One week after her confirmation as new chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri has shown the first signs of her cooperation with the coalition of corrupt elements who sponsored her appointment.
Our sources said that Mrs. Waziri gave the green light to Henry Imasekha (also known as "H-I"), one of former Governor James Ibori’s money laundering collaborators, to return to Nigeria. Mr. Imashekka, who had been a fugitive in Ghana, quietly returned to Nigeria this week. He had fled to Ghana as EFCC officials closed in on him late last year.
Mr. Imasekha played a major role in assisting the former Delta State governor to siphon off billions of naira from Delta State funds. He is the owner of Berkeley Group of Companies as well as Brisbane. He is also a director of Notore Chemical Company, a fertilizer company Ibori used to launder monies siphoned from his state.
In 2001, Imasekha used Bromley Limited to secure a loan of N2.2 billion from New Nigeria Bank without any collateral or evidence of any previous banking relationship with the bank. He then purchased a 10 per cent stake in Econet Nigeria Limited (now Celtel) on behalf of Ibori.
The Delta State government later purchased 5 per cent of Econet (now Celtel) shares from Bromley Limited for N2.5 billion through a bank draft drawn on Tony Elumelu's Standard Trust Bank (now UBA). Imasekha used the funds to pay off the loan he took from New Nigeria Bank. In 2006 when Celtel took over V-Mobile, Bromley sold its remaining shares to Celtel. It then plowed the proceeds into the acquisition of 13 per cent of the National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON).
Imasekha was also handy as the front for Ibori’s 2006 acquisition of Wilbros Nigeria Limited, a multinational oil-servicing firm in Port Harcourt. Imashekka bought it for $155 million, using his new company, Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited, but the funds came from Ibori.
Since fleeing Nigeria late last year to escape arrest and possible arraignment with Ibori, Imasekha has traveled extensively between Accra, Ghana, South Africa and Florida. He maintains a multimillion-dollar flat In Aventura- Miami, Florida. Earlier this year, he was spotted at the annual oil and gas conference in Texas. Since returning a few days ago, Imasekha has been maintaining a low profile at his 8th floor guest flat at the Ocean Parade Towers on Banana Islands (built by the Chagouris) near Ikoyi, Lagos.
Imasekha's return to Nigeria is coming on the heels of elaborate plans by the Waziri-led EFCC to accelerate the release of international passports the agency had seized from corrupt former governors. The agency had seized the passports as it cracked down on former state chief executives whose constitutional immunity expired at the end of May 2007.
Former Governors Lucky Igbinedion of Edo and Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia have been granted their international passports to embark on medical trips abroad. “The so-called medical trips are part of a bogus arrangement,” said one of our sources. “The Yar’adua administration has struck a deal to let the indicted former governors go scot-free. However, because of fear of the local and international backlash, the government has decided to give the impression of observing the rule of law. That’s why the courts are being used to approve the release of the passports.”
The source told us that Igbinedion, who got a medical pass, has traveled abroad several times. He has been spotted shopping in several U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Georgia and Boston, Massachusetts where he held an elaborate graduation party for his daughter a few weeks ago .
Our source also revealed that Ibori's passport will soon be released to allow him to travel abroad to “better hide some of his hidden assets abroad,” including South Africa where he has stupendous holdings.
Saharareporters has also learned that, while the EFCC was in limbo, Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa personally directed EFCC officers to carry out certain political actions. For example, he instigated the arrest of former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa. The design was to enable the PDP to have free reign in the ensuing court-ordered gubernatorial rerun in Sokoto State. Last week, Aondoakaa instructed the officer in charge of Bafarawa’s case not to release his passport yet. He wants Mrs. Waziri to use Bafarawa’s case as one of the test cases to "look tough" in the eyes of the Nigerian public.
All the manipulations and deceptive activities of Mrs. Waziri and her sponsors are coming on the heels of fresh warnings issued last week by international financial intelligence agencies monitoring money laundering in Nigeria to the effect that there has been an astronomical increase in money laundering activities from Nigeria at a level they had not seen in the last eight years.
In a memo to the Nigerian government which was read to Saharareporters over the phone, one of the agencies reported that a state governor recently declared $1 million cash at the point of entry to a European country. The memo also noted that Nigerian banks have devised new means of money laundering through Dubai and China on behalf of “Politically Exposed Persons (PEP).” The officer, who spoke to us anonymously, would not name the state governor involved.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Waziri has begun the "restructuring" of the EFCC as she promised during her confirmation hearing. Two days ago, she suspended Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, Nuhu Ribadu's erstwhile chief of staff. Saharareporters had earlier reported that she was handed a list of officers to be fired from the agency as well as those to be recalled to jobs. The list of those to be recalled includes names of police officers who were fired by the former EFCC board for engaging in corrupt practices.
Mrs. Waziri is also in the process of moving the chairperson's office from the third floor to the second. Her new office is getting new furniture which a staff member described as “too expensive, unnecessary and in bad taste.”
In a bid to bolster her false image as “a serious crime fighter,” Mrs. Waziri has concluded plans to charge Mr. Bode George before a Federal High Court in Lagos. George is a leader of the ruling PDP in the southwest and a close ally of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He amassed a great fortune during his tenure as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Despite Mr. George’s reputation as a corrupt official, a source within the agency told us that Mrs. Waziri’s plan to make him her first target “is driven by cynical considerations.” The source explained that the EFCC “has files of at least five former governors ready for prosecution, but the case against Chief Bode George is being brought forward to placate the Lagos media, which despises the PDP chieftain. Also, Chief Bola Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State, has asked that George be charged.” Tinubu and George have been political rivals for more than eight years.
Attorney General Aondoakaa is said to be shopping for judges who are willing to help Mrs. Waziri dispose of the avalanche of corruption cases that she and her sponsors have decided to “kill.” According to our source, “the whole idea is to use the mantra of rule of law to set so many corrupt politicians free.”googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
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