Saharareporters has learned from reliable sources that controversial former Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, has left Dakar, Senegal and is headed for Brazil. Saharareporters had exclusively reported that Aondoakaa left Nigeria for Dakar last weekend. He had told a few associates that his removal from the Justice Ministry and demotion to the portfolio of “Special Duties” meant that his enemies wanted to humiliate him.
Saharareporters has learned from reliable sources that controversial former Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, has left Dakar, Senegal and is headed for Brazil. Saharareporters had exclusively reported that Aondoakaa left Nigeria for Dakar last weekend. He had told a few associates that his removal from the Justice Ministry and demotion to the portfolio of “Special Duties” meant that his enemies wanted to humiliate him.
One source said that a friend advised Aondoakaa to reject his new posting and leave the cabinet, but that the former attorney general who made friends with sleazy politicians and corporations said things would get worse for him once he was entirely out of government.
After telling his friends that he needed to rest, Aondoakaa left Nigeria on Arik Air flight number W3078, arriving Dakar Yoff International Airport.
After spending a short time in Senegal, the rusticated attorney general took off for Brazil to enjoy the Rio Carnival. Our sources said former Governor James Ibori, Aondoakaa’s buddy, had made arrangements for the former AGF to attend the carnival which started on February 13 and will last till February 16 2010 in Rio De Janeiro. Aondoakaa’s associates describe him as addicted to nude and scantily clad women. “He is especially fond of Ethiopian women and belly dancers from Lebanon,” said one source.
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Since Aondoakaa’s demotion last week, many Nigerians and groups have called on Goodluck Jonathan to altogether remove the former attorney general and investigate his activities, especially his alliance with elements like Ibori whom he helped to bribe his way to acquittal on corruption charges.
“Aondoakaa is the most corrupt public officer in Nigeria today,” said a source at his old ministry, adding that “his strategic importance derived from assisting Yar'adua to corrupt the judiciary.” Aondoakaa played a pivotal role in inducing the justices of the Court of Appeal as well as those of the Supreme Court to validate Yar’adua’s tainted presidential mandate. That role endeared Aondoakaa to Mrs. Turai Yar’adua who protected him when Yar’adua, bowing to domestic and international pressure, twice tried to remove him.
Our sources within Aso Rock revealed that both Aondoakaa and Ibori bribed the marabouts (Islamist spiritualists imported from neighboring countries to minister to the sickly Yar’adua) to “keep feeding Yar’adua with lies that he would fall to his enemies once he let Aondoakaa go and distanced himself from Ibori.”
Once Aondoakaa established himself as a powerful figure in government, Yar'adua depended on him to help recruit trusted cronies to run national institutions with strategic importance.
Aondoakaa exploited the relationship to plant mediocre and often unscrupulous cronies who proceeded to bastardize the institutions. He installed his "brother", Paul Botwev Orhii, a recent law graduate from Texas, to run the The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Aondoakaa also ensured his control of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by installing his crony, Roland Ewubare as Executive Secretary, despite the man’s lack of prior background in the area of human rights advocacy. Another Aondoakaa’s protégé and "cousin", Robert Orya, was put at the helm of the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM). Orya was the Afribank executive who was used by Aondoakaa to purchase a $1 million house in Abuja from a former lawmaker from Ogun State, Kayode Amusan. The house, located at 23 David Bamigboye Street, in an area originally named Zone A, was purchased using Robert Orya as a front. Orya was subsequently appointed the Managing Director of NEXIM. Yar’adua also asked Aondoakaa to nominate a new Auditor General of the federation.
As AGF, Aondoakaa established a notoriety for corrupt practices, including shaking down state governors, receiving kickbacks to frustrate criminal cases (especially those involving corrupt ex-governors), and generally interfering with the legal process for pecuniary gains.
Before he was fired last week as AGF, Aondoakaa was known to brag that he had become the richest person to hail from Tiv, his ethnic group.
A source who is close to Aondoakaa said that the former AGF would be happy to leave Jonathan’s cabinet “if he could find a way to go underground so that nobody would bother him.”
Less clear is if Jonathan intends to retain Aondoakaa in the cabinet, even in the nondescript post of Minister for Special Duties. A source within the executive council told Saharareporters that Aondoakaa’s application for a leave of absence “did not receive approval to the fullest extent he'd requested” as the Jonathan-led regime wanted to keep open the option of probing his many financial scams.
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