutiny.
Apart from Abubakar Yar’adua’s use of lucrative oil contracts to secure a favorable verdict for Umar Yar’adua, Saharareporters has learnt of two other groups pushing the same agenda.
Former governors have regrouped under the leadership of DSP Alamieyeseigha, the ex-convict former governor of Bayelsa State. He is coordinating the group on behalf of James Ibori, the former Delta State governor who is facing corruption charges and has been remanded in Kaduna Prison for more than a month.
Tanimu Yakubu, Yar’adua’s Chief Economic Adviser, leads the third group. He is the one who manages and disburses Yar’adua’s cash haul of N6.7 billion and $30 million. In addition to trying to bribe tribunal members, he is also disbursing funds to jumpstart Yar’adua’s election campaign in the event of a negative ruling by the tribunal and Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Maurice Iwu, the Chairman of INEC, has been moved out of Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea where he is being put under pressure to support Yar'adua's position at the tribunal. Last week, INEC lawyers shocked Yar’adua's team when they aligned with opposition lawyers with respect to the commission’s response to Atiku Abubakar's interrogatories.
Our sources disclosed that the INEC boss had buckled under pressure from former President Obasanjo who threatened to reveal Iwu’s sordid secrets unless Iwu agreed to help foil Yar'adua's plans to remain in power.
Obasanjo group had finally decided to work against Yar'adua’s tribunal case after Yar’adua recently told World Bank Vice President Oby Ezekwesili that Obasanjo had frittered away $10 billion in the power sector without results.
A furious Obasanjo was said to have made up his mind to ruin Yar'adua's tenure. Several sources told Saharareporters that Obasanjo had actually put former Minister of Finance, Esther Usman Nenadi, on standby to reveal how the ballot papers printed in South Africa were paid for by the Presidency on behalf of INEC. According to our sources, Ms. Nenadi is highly familiar with the transactions that involved last-minute movement of large cache of cash on Obasanjo's presidential jet to South African printers.
Interestingly, Nenadi was also a member of the board of the Nigerian Mint alongside the Central Bank governor and others.
Iwu is currently in Equatorial Guinea holding a series of meetings to work out how he may cover up for Yar'adua at the tribunal.
Justice Ogebe and other members of the presidential election petitions tribunal are from Nigeria’s Federal Appeal Courts. Despite evidence of recent popular renewal of confidence in the judiciary, many Nigerians remained troubled by uninspiring and questionable verdicts emanating from the Federal Appeal Courts.
In the two recent high-profile cases involving Governor Peter Obi of Anambra and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, the appellate justices withheld justice from the litigants, forcing the Supreme Court to intervene decisively.
Interestingly, sources close to Yar'adua told us that he remains uncertain about how to read the current members of the tribunal, but that he has better “contacts” with Supreme Court justices, where Aondoakaa is his point man.
One source within Aso Rock revealed that the only reason Aondoakaa has been retained as the AGF, despite his many fumbles and well-known fraudulent activities, is his utility at the Supreme Court where he reportedly uses his connections to Justice Katsina Alu, a Tiv relative of the AGF, to steer cases in favor of his clients.
Justice Katsina Alu, who last week read the lead judgment against Andy Uba, is currently the number two man at the Supreme Court—since Justice Onu is sick.
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