April 9, 2008
At her office in the National Assembly Complex on 27 March, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Chairman, Senate Committe on Health, left a stern instruction: “Senate security, nobody should come into my office,” she told the security officers. The instruction was issued to roll back journalists, who were sniffing for updates on the N300million Christmas bonus scandal in the Ministry of Health.
The order may have kept journalists away from her office, but it has failed to keep Iyabo out of the headlines, especially those announcing scandals.
The latest broke Wednesday last week, when the House of Representatives panel probing contracts in the power sector linked the senator to a contract scandal via M.Schneider Energy Nigeria, the company awarded a N4.1billion contract for the construction of the 5MVA Borokiri sub-station and its three components in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The contract was awarded by the Obasanjo administration in 2006, as part of the National Integrated Power Projects scheme. According to the panel, M.Schneider failed to execute the contract despite collecting 5 per cent of the contract cost. When the panel visited last Wednesday, it found no staff of the company on site and discovered that the site was yet to be cleared.
Ndudi Elumelu, Chairman, House Committee on Power and Steel, said: “But you can all see; there is nothing on this site. The contractor is not here and we don’t even know what is happening here. It is so sad; so sad that Nigerians will continue to suffer this way.”
Iyabo, who travelled to Cuba with other members of the Senate Committee on Education Wednesday last week, is likely to spend part of her stay in Cuba designing an appropriate response to the latest injury to her public profile.
But last week’s disclosure by the probe panel is by no means the gravest reputation damage the former president’s daughter has suffered. Considerably more wounding are the Christmas bonus scandal and an earlier contract scandal involving M.Schneider and one Prince Albert Awofisayo, in which Iyabo starred as an impersonator.
The Christmas bonus scandal, which has already led to the resignation of Professor (Mrs) Adenike Grange, Health Minister; and Architect Gabriel Aduku, Minister of State, has also consumed the careers of some top civil servants. It involved N300 million in unspent 2007 budget of the Health Ministry. The money, which should have been returned to the national treasury at the end of last year, as directed by President Umar Yar’Adua, was shared as Christams bonus.
Iyabo, Chairman, Senate Health Committee, allegedly got N10 million on behalf of her committee. This was reported to be a sponsorship fee for a capacity building seminar in Ghana. While denying knowledge of the receipt of that amount from the Health Ministry, other members of the committee said accepting external sponsorship for such a trip is in accordance with Senate rules.
This magazine gathered that some committee members, at a meeting, said Iyabo should carry the can because she did not disclose the amount collected to other committee members. According to them, only three out of the 11 Senators that attended the seminar were aware of the source of the fund used for the trip. Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Deputy Minority Leader and a member of the committee, told journalists that details of the transactions between the ministry and the committee can only be given by the chairman. Mamora said he went to Ghana only after receiving a letter informing him that a retreat had been arranged.
The saga has already attracted the interest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which quizzed Iyabo and others two weeks ago. She was expected to report to the commission Wednesday last week, but travelled to Cuba. The anti-corruption agency has already written to the Senate leadership for permission to interrogate all the lawmakers involved. In an apparent move to tame the controversy, the Senate Committee, last Tuesday, broke its silence on its involvement in the N300 million scam. While the committee admitted that it collected N10 million from the ministry to facilitate its members’ retreat in Ghana between 16 and 20 March, it said the money was not from the unspent budget fund.
In a statement by signed by Mr. I. E.F. Edobor, Secretary to the Committee, Iyabo declared that the committee did not act outside the Senate Code of Ethics in accepting the money from the ministry.
The committee also denied reports that it took part in the sharing of the money allegedly spent on dubious projects in total disregard of a presidential directive that all unspent appropriated funds before December 2007 should be returned to the treasury. The statement added that the committee strictly complied with rules governing such matters, as it notified the Senate President in writing and disclosed the purpose, sponsors and duration of such travel or trips. “The extent of the ministry’s support was N10 million and was received and duly signed for by the committee’s secretary in December,” the statement said.
The explanations, however, have not impressed some senators. Last week, there were indications that certain senators are working on a motion for her resignation from the Senate or at least, as Chairman of the Health Committee when the Senate reconvenes next week. “When senators reconvene next week, it is likely that a senator would raise a motion citing 14, 15 and 16 of Senate Standing Rules because of the negative image the issue has given the upper chamber. Following such a motion, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and members of the committee could be asked to resign their membership of the committee to allow investigation into the matter,” a senator told this magazine.
Those behind the scheme have cited the forced resignation of Senator Adolphus Wabara as Senate President and John Azuta Mbata as Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, in 2005. The two senators lost their positions in the wake of the N55 million bribe-for-budget scandal. The resignation of the duo followed a national broadcast on the issue by Iyabo’s father, former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
However, some other senators are pushing for a referral of the matter to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions to give Iyabo the chance to defend herself.
It was also learnt that the Senate leadership may ask the Chairman of the Health Committee to brief it on the funds it collected from the Ministry of Health.
To the Action Congress, AC, the allegation against the Senator is one that must not be swept under the carpet. “It is, therefore, necessary for the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that their members who are involved in the scandal do not escape punishment, unless the anti-corruption fight is meant for the executive arm of the government alone,’’ the AC said in a statement after the resignation of the two health ministers.
The Christmas bonus scandal was preceded by a contract scandal and an apparent case of impersonation. This was exposed by a petition to the EFCC by Austrian firm, M. Schneider GMBH and Co, last December. According to the petition, Iyabo, as Ogun State Commissioner for Health in 2005, and one Prince Albert Awofisayo, a businessman, entered into a joint venture agreement with M. Schneider GMBH and Co. It was for the purpose of floating a company, M. Schneider Nigeria Ltd, to bid for contracts in the Nigerian power sector.
According to the petitioners, the Nigerian partners used Akiya Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Iyabo, as the purpose vehicle for entering into the venture.
The company eventually won two contracts worth N3.5 billion. For its participation in the deal, Akiya was given 10 per cent equity in M. Schneider Nigeria Ltd and was to receive 10 per cent commission of the N3.5 billion contract sum in addition to other benefits.
But the bubble burst in 2006, before the company began the execution of the contracts. The two parties accused each other of employing underhand tactics to change the ownership structure of the company. Specifically, Iyabo and Awofisayo accused the Austrians of manipulating the ownership structure of the company, with a view to scheming out Akiya.
The Austrians, in turn, accused their Nigerian partners of floating a new company to bid for contracts, which should have gone to M. Schneider Nigeria Ltd.
Subsequently, Awofisayo and Iyabo, whose father was president, used their political muscle to get the contract cancelled. Officials of the Austrian company also claimed that the former president’s daughter used EFCC to chase them out of Nigeria. The Austrians, who claimed to have spent over one million euros in pursuit of the cancelled contracts, approached the Paris-based International Court of Arbitration to resolve the dispute.
But it was the Nigerian party who also asked the court to award it compensation for expenses incurred in the failed contract that emerged victorious, as its claims was upheld. It was gathered that this led to a claim by the Austrians that the contract was invalid in the first instance because while signing the joint venture forms on behalf of Akiya in Austria, Iyabo was said to have used the pseudonym, Mrs. Damilola Akinlawon. The pseudonym is an ingenious combination of one of her siblings’ name and that of her maternal grandmother. Photographs were also published, purporting to record the signing ceremony. Observers reckon that Iyabo opted for a pseudonym because she knew that, as a serving government official, she was forbidden by the extant Code of Conduct from running a business. Paragraph 2(b) of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution says: “Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph, a public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on full time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade but nothing in this sub-paragraph shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming.”
Kayode Ajulo, an Abuja-based lawyer, said Iyabo risks a jail term if convicted of the allegations of felony against her by the Austrian company. The lawyer said she has violated Section 484 of Criminal Code, Laws of the Federation, which provides that: ‘Any person who, with intent to defraud any person, falsely represents himself to be some other person, living or dead, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years.’
The AC also called for Iyabo’s prosecution for using a pseudonym to sign the MoU and Joint Venture Agreement with the Austrian company. “Even if former
President Obasanjo claims he did not know Iyabo had an interest in Akiya/M. Schneider, what happened to the much-touted due process under Obasanjo that it could not detect Iyabo’s involvement in Akiya?” the party asked.
Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, made a similar call. Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere spokespeman, said: “If Obasanjo still enjoys immunity and cannot be brought to book for the various allegations brought against him, we do not think that Iyabo has the same status. So we call on the EFCC to immediately apprehend her and carry out a thorough investigation, and if she is found to have committed this heinous crime, she should be charged to court immediately and be made to vacate her seat at the National Assembly.”
Reacting when the scandal broke, Iyabo ranted that she holds a Ph.D and asked if being the daughter of the president precluded her from engaging in business transactions. The senator would later offer a more reasoned response, saying: “I know Prince Awofisayo. Sometime ago, he invited me to be part of a business he wanted to do. Some of these proposals work, other times, they don’t. Prince said I should not worry, that he would fund the entire project. I told him since I was a commissioner it could raise issues of conflict of interest. We agreed to go into the business all the same. Prince formed a company and did all the ground work,” she said and defended her use of a different name in the business deal. “We agreed that I should use a different name, yes, because in law there is nothing, wrong with that,” she said.
In a newspaper advertisement, Iyabo’s lawyer, Professor Abiodun Adesanya, said his client could not be accused of contravening the rules because she only signed pre-incorporation contract forms as a shareholder of Akiya, on whose behalf she signed as “IOB,” a contraction of Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello which, incidentally, was used for her senatorial campaign.
He listed the documents Iyabo signed to include (i) the Joint Venture Agreement (ii) the Exclusive Project Promotion Agreement and (iii) the Local Partnership Agreement as a representative of her company, Akiya (Nig) Limited. “In the relevant places for the signature of Akiya ( Nigeria ) Limited, she signed thus ‘IOB’ which is an abbreviation of the words Iyabo Obasanjo Bello. ‘IOB’ cannot by any stretch of imagination mean or be taken to mean Damilola Akinlawon,” the lawyer said.
The other plank of the scandal is the reward system. Akiya, with no known expertise or track record of jobs in the power sector, acquired 10 per cent equity stake in M. Schneider Nigeria Ltd, which had to be incorporated in Nigeria to enable it win and execute the contracts. Akiya was also to receive 10 per cent commission of the contract sum worth N3.5 billion and other perks.
Iyabo’s involvement in the contract saga attracted vitriol in near-commercial quantities.
If she thought her troubles would go away with 2007, she was mistaken as this year began with another scandal. This time, personal in nature. Last January, she was declared wanted in the United States on the allegation of child kidnapping. According to US court documents, the case involved Jimi Bello, the only fruit of the now fractured marriage between Iyabo and Mr. Akeem Bello.
Iyabo filed for divorce in a US court in 2003. According to court documents, Bello asked to be awarded the custody of Jimi. Iyabo also asked for the same privilege. But the court decided in the husband’s favour.
However, Iyabo allegedly picked Jimi from Akeem’s home in the US on 27 July 2004. Every effort to retrieve the child by the estranged husband failed.
Bello was forced to return to the court which granted him the custody. District Court Judge Charles T.L. Anderson ruled on 9 May 2005 that Iyabo was in contempt of the court for taking Jimi away from her father without the court’s permission. Consequently, the court asked local, state and international law enforcement officers to take Iyabo into custody wherever she is found. Upon her arrest, she is to be “be committed to the Chatham County Jail, Pittsboro, North Carolina , U.S.A,” the judge ruled.
To avoid arrest, Iyabo is said not to have travelled to the US since 2004. The senator is also said to have been defaulting in the payment of court-ordered custody or child support payments to her husband. Court documents indicated that Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello was ordered to be pay $875 per month in child support payments to her former husband. This was to take effect from 24 October 2004.
Records, however, revealed that not one cent has been paid by the senator to her former husband till date. According to Saharareporters.com, Iyabo is owing about $36,000 in unpaid “child support” payments. The website also reported that Obasanjo-Bello has also refused to appear in court despite an “order to show cause” to her lawyer, Susan Lewis. This was to enable Iyabo explain her reasons for refusing to pay the child support fees to her husband, as it is obtains under the laws of the State of North Carolina.
Iyabo and Bello got married in 1999.
Bello, who hails from Ibadan, is a self-styled financial consultant, but better known as a scam artist. About four years ago, he told some Nigerians in the US that Obasanjo and Iyabo had endorsed him as the candidate for the 2007 presidential election. For his presumed presidential bid, he sought monetary donations.
But Bello made the mistake of also sending e-mails to some of his wife’s friends and word soon got to Iyabo about her husband’s claims. “I will ordinarily ignore Mr. Akeem’s ramblings to people, but in the e-mail he sent to you all, he mentioned me and my father. I’m responding so that none of you feel I’m involved in Mr.Akeem’s schemes in any way. I was fooled by him and made a big mistake marrying him. He has duped me many times. The grandiose ambition mentioned in his e-mail to you about becoming president of Nigeria is part madness and partly a scheme to dupe you of money,” the senator wrote in an e-mail to a friend.
She added that she was lucky to get out of the marriage alive and with her sanity intact.
Iyabo’s name has also cropped up on the list of beneficiaries of illegal land allocations in the Federal Capital Territory by Malam Nasir el-Rufai, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Aliyu Moddibo, the incumbent minister, constituted a panel which probed land allocation under his predecessor. In its report, the panel indicted the former FCT minister for revoking an expanse of land belonging to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria , PHCN, in Abuja’s Asokoro District.
The land was allegedly re-allocated to Iyabo and el-Rufai’s two wives among others. The findings of the panel had reportedly been submitted to President Umar Yar’Adua for further action. Last month, Iyabo failed in her bid to persuade the Senate to act cautiously in its planned probe of the sale and concession of government properties in Abuja, when she was overruled by Senate President, David Mark.
Iyabo had raised a point of order, citing Order 98, sub-section 25 of the Senate Standing Order 2007, as amended. She observed that the Senate committees mandated to probe the sales did not require a Senate resolution to perform their duties and warned that the good deeds of her father’s administration should not be forgotten.
The Senate had mandated its committees on the Federal Capital Territory and Housing to investigate the sales/concession of all Federal Government properties in the FCT and the proceeds therein. The committees were also mandated to probe all land-related deals, including their allocation, revocation and demolition within the period under review. This was sequel to a motion titled “Land Matters, Sales and Concession of Federal Government Properties in the Federal Capital Territory.” The motion was sponsored by Senator Abubakar Sodangi.
Sodangi observed that the activities of the FCT Ministry under the last administration left members of the public in anguish. He said his committee considered it important to launch an investigative hearing into the operation of the FCT administration in respect of government properties under the immediate last administration.
Born on 27 April 1967, Iyabo is Obasanjo’s first child from his first wife Oluremi.
She attended the high brow Corona School on Victoria Island, Lagos; Capital School in Kaduna, and Queen’s College, Lagos. She obtained a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Ibadan in 1988, a master’s degree in epidemiology from University of California, United States, of America in 1990, and a Ph.D in the same discipline from Cornell University in New York.
The 41-year-old senator lived in the US before her father was elected president in 1999. As she told a national newspaper, she started to take serious interest in politics between 2001 and 2002. She was part of Peoples Democratic Party gubernatorial campaign in Ogun State in 2003. Indeed, she founded Iyaniwura Foundation (now dubbed IyaniNaira by her traducers), allegedly to help advance the cause of women in politics.
The foundation’s mode of achieving its stated objective was the distribution of items to the poor, in the hope of securing their support for her political ambition. Iyabo was consequently offered the position of Commissioner for Health in the Gbenga Daniel government that was formed after the 2003 polls. The appointment sparked controversy as she was thought not to have lived long enough in the state to be handed such a position.
Through her foundation, she launched a bid for the 2007 senatorial race to represent Ogun Central Senatorial District.
While many reckoned she campaigned vigorously, others believed that her father’s presidential muscle flattened her opponents. Fola Adeola, former CEO, Guaranty Trust Bank, withdrew from the race after spats with Iyabo. He was subsequently removed as the Chairman of National Pension Commission and the Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc.
In an interview with The SUN in 2006, Iyabo offered an apparent confirmation of the use of her father’s muscle. “I know a lot of people, not only in TRANSCORP or anything, but people in different posts that are talking to their bosses that ‘look, I want to run for this post’ and their boss says, ‘look, if you want to run then you have to go.’ I think that was what happened to him. He wants to come and compete with me for the same Senate seat. He is welcome and I want him to know that it’s not a free seat and that he is going to have me to deal with,” she told the paper.
She then proceeded to denigrate the ambition of the banker and his person in a way her father would have done in similar circumstances. “He has never contributed in any charitable way to Abeokuta and its environs. I don’t know when he left Abeokuta, but he dusted the sand from this place. He has his beautiful house and beautiful wife in Lagos. Now he thinks he could come here and try to buy our people’s votes. I can tell you we are going to fight it out. Fola Adeola is trying to intimidate me. I have been the one on ground. Fola Adeola is just trying to intimidate me with his money and with the influence of the elite,” she said.
Next to feel the heat was Dr. Lanre Tejuosho of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP. Tejuosho, son of the wealthy Osile of Oke Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuosho, has never held any public office, but was mysteriously indicted for unstated acts of corruption by a Federal Government panel of inquiry and disqualified from the race. However, following heavy public criticism, he was eventually cleared to contest.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });