Fasawe, Emeka Offor, and late Waziri Ibrahim were conduits 

On December 16, 2005, we published a story entitled: How Obasanjo Subverts Democracy. In the said story we detailed how the President’s Party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was funded. Information coming out from the Obasanjo and Atiku camps has now confirmed the gist of that story. The President and his deputy have now confirmed the following excerpts from the December 16, 2005 story:

Another conduit for the channeling of money to the PDP was the late Waziri Mohammed. Andy Uba, Presidential Adviser and brother of the self-acclaimed Anambra State political godfather, was also a conduit. Each time the process was the same for getting money for the PDP: Note from the President and money sent to the PDP headquarters by any one of these three or more men.”  

Elendureports.com has been trying to unravel the money flow and its source. We spoke to various sources in Abuja to put together this story.  This is what we know so far:    Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy were sworn in on May 29, 1999. Like politicians in other parts of the world, Obasanjo and Atiku started worrying about their reelection in the next (2003) election. They embarked on creating a very strong party that would be the vehicle to another election victory. They needed money---and lots of it too. The President was funded the Party with government money on assumption of office. At some point, he and Atiku met and decided to stop funding the party directly from government.  They had to come up with other creative means of funding the PDP.    Vice President Atiku Abubakar was mandated to find funding sources for the Party. He came up with the idea of creating businesses and patronizing businesses that would in turn fund the PDP. Johnson Fasawe, Emeka Offor and Waziri Mohammed were recruited for this scheme. Otunba Fasawe was given charge of one of the companies while Emeka Offor and the late Waziri Mohammed were in charge of the other two companies. Contracts and businesses were channeled to these men and their companies.      

Pres. Obasanjo continued to fund PDP directly from government coffers.  Following protests from a few people in his government, he changed course. The President requested that two bank accounts be made available to him. And that is how Marine Float and MOFAS came to be.  Vice President Atiku Abubakar, according to sources in Abuja, called Habib Bank, now Bank PHB, and told a top official of the bank that he wanted an account to be used for the funding of PDP. The person he spoke with called him back a few hours later and gave him the name, Marine Float. Even though the president has continued to insist that Atiku had owned Marine Float since 1992, a source close to the Vice President said that, “The VP does not even know who the directors of Marine Float are.”    

MOFAS was a business owned by Otunba Fasawe. Fasawe and Atiku had been long time friends. From various sources we gathered that Otunba Fasawe was ‘a-not-too successful’ clearing agent when he met Atiku. Through his interactions with Atiku, who was then a senior customs officer, Fasawe was able to do businesses that launched him on the part to wealth.  Pres. Obasanjo and Otunba Johnson Fasawe became very close and that led to him living at the Defence House, Abuja for years. It will be recalled that Late Gen. Sanni Abacha died at Defence House. Otunba Fasawe had all the paraphernalia of a top government official. It is a known fact that people seeking favors from the President, including ministers passed through Otunba Fasawe. Besides his private office in Abuja, he is reputed to have maintained an unofficial office at the Nigerian National Petroleum (NNPC) headquarters, Abuja.  His office at NNPC Abuja is said to have been next to the Group Managing Director’s office. It was from this office that Otunba Fasawe controlled oil deals.    

Otunba Fasawe’s MOFAS account’s funding of PDP was consistent. He also used the company to fund other illegal activities of the Obasanjo Government. For instance, sometime in 2004, the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) threatened to go on strike. The leadership of the Nigeria Labor Congress was invited to Abuja and MOFAS made available the sum of two hundred and fifty million naira (N250,000,000.00) for the appeasement of these labor leaders. Elendureports.com was taken to an uncompleted building on Oyi River Crescent, Ministers’ Hill, off Babangida Way in Abuja. This building, which is owned by a labor leader (names withheld for now), was paid for from the two hundred and fifty million naira bribe. The building cost forty million naira (N40,000,000.00). The owner of that building is currently involved in politics.   

Traditional rulers, activists, members of the judiciary, top military officers, and even former Heads of State benefited from the MOFAS funds. Even opposition political parties were infiltrated and factions of these parties funded from monies from MOFAS and Marine Float. There are unconfirmed reports that the President may have benefited from these funds directly. The President is said to have paid back a check of seven hundred million naira (N700,000,000.00) to Otunba Fasawe’s MOFAS accounts. Why? MOFAS accounts had been overdrawn by over one billion naira.     

How did Otunba Johnson Fasawe and MOFAS come into so much wealth that they were funding the activities of the so-called biggest political party in Africa? The money came from NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

In interviewing various sources in Abuja, Lagos, and London for this story we unraveled a scheme that fleeced Nigeria of hundreds of millions of dollars over years. The scheme worked like this: Companies who were awarded oil blocks were required to pay a fee. From this fee, some commission was paid to Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, represented by a cartel run by some brothers. This commission was usually paid in foreign currency. This cartel, in turn, would give the money to Otunba Fasawe in cash. Otunba Fasawe would sell the foreign exchange and pay the naira value into MOFAS account from where he would disburse to PDP and others.    

Also, importers of petroleum products and contractors to NNPC were required to pay commission to the President’s fronts. There are indications that a twenty million pound check (₤20,000,000.00) which was transferred to this account was withheld by the British Government. We are yet to confirm this.    A bank draft of fifty million naira (N50,000,000.00) was given to Vice President Atiku Abubakar by Otunba Fasawe every month. It is this draft that Atiku would hand over to PDP officials when they come to collect money for running of the Party. According to a source who was involved in these transactions, “Atiku never gave us cash. It was always a bank draft.” This source told Elendureports.com that sometimes they were kept waiting for hours and that Atiku hardly spoke to them. “Sometimes the treatment was humiliating. They will keep you waiting for hours and then somebody will come out with a bank draft and send you on your way.”    

Apart from MOFAS which was controlled by Otunba Fasawe, the front company used by the late Waziri Mohammed was Sefiya Investment. It operated a bank account with Trans International Bank (TIB) before the death of Waziri Mohammed. This company is believed to have kept the funds for the third term project of the President. The company used by Emeka Offor for this scheme is yet to be determined. A highly placed source in Abuja told Elendureports.com that Emeka Offor may have used one of his legitimate companies for this scheme. Offor, we gathered, was “settled” with the Sao Tome and Principe oil deals in return for his relinquishing of his hold on Anambra “political structures” to the Uba brothers.     

Emeka Offor, in a telephone chat with this writer in 2005, had denied getting any patronage from the Obasanjo Government through Vice President Atiku Abubakar. His business empire got contracts from the Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA) now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)  running into billions of dollars.     

In the course of investigating this story, we came across information about donations made to the failed third term project. A governor from the East is said to have donated one billion naira (N1,000,000,000.00) to the project. A few other governors from the North, Mid-West and other places donated various sums totaling about two billion, three hundred million naira (N2,300,000,000.00). We are working hard to get copies of the checks, especially the one billion naira check.    

In a related development, Elendureports.com has discovered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission search of the Vice President’s account unearthed some startling news to the officers. The investigators discovered that Atiku Abubakar is indebted to the tune of about forty-five million naira. According to a reliably source, “the man’s bank accounts are all in the red. This was a big surprise.”    

However, we have since learnt that the Vice President took a loan from the bank and used one of his houses as collateral.   

We made efforts to talk to the President’s spokesperson, Remi Oyo, for this story. Our calls to her cell phone were not answered and we did not get a call back. Emeka Offor was said to have been in meetings when we called. Although we left a phone number for him to reach us, we did not get a call from Offor or anybody in his office.

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