Just as more details of Mrs. Farida Waziri's black Mercedes Benz GL 450 bribe reached SaharaReporters, our investigators have discovered a plan by the EFCC chairperson to arrest of the vehicle supplier, Mr. Charles Ahize in an attempt to divert public attention from the scandal.
Just as more details of Mrs. Farida Waziri's black Mercedes Benz GL 450 bribe reached SaharaReporters, our investigators have discovered a plan by the EFCC chairperson to arrest of the vehicle supplier, Mr. Charles Ahize in an attempt to divert public attention from the scandal.
After SaharaReporters revealed that Mrs. Waziri received the bribe of a Mercedes Benz worth $500, 000, she has worked the phones harassing persons she suspected might have leaked the information to SaharaReporters, including the source of the "gift," Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State. Last week, the governor sent a tepid rejoinder to SaharaReporters through one of his aides, Usoro Usoro.
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Shortly after we received Akpabio's rejoinder, we contacted the EFCC spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who immediately expressed what he said was his 'disappointment' with SaharaReporters for publishing a story he claimed was untrue. Asked to explain how he knew that a vehicle delivered to Mrs. Waziri's house in Gboko did not exist, especially as we published the Chassis code number of the vehicle, Mr. Babafemi disingenuously stated that he was a crime reporter before he became the EFCC spokesperson and as such would have known if "Madam received a bribe". We then challenged Mr. Babafemi to do a rebuttal based upon his claims, but none has been received to-date, several days after the request.
Meanwhile, SaharaReporters has reliably gathered that Governor Akpabio's automobile bribe was supplied to Mrs. Waziri through a notorious auto-dealer, Charles Ahize (a.k.a Charles Aproka). Mr. Ahize is the CEO of Atlantic Automobiles with locations in Lekki, Lagos, as well as Abuja. He also heads a South east regional organization known as "OBIGBO." Mr. Ahize, who is extremely close to former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia, Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa as well as Governor Ohakim of Imo State, is a well-known supplier of luxury-cars to politically visible persons nationwide.
According to our sources, Ahize was personally involved in the delivery of the GL 450 armored SUV to the Akwa Ibom Lodge in Abuja. He first drove the car to a nightclub in Abuja known as Tukano, on a Friday evening. He later headed for Makurdi, where he attended a reception organized by Aondoakaa for Governor Goje of Gombe and his Taraba counterpart Danbaba Suntai. Both men were "honored" by a university in Benue. It was not clear if the GL 450 SUV was part of his six-car convoy to Aondokaa's party.
On his return to Abuja after attending Aondoakaa's reception, Ahize took the car to the Akwa Ibom Lodge where Mrs. Waziri's driver took it over on December 3rd 2008. The driver then delivered the car to her GRA home in Gboko, Benue State, near Tilley Gyado Hotel. The driver returned to Abuja where the Personal Assistant to Mrs. Waziri, her blood brother, Yisa Terfa Moses, took over the vehicle's paper work. He gave Mrs. Waziri the papers at the house of her close friend, Mrs. Matilda Kwashi, a convenient location where she meets with politicians to receive kickbacks. Mrs. Kwashi is a former chief caterer to the State House. A source at the house told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Waziri got drunk there as she celebrated the gift of the car. Her joy was cut short during her visit to Lagos where she received the news that SaharaReporters had blown the cover of the Mercedes Benz GL 450 bribe.
She returned to Abuja for the long Sallah holidays, carefully avoiding Gboko, where efforts were made to hide the car from agents of the State Security Service who were said to be on its trail.
Incensed that the automobile bribe was leaked to our reporters, Mrs. Waziri planned to arrest Ahize. However, IGP Mike Okiro advised her against the move, stating that it could open a can of worms. Even so, sources close to Mrs. Waziri told us that she was still considering arresting Ahize "to pre-empt further revelations about the vehicle." If she carries out her threat, it would be reminiscent of her detention of controversial London-based Terry Waya, whom she accused of representing himself to some governors as her agent who could "kill their case files at the EFCC." Mr. Waya was released after SSS men cautioned him not to speak to the media about shocking text messages retrieved from his mobile phone. Text messages that were frequently exchanged between Waya and Mrs. Waziri sometimes at odd hours even though she claimed they weren't close.
Saharareporters has learnt that the house to which the Mercedes Benz was delivered has a history that tells on Mrs. Waziri's tainted background as a former head of the "Special Fraud Unit" (SFU) of the Nigerian Police Force. A reliable source told us that the house was built for her by a former "419" kingpin known as Jime Joseph Akaakar (aka JJ Akaakar). Like Mrs. Waziri, Akaakar is of Tiv ethnic identity.
Our source revealed that Akaakar met and formed a relationship with Mrs. Waziri while she held sway at the SFU in Lagos. Akaakar reportedly defrauded former Lobi Bank (owned by the Benue State Government) of hundreds of millions of naira using fake Central Bank of Nigeria instruments. His heist hastened Lobi Bank's failure in the 1990's. When the police, under the command of Mrs. Waziri, arrested Akaakar she aided him to escape to the UK, but he soon returned to Nigeria, afraid of being arrested in the UK. Upon his return to Nigeria, Akaakar was picked up by the police again and detained for 30 months while he awaited trial. During his so-called detention, Mrs. Waziri made sure Akaakai did not spend a day in jail. She put him in a room at the Police Medical Center in Falomo, Lagos on the pretext that he was "chronically" ill. Instead of staying in Ikoyi prison, Akaakar enjoyed freedom guaranteed by Mrs. Waziri to the extent that he was allowed to stray into Ikoyi Club to have fun. Attempts to rehabilitate Akaakar stated with Mrs. Waziri's friend, ex-governor, George Akume who appointed Akaakar as a "Special Assistant for Chieftancy Affairs" towards the end of his tenure. Akume gave him a Peugeot 604 car before leaving office. Akaakar current lives in Gwarinpa Estate in Abuja in the home given to him by his brother, a retired director of Federal highways, Engineer Jime Akaakar.
SaharaReporters gathered that Akaakar is currently working with Mrs. Waziri to get owners of the checks she claimed had expired to come forward and claim them. Akaakar is shopping on Mrs. Waziri's behalf to take kickbacks from the owners of checks left behind as exhibits by the former EFCC crew, even though she had already claimed that she doesn't have any records of the owners of the seized checks. Mr. Akaakar is also reportedly embarking upon the renovation of the house he built for Mrs. Waziri in the early 90's when he blossomed as a career economic criminal.
According to law enforcement agents who have worked with the EFCC in the past, Mrs. Waziri's EFCC is so discredited internationally that she has resorted to spending EFCC funds on "special consultants" with dubious backgrounds to serve the EFCC on the international front. Her so-called consultants include a former Metropolitan Police officer William Duncan McKelvie, known as Duncan, he was arrested in 2004 while working as a detective sergeant with Kingston Police in London for his dubious dealings in the UK. Almost all European nations have ceased dealing with the EFCC on account of what one Western diplomat described as "Mrs. Waziri's poor track record and seeming lack of seriousness in prosecuting the war on graft." Local anti-corruption groups speak about Mrs. Waziri penchant for fraud and her brazen and increasingly open fraternization with corrupt elements, including former and serving governors as well as the family of disgraced military dictator, retired general, Ibrahim Babangida.
A source within the EFCC told SaharaReporters that the EFCC chair "now relies heavily on the reports of her hired hands to generate information." Her well-paid "consultants" feed her spurious information gathered from such cheap online websites as US-based Intelius.com and UK-based 192.com. "They tell her that what they gather is 'solid intelligence' on the international dimensions of money laundering in Nigeria," said one official of the EFCC who is disenchanted by Mrs. Waziri's style and corrupt image.
The source told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Waziri's recent alarm that corrupt Nigerians were now buying houses abroad in large numbers was based on dubious reports generated online by her "consultants." She relied on such reports generated by one Victor Uwajei, an Ibori acolyte, as the basis for the agency's recent claims that former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu owns houses in San Bernadino and Colton, both cities in San Bernadino County in California. Based on such worthless reports, Mrs. Waziri planted stories in several Nigerian newspapers to the effect that Ribadu owns expensive real estate in the US. Last week, both Newswatch and the SOURCE Magazine published addresses of homes allegedly owned by Ribadu.
SaharaReporters checked on the public records of the addresses given on the pages of the publications as Ribadu's homes. Our investigators found conclusive proof that the stories were nothing short of ineptly packaged propaganda aimed at street level news consumers who would accept anything with the label of "Interpol" as gospel truth in Nigeria.
Our investigations found out that the reports rehashed by several Nigerian publications as "the preliminary findings of the Interpol" were downloaded pages from a simple search on the US-based Intelius.com and the UK website 192.com. The two sources are simple data websites that offer "fast-food" type information on individuals who live in the West – especially the US and the UK. Anybody with Internet access can go to the Intelius website and type in "Fatima RIBADU" and receive her address in San Benardino and Colton with the zip codes referenced in Nigerian newspapers. Armed with a credit card, anyone can purchase Fatima Ribadu's address in the US. Intelius reports offer such data as old and current addresses, average income, age and the average home value of the subject's address whether the subject of a search owns the property or simply rents it. It also lists the names of a search subject's relatives.
Below is a sample report generated by SaharaReporters from INTELIUS for a mere $1.50:
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As can be seen from the above information, "Fatima Ribadu" lives with a number of people at the addresses above, which were listed by several Nigerian newspapers as belonging to Nuhu Ribadu. Yet, it is clear that she is a 30-year old female possibly living with her husband and kids in San Bernadino. Any searcher could then go further by checking on her name at the San Bernadino county property information page on their website . When we did the search, we discovered that there is a "Maryam Ribadu" whose name appears in the inactive search does not own the house in San Bernadino. She possibly rents the apartment at STERLING PARKS APARTMENTS but INTELIUS does not make a distinction between owners and renters when it provides information on occupants of a home.
See Bernadino county property screenshot below showing that the apartments belongs to MARTINEZ RICARDO:
Our Internet search also revealed that there are close to 20 Ribadus in the US alone using www.zabasearch.com. Yet, a mischievous Mrs. Waziri has used some publications to publish all their names and properties as belonging to her predecessor. Nuhu Ribadu. The SOURCE used such unreliable data to give the impression that everyone in the UK named "IGBINEDION" was holding properties for former Governor Lucky Igbinedion of Edo state.
Regarding the houses in London ascribed to "Fatima Ribadu," our investigators discovered it is also a huge lie. Fatima Ribadu, a 23-year-old college student according to our published finding, does not OWN the property at 23 Woodlea Lane, Leeds, UK. See also: http://www.saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/? id=780
As we reported earlier, her husband, Mohammed Dodo, purchased the property in his name, the land title also has a housing loan information attached. Professional reporters from the Nigerian press could easily have obtained the information independently from the UK Land registry website for 3 pounds sterling. It is obvious that Fatima Ribadu (30) of San Bernadino County and Fatima Zarah Ribadu (23) of Leeds UK are two different individuals.
SaharaReporters could not investigate the Dubai property ascribed to Nuhu Ribadu since that emirate's real estate records were not available for access. Two self-styled anti-corruption lawyers recently charged with extortion (Charles Ogboli and Ugochukwu Ogbuagwu) have sued Nuhu Ribadu before a Federal High Court in Abuja regarding the Dubai property. They claim that Nuhu Ribadu bought and paid for the property in cash. Once again, several Nigerian newspapers claimed that the properties belonged to "Fatima Ribadu" and that the "INTERPOL" was now investigating her. Yet, Mr. Femi Falana, who is defending Ribadu in the case, told us that that the two lawyers have not filed any new evidence in court regarding the case, except for a computer generated photograph that the SOURCE magazine published as evidence.
One EFCC source regretted that "the overall effect of these blunders is to underline the incompetence of the current EFCC leadership." The agency now relies on self-styled "anti-corruption activists," "consultants," and sections of the media, many of them owned by former governors indicted for corruption" or, in the case of SOURCE, by Comfort Obi, a member of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
The commission has been hounding Ribadu through demotion and an ongoing effort to fire him from the police.
Some of the same elements, sponsored by the Yar'adua regime, have taken newspaper adverts first in The Nation and LEADERSHIP newspapers claiming that Omoyele Sowore of SaharaReporters owns several properties in New York and New Jersey. For "evidence," they list four addresses in the two states – in the exact order provided by INTELIUS. One of the buildings, 547 Riverside Drive, New York, is a Columbia university student hostel.
Several EFCC agents told our correspondent that Mrs. Waziri's desperate measures are a preemptive response to our revelations about her corrupt activities, including what one agent described as her direct pilfering of EFCC funds. "Several EFCC officials are mobilizing to mount an internal resistance to her poor leadership," said one source. He said agents were scandalized that Mrs. Waziri pays a hefty compensation for the useless information she receives from Mr. Uwajaei. In addition, Uwajaei carries EFCC letterheads and a letter of attorney from Mrs. Waziri.
Recently, Mrs. Waziri's spokesperson, Babafemi, announced that the EFCC had recovered $5.6 billion since she assumed office. We immediately sought details from Babafemi about the "recovery," requesting specifically how such a huge amount was recovered without any form of prosecution by the EFCC. We sought to know if Mrs. Waziri had created a "plea bargaining unit" for economic and financial criminals that excludes the courts. Mr. Babafemi promised to get the details of the recoveries from the agency's Lagos office where he claimed the bulk of the recoveries were made from, in his words, "419 people."
One week after the promise to provide details, we called him again, but he said our publication was too critical of the EFCC leadership, hence a decision not to provide any further "assistance" with the information. He complained about our expose on the Mercedes Benz, arguing that Mrs. Waziri did not need a bribe from Governor Akpabio because the Akwa Ibom state governor was not under "investigation." Reminded that there are at least six petitions against the governor before the EFCC, Mr. Babafemi backed off. He had not said there were no petitions, he told us, only that there were no ongoing investigations against the governor.
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