July 1, 2007
The hoopla generated by Ms. Chioma Anasoh's money laundering case might have led to fresh troubles for the Nigerian Customs Service, as they were said to have destroyed records associated with the six-hour detention of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's girlfriend and special asistant, Chioma Anasoh who was caught on June 27th 2007 with $240,000 said to be cash belonging to the former minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
Shortly after arresting her as she got on the plane to travel on a British Airways flight to London from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode intervened to get her off the hook leaving the customs officials to take the larger chunk of the money if they agree to destroy the evidence of her arrest and subsequent detention.A source told Saharareporters that the custom officials took a big bribe and destroyed the case file on her claiming the amount found on her was legally permissible without stating how much it was.
The report had earlier been broken by Saharareporters as soon as it happened, it was reported that Chioma Anasoh was traveling with Folake St. Matthew -Daniels who was Femi Fani-Kayode's appointee to the legal department of the National Airspace Management Authority (NAMA)-also involved in laundering money for Femi Fani-Kayode.Chioma Anasoh and Folake St. Matthew -Daniels were escorted into the British Airways flight by close aides to the former minister at the airport and without regular checks conducted by airport security, however, a custom official miffed with the arrangement had insisted that Chioma come down from the aircraft, she was later found with $240,000 and arrested by customs.
Giving a spin to her ordeal, Chioma Anansoh wrote a rejoinder about our story with gave a clear insight to have the events were manipulated to get her off the hook, cleverly avoiding telling the real truth but nonetheless admitting to the story, she stated inter alia "“I wish to state categorically and clearly that there is no iota of truth in the suggestion that I or Mrs. Folake St. Mathew Daniel who I was traveling with was nabbed by operatives of EFCC (Custom) with ($240,000) in our possession. It is also untrue that we were asked to report to EFCC later.”
She continued “On the morning of June 27, 2007 I went to the airport to travel to United Kingdom. I went through the normal processes at the airport but unfortunately because I was not given a currency declaration form to fill, I forgot to do so. Once I boarded the plane, a message was sent to me that because I did not fill the currency declaration form that I should come down and do so. I gladly complied with this but unfortunately for me while I was in the process of filling the form in the company of a custom officer, they told me that the plane could not wait for me and it had to leave. Consequently, I missed my flight.”
According to Ms. Anasoh, “after filling the form, the custom officer duly certified it and the custom officer can confirm the fact that the amount of money (she refuses to state how much) with me was firmly within the lawful limit. Having been certified that the forms were dully filled and that I have done nothing illegal or questionable,the custom officer apologized to me for having to miss my flight and he advised me to take the flight the following morning which I did.”
Femi Fani-Kayode, according to his handlers is being considered for a ministerial position by the illegitimate government of Umar Musa Yar'adua. After saharareporters broke the story, he invited our reporters to a private meeting in Abuja, Nigeria promising to fly our team to Nigeria from New York, an offer we declined, his people had insisted that they have taken care of the local media in order to kill the story and might have succeeded, but Saharareporters will continue to follow the story until Fani-kayode and his co-money launders are brought to book.
Shortly after arresting her as she got on the plane to travel on a British Airways flight to London from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode intervened to get her off the hook leaving the customs officials to take the larger chunk of the money if they agree to destroy the evidence of her arrest and subsequent detention.A source told Saharareporters that the custom officials took a big bribe and destroyed the case file on her claiming the amount found on her was legally permissible without stating how much it was.
The report had earlier been broken by Saharareporters as soon as it happened, it was reported that Chioma Anasoh was traveling with Folake St. Matthew -Daniels who was Femi Fani-Kayode's appointee to the legal department of the National Airspace Management Authority (NAMA)-also involved in laundering money for Femi Fani-Kayode.Chioma Anasoh and Folake St. Matthew -Daniels were escorted into the British Airways flight by close aides to the former minister at the airport and without regular checks conducted by airport security, however, a custom official miffed with the arrangement had insisted that Chioma come down from the aircraft, she was later found with $240,000 and arrested by customs.
Giving a spin to her ordeal, Chioma Anansoh wrote a rejoinder about our story with gave a clear insight to have the events were manipulated to get her off the hook, cleverly avoiding telling the real truth but nonetheless admitting to the story, she stated inter alia "“I wish to state categorically and clearly that there is no iota of truth in the suggestion that I or Mrs. Folake St. Mathew Daniel who I was traveling with was nabbed by operatives of EFCC (Custom) with ($240,000) in our possession. It is also untrue that we were asked to report to EFCC later.”
She continued “On the morning of June 27, 2007 I went to the airport to travel to United Kingdom. I went through the normal processes at the airport but unfortunately because I was not given a currency declaration form to fill, I forgot to do so. Once I boarded the plane, a message was sent to me that because I did not fill the currency declaration form that I should come down and do so. I gladly complied with this but unfortunately for me while I was in the process of filling the form in the company of a custom officer, they told me that the plane could not wait for me and it had to leave. Consequently, I missed my flight.”
According to Ms. Anasoh, “after filling the form, the custom officer duly certified it and the custom officer can confirm the fact that the amount of money (she refuses to state how much) with me was firmly within the lawful limit. Having been certified that the forms were dully filled and that I have done nothing illegal or questionable,the custom officer apologized to me for having to miss my flight and he advised me to take the flight the following morning which I did.”
Femi Fani-Kayode, according to his handlers is being considered for a ministerial position by the illegitimate government of Umar Musa Yar'adua. After saharareporters broke the story, he invited our reporters to a private meeting in Abuja, Nigeria promising to fly our team to Nigeria from New York, an offer we declined, his people had insisted that they have taken care of the local media in order to kill the story and might have succeeded, but Saharareporters will continue to follow the story until Fani-kayode and his co-money launders are brought to book.
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