Babangida’s Hidden Treasure

By Ademola Adegbamigbe

Registered in May 2001 with share capital of £400,000, Fruitex started with two directors, Mohammed Babangida and Susan Scott. In 2005, the directors increased to three: Mohammed, 34 years old; Scott, a British citizen and company secretary, 49, and Aminu Babangida, 29.

When Saharareporters traced the company to Rod Johnson, a US representative, he insisted on receiving advance questions before he could respond. When he was asked to explain his relationship with the Babangida, and the interest of Fruitex in Irving, Texas, where his office is located, the company’s website (www.fruitexlimited.com) was, according to Saharareporters, “shut down.”

Mr. Johnson refused to respond to all inquiries.

Recently, Mohammed was arrested by agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) over his alleged ownership of 24 per cent shares in Globacom, owned by Mike Adenuga, one of IBB’s friends. Mohammed’s release was secured by General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, a former Intelligence Chief under IBB and, until recently, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s National Security Adviser.

Pictures of Mohammed's House in London

Pictures by Kayode Ogundamisi in London

A Maradona Hits a Roadblock- Saharareporters/TheNews 

By ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE

His admirers and critics waited for the day with bated breath. They had expected that General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a former Nigerian military leader, would seize the occasion of his birthday lecture at the Ladi Kwali Hall of Abuja Sheraton Hotel on Tuesday 15 August, to make a definitive pronouncement on his presidential ambition. But when he mounted the dais, his speech, in spite of its pretensions to setting democratic and nationalistic standards, was a study in self-defence and persecution complex. The closest it got to making a political statement on his ambition was that he would rather define the challenges of the future as making things whole again, a process to which he claimed commitment.

“National history is never an episode,” Babangida began as he surveyed the hall which many current political bigwigs in Nigeria gave a wide berth.  The majority of the governors he had invited to grace the occasion stayed away. Senator Ahmadu Ali, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Chief Anthony Anenih, Chairman of Board of Trustees of the party; members of the House of Representatives were absent. And for good measure, the three senators from Niger State – Idris Kuta, Isah Mohammed and Nuhu Aliyu – did not show up. Also absent were Senate President, Ken Nnamani; Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Bello Masari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore. Their names were on the programme.

Babangida, however, swallowed his disappointment and continued with his address: The nation’s political history, he said, is “a continuous contribution and efforts of succession of leaders, each entitled to his success and mistakes alike.” He argued further that Nigeria should not allow national discourse to degenerate to a level where “we begin to see a difference between our past and present in terms of absolutes: evil versus good, corruption versus holiness, soldiers versus civilians, saints versus sinners.” He argued that with this disposition, Nigerians would be sharpening the edges of conflict in the society.

General Babangida took the audience on a historical excursion, pointing out that each generation of leaders had distinctive challenges; each confronted by problems not exactly like those of leaders before them or those who had come after them. He argued that General Yakubu Gowon faced the task of post-civil war reconstruction and reconciliation; the Murtala Muhammed and Obasanjo regime, with morality, nationality and the dignity of the black man, while General Muhammadu Buhari and President Shehu Shagari laid the foundation of democracy and restructuring the social order. IBB credited his own regime with laying the foundation for free market economy, which historians have controverted.

At a point, the speech which Babangida rendered with the aplomb of a Pope, changed its tenor from a morality sermon to a requiem mass. It was as if he was marking the death of his political plan for 2007. Acknowledging the various roadblocks on his way, the same obstacles he had placed on the path of politicians when he was military president, he lamented: “Issues that had long been presumed resolved have, once again, come to the fore with greater clarity and compelling stridency.”

Some of the issues that IBB presumed were resolved in the past have, according to his critics, become landmines on the path of his presidential bid. These are the various allegations of corruption against him, culminating in the arrest of his son, Mohammed, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); the premeditated execution of Major-General Mamman Jiya Vatsa over coup plotting; the killing of Dele Giwa, founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch, via a parcel bomb in 1986; the way he dribbled and dumped those who had presidential ambition during his reign, and others. 

 Ironically, to rub in the tar of corruption on General Babangida, his son, Mohammed, was picked up by operatives of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday 11 August 2006 over the allegation that he owns 24 per cent shares in the $1.5 billion Globacom shareholding. He was alleged to have bought the shares in the name of a Kaduna-based company. 

The EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu, told the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that Mohammed was arrested as “part of the on-going investigations we have been doing for the past two weeks now on the case of Globacom. The investigations took us to Kaduna to get someone and the information we were looking for. On getting there, we discovered that the house belongs to Mohammed Babangida.”

Indeed, the man whom the EFCC arrested in Kaduna reportedly confessed that he was fronting for IBB’s son. He was later freed after cooling his heels in detention for 34 hours. Mohammed, who has no visible means of livelihood, spends money like a drunken sailor, lavishing gifts on his girlfriends and spending a fortune on expensive horses to keep alive his love of polo. But like the Kaduna findings by EFCC, Mohammed invests his money through fronts. He is married to Rahama Indimi, heiress of Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, the Oriental Energy Resources chairman. As revealed by Saharareporters, the company owns Oil Mining Licence (OML) 115 of Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 224 which covers over 61,000 acres in the shallow waters, 35 nautical miles off the South East Coast of Nigeria.

The company receives technical support from a Texan company, Sovereign Oil. Joseph M. Bruso, its President, revealed that OML 115 is located in one of the richest oil-tracts in the world. “The block,” according to him, “lies at the centre of a 1.2 million acre tract with over 7 billion barrels of oil reserves. It produces over one billion barrels of oil per day.”

Mohammed was, therefore, questioned by EFCC to explain how he acquired his expensive horses, polo club and those blocks of flats in Kaduna which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) rented. An EFCC source revealed that his Globacom shares were traced to the Kaduna address. He was, however, released on bail on Sunday 13 August 2006, through the help of the immediate former National Security Adviser, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and some of his father’s political associates. But EFCC seized Mohammed’s passport and restricted his movement.

The arrest of Mohammed, who is planning to be governor of Niger State in 2007, is in line with EFCC’s plan to prevent corrupt individuals from contesting election in 2007. Ribadu vowed at a lecture organized by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), in Lagos recently that the commission would expose all highly placed individuals who had looted the public treasury.

“Over $400 billion oil money has been stolen by bad leaders. We are going to trace the activities of past and present leaders and publish the names of those leaders who have laundered money, their accounts, and the names of the banks where the money is being kept. We will also close the account of those politicians who have laundered money and converted it for their political ambitions. This will stop bad people from coming into power.”

This notwithstanding, IBB’s associates interpreted Mohammed’s arrest as an indirect way of targeting his father. One of them, Alhaji Nma Kolo, argued that it was unfortunate that the EFCC has become a tool which President Olusegun Obasanjo uses to oppress perceived political opponents. “We are not surprised about this development, as such oppressive actions of the EFCC started with Gen. Buba Marwa, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and now Babangida. We believe more of such arrests are still coming from the commission.”

Alhaji Aliyu Adamu, National President, All Nigeria Youth Movement for IBB, and Malam Salman Yusuf, attacked EFCC over the arrest. “It was part of the political game plan on the part of the government to frustrate IBB’s political ambition.” Yusuf said, adding that “the arrest was part of the government’s agenda to frustrate and intimidate notable and credible politicians out of the political contest…”

The former dictator pursued his persecution argument during a special prayer session organized to mark his birthday by family members in Minna, the Niger State capital. Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Colonel Habibu Idris Shuaibu (retd).  IBB said that he would not be discouraged by the recent developments. “We are all aware of the tribulations the family had recently passed through. We are not deterred because we know that insha Allah; they (the persecutors) will not succeed.”

Shuaibu further said that the end of the tribulation had not yet come. He told those who graced the occasion that it was an indication of their conviction of the calibre of the man (IBB) that Nigerians are looking forward to for the leadership of this country come 2007. Babangida himself told journalists that he did not publicly declare his intention to run for president because he was “still studying the situation.”

If Babangida whines about EFCC’s harassment of his son, Professor Tam David West, a former Petroleum Resources Minister, will be having a good laugh. Babangida had sacked him for allegedly drinking tea and receiving a wristwatch gift from some NNPC business partners.

The second area where the Olusegun Obasanjo administration is targeting IBB is the probe of Globacom, owned by Chief Mike Adenuga.  EFCC officials have been trying to establish that Babangida owns substantial investment in the company. The discovery of Mohammed Babangida’s 24 per cent stake in the company appeared to have confirmed EFCC’s suspicion about Babangida’s connection to the giant telecom company. The EFCC also thinks Babangida has interest in other companies owned by Adenuga. Operatives of EFCC, on 15 August, invaded the head offices of Globacom, Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) and Conoil, all of which belong to Adenuga. Numbering about 20, the officials broke the doors of the offices and forced their way in.

The EFCC operatives arrived the Globacom premises around 4.30p.m. with the Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa who they had earlier arrested at his Lagos office on Saka Tinubu, Victoria Island. When they got to the Legal Department on the 4th Floor, the officials reportedly asked after Mrs. Gladys Talabi, the company’s Executive Director, Legal. As a Globacom staff told a national daily: “When they were told she was not around, they threatened to break the door to her office. They later tore the door into shreds with a special metal with fork fingers which they came with.” They, thereafter, went away with computer hardware and files.

Simultaneously, another EFCC team descended on the premises of ETB on Adeola Odeku and left with the Director of Legal Services.  Defending his men, Ribadu had said: “We went there to take some documents to aid our investigations.”

Ribadu argued: “We can understand that people are not used to the fact that just as small businesses are investigated, big ones can also be investigated. We are guided by the principle of equity before the law and we also know that it would take a while before everyone believes that. One thing Nigerians must concede to us is that in the course of our investigation, nobody has ever accused EFCC of assault.” On 9 July, 2006, EFCC operatives had arrested Adenuga over the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PDTF) accounts, after storming Adenuga’s home on Oko-Awo in Victoria Island.

Babangida’s current travails appear to be retribution for the numerous sins he committed when he ruled the country for eight years. And perhaps most heinous of the atrocities was the gruesome murder of General Mamman Vatsa, his former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who also was his childhood friend. An interview granted TheNEWS by General Domkat Bali, IBB’s Chief of Defence Staff, and subsequent letters written to the President by Sufiya, Vatsa’s widow, may have prompted  a renewed  official interest in the criminal execution.

The execution of Vatsa followed his alleged involvement in a phantom coup in December 1985. Vatsa and 99 others were subsequently arrested and investigated by the Brigadier-General Sani Sami-led Preliminary Special Investigation Panel. In the end, Vatsa and 16 others were court-martialed by a Special Military Tribunal, headed by Major-General Charles Ndiomu. Those who were tried included Lt-Cols Musa Bitiyong, Christian A. Oche, Michael A. Iyorshe; Lt. K. G. Dakpa, Commodore A. A. Ogwiji, Wing Commanders B.E. Ekele, Adamu Sakaba; Squadron Leaders Martin Luther, C. Ode and A. Ahura.

The tribunal tried the officers under the Treason and other Related Offences (Special Military Tribunal) Decree 1 of 1986. Other members of the tribunal included Brigadier Yerima Yohanna Kure, Commodore Murtala Nyako, Col. Rufus Kupolati, Col. E. Opaleye, and Lt-Col. D. Muhammed. Alhaji Mamman Nasarawa, a commissioner of police and Major A. Kejawa, the Judge Advocate, were also members. The IBB regime accused Vatsa of trying to overthrow it by hiding behind a farming loan to Lt-Colonel Bitiyong, a charge which Vatsa denied.

But the trial and execution of Vatsa and others were done under questionable circumstances, giving the impression that the events were premeditated. Vatsa’s widow, Sufiya, believes that IBB himself planned the coup. “He wrote the script and got an officer to execute it. The officer in question was close to Mamman Madaki, a former military administrator of Plateau State. Pleas by eminent Nigerians who were sympathetic to the perceived innocence of Vatsa for clemency were rebuffed by IBB.”

Perhaps more questionable was the controversial law under which Vatsa and others were sentenced. Sufiya argued further that the Treason and other Related Offences (Special Military Tribunal) Decree No. 1 of 1986 under which Vatsa was tried, was signed by IBB on 6 January 1986, “several days after his arrest.”

Mr. Femi Falana, a Lagos lawyer and human rights activist added: “In actuality, by December 1985 when General Vatsa and others were arrested, the only law in the country dealing with treason was the Criminal Code or the Penal Code. In particular, Section 37 of the Criminal Code provides for death penalty for anybody who engages in acts calculated to remove the President or to overthrow the Head of State. But the problem the lawyers of the junta had was that the Criminal Code was not designed to protect a military dictator.” But to make the malicious execution of Vatsa and others possible, Falana hinted that IBB hurriedly drafted a decree to nail them.

Like a dark tag hanging over a white sheep, however, the killing of Vatsa remained the former Nigerian president’s nightmare. And as many would expect, the ghosts of Vatsa and his co-accused are threatening Babangida’s political ambition to its foundation. Many Nigerians are insisting that Babangida be called by the federal government to account for his misdeeds. The calls led to the recent decision by the Presidency to take a second look at the circumstances that led to the execution of the alleged coup plotters with a view to examining the complaints of the family. This followed Sufiya’s letters to President Olusegun Obasanjo. Sufiya had, on three occasions, written to the President requesting a meeting. Particularly, in a letter dated 15 June 2006, she urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to prosecute General Ibrahim Babangida for the murder of her husband in 1986. “Although there was no iota of evidence linking my husband with the phantom coup, he was convicted and sentenced to death by the Special Military Tribunal which purportedly tried him and other coup suspects.” She lamented further that her husband’s appeal against his illegal conviction was yet to be considered when IBB had him secretly executed along with other ‘coup convicts’.

Sufiya’s appeal was on the strength of  the Bali  interview  published in the 22 May 2006 edition. According to Gen. Bali:  “My regret is that up till now, I am not sure whether Vatsa ought to have been killed because whatever evidence they amassed against him was weak. My only regret is that I could not say ‘don’t do it.’ I am not sure whether it was right to have killed him.” And apart from General Domkat Bali, Major General Charles Ndiomu also once made a statement that he regretted killing Vatsa.

Consequent upon publication of the interview by TheNEWS and the subsequent letter by Sufiya, the Presidency, on Wednesday 26 July 2006, invited members of the family for consultation. The Presidency’s approval was conveyed through a letter signed by K. Uudli in the Chief of Staff’s office. At the meeting, TheNEWS learnt, the family specifically requested for the release of Vatsa’s “body to the family for a proper and decent burial.’’  It also requested that those responsible for the murder of Vatsa should be brought to book.

Margaret Joseph, a family member, told journalists shortly after the meeting: “We are particularly thankful to Mr. President for the willingness of his administration to right past wrongs. The murder of Vatsa is one of those wrongs that are crying to be righted.”

Indeed, the charge appears to be threatening IBB’s presidential bid in no small measure. Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, who is the Coordinator of the National Democratic Forum (NDF), wants to hold a nationwide campaign against IBB’s 2007 plan. “We are starting from the South-South, precisely in Calabar. We believe his coming back will throw Nigeria into slavery, as the nation will go into captivity,” Jonathan said.

For Vatsa’s widow, IBB, like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, has murdered sleep and shall sleep soundly no more until justice is done. “There are many other thousands of innocent people in the grave whom IBB murdered. Their souls are crying for justice. All those he made widows and orphans are seeking justice. He has no hiding place. Should anybody or group of persons make any mago mago to force IBB on Nigerians, the Aba women riot of 1929 will be a child’s play to the women riot that will be witnessed in 2007.”

But Alhaji Shaibu Badeggi, Special Assistant on Public Communication to Governor Abdulkadir Kure of Niger State and an aide of Babangida, stoutly defended the execution, claiming that a process found Vatsa and nine others culpable in the coup saga. According to him, Mrs. Vatsa’s petition is baseless. “She should shut up. Shut up! If you commit a coup and you know the punishment is death, then you should face it. That’s all. Those who plot a coup, when the coup fails, they die. Simple.”

To really make the war being waged against IBB for murdering Vatsa effective, the North Central Democratic Vanguard (NCDV) has produced a N1.6 million documentary, containing interviews with Sufiya, her sons and Major Moses Effiong, one of the alleged coupists who escaped execution, though jailed, but set free by President Obasanjo alongside Majors West and Akwashiki.

Effiong argues that there was insufficient evidence to kill Vatsa. “He was unjustly killed,” he contended. He revealed that Vatsa was accused of giving N10,000  to Bitiyong to plan a coup, a sum, which he said, even at that time, was too meager to motivate anyone to embark on such a risky venture. Vatsa was also accused of giving plots of land to the alleged coupists, yet General Ndiomu and others who sat in judgment against him had all collected plots of land from Vatsa when he was the FCT minister. The documentary was aired on the Africa Independent Television (AIT) between 10 and 11p.m. on Saturday 12 August. It was repeated the following day in the afternoon and at 7.p.m. There were indications that, given the cost of the production, the documentary might have been sponsored by powerful elements bent on dealing with IBB.

Beside the desire for justice by Vatsa’s family, the current inquest into the murder also appears a veritable arsenal in the hands of President Olusegun Obasanjo in his quest to make a mess of IBB’s presidential ambition, a reason those in IBB’s camp believe that the exhumation of the case has a political undertone.

In a recent article, however, one of IBB acolytes, Captain Sagir Muhammed (retd), alleged that an officer who was executed when Obasanjo was Head of State for involvement in the 1976 Dimka coup, was found to be innocent. He also accused Vatsa of ordering that a sergeant be beaten to death. Sagir challenged Obasanjo to probe these too.

If General Babangida is now complaining of victimization, watchers of Nigerian politics submit that he is being paid back in his own coin. For while he reigned, he dribbled the political class, a tendency for which the late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, in his column Ayekooto, called him Maradona (the Argentine soccer icon).

However, a revisionist group which calls itself Initiative for Equal Co-existence published a full page advertorial entitled Why Is IBB Maradona?,  in a recent edition of Nigerian Tribune, complemented with a cartoon of IBB in military uniform and with a football, dribbling to the left, right and later settling at the centre. To the group, this symbolizes IBB’s “deft ability to balance issues, both public and private.” They painted IBB’s Maradonic nature further: “He weaves his way stylishly through tough defense of opponents (challenges), in football game (governance), to score goals (objectives), in satisfying fans (colleagues, admirers), pacify[ing] opponents and, ultimately grow[ing] the game (national development).” Like Maradona, the group claimed, IBB knows “our political terrain well and would, no doubt, overcome bureaucratic labyrinth to really make us, Nigerians, the happiest people in the world.”

Last week, analysts quickly pointed out that the Initiative for Equal Co-existence was trying to re-write history. This is because; IBB dribbled and dumped the politicians who had then wanted to be president, so that he could elongate his own tenure. TheNEWS did a characterisation of IBB in its 24 May 1993 cover story, entitled Babangida’s Methods and Tactics: “Deceit, intimidation, flattery, cronyism, divide and rule, blackmail and settlement were the major ingredients of the Babangida method, the tools with which he has navigated so skillfully through the tempestuous Nigerian political terrain.”

First, IBB began his total grip on the political scene by weakening the military, his immediate constituency. He demoted General Domkat Bali, his Chief of Defence Staff to Internal Affairs Minister. Bali had to retire in frustration. He had earlier sent his deputy, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, out of government for demonstrating independent thought over Nigeria’s surreptitious moves to become a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other issues. Babangida added a coup de grace by way of Decree 17 of 1985 which gave him the power to hire or fire his Chief of General Staff, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Service Chiefs, members of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) and the Inspector-General of Police.

Having weakened his military base which could rise up against him, the Maradona started perfecting his elongation plot. First, he dumped the report of the Political Bureau, headed by S.J. Cookie, which recommended a quick return to civil rule. Thereafter, IBB postponed his date of handover from 1990 to 1992, then to January 1993 and finally, August 1993 when he “stepped aside”. Now, he is preparing to “step in” next year.

In 1989, Babangida, with military fiat, had established two parties, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) , into which he lured many politicians to contest the presidential election. But on 17 November 1991, he banned 23 presidential aspirants whom he regarded as “the old breed”. Among them were late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Chiefs Arthur Nzeribe and Olu Falae; Lateef Jakande and Umar Shinkafi. Worse still, Babangida herded them into detention at Epe so that they could “interact with one another.”

The former Military President, inaugurating the then National Assembly on 5 December 1992, had revealed another political program. “This administration,” IBB had claimed, “is committed to free and fair presidential elections through which will emerge at the national level, a chief executive who will be acceptable to all Nigerians. The adoption of option A4 is in pursuance of this commitment.” 

That was the period when IBB made the statement that he knew those who would not succeed him. This began to have fulfillment as the election drew nearer, with Chief MKO Abiola (who was later murdered in detention) and Alhaji Bashir Tofa emerging presidential candidates of the Social Democratic Party and National Republican Convention respectively. Just when it appeared that the National Electoral Commission (NEC) would midwife a process that would provide Nigeria with a new civilian president, Chief Arthur Nzeribe, Abimbola Davies and their men in the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) got an injunction in the night, from Justice Bassey Ikpeme on 10 June 1993 to stop the presidential polls. But Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the NEC Chairman, went ahead with the election on 12 June 1993, having been covered by Decree 13 of 1993 that gave the electoral body immunity against any court injunctions. On 23 June 1993, Babangida in an unsigned statement annulled the election, which was believed to have been won by Abiola. Thus, IBB threw the nation into a political upheaval, leading to his final exit on 27 August the same year.

Babangida has another case dangling over his head. The Sunday 19 October 1986 gruesome bombing of Giwa at his Talabi Street, Ikeja, Lagos residence remains the most celebrated, yet unsolved murder in the history of Nigeria. Giwa, then 39, was the editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine. For the last 20 years, the Giwa murder has remained a mystery, defying all efforts by security agencies to get to the root of the matter. But over the years, tongues have been wagging, insinuations and innuendos have been made. However, the names of the former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida and two ex-security chiefs – Brigadier-General Halilu Akilu, former Director of Military Intelligence and Colonel A.K. Togun of the State Security Service – constantly take the frontline as those behind the murder.

In the last two decades, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, renowned human rights activist and counsel to the deceased, has embarked on a solo crusade to prosecute the trio for Giwa’s murder. At the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, HRVIC popularly referred to as the Oputa Panel, the fiery Lagos lawyer led a record number of lawyers, alongside Giwa’s mother, in evidence, to press for the prosecution of the former head of state. Also testifying at the panel in Abuja in the same petition filed by Fawehinmi over Giwa’s gruesome elimination, Alhaji Abubabar Tsav, former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, concluded that the government of General Babangida suppressed the case to protect the perpetrators of the evil deed from prosecution. According to Tsav, the Babangida government frustrated the efforts of the police to unravel the circumstances leading to the death of Giwa. Tsav identified Babangida, Akilu and Togun as the trio who should know what happened to the late journalist. But any dream of having the former president and his men appear before the Oputa panel was banished when IBB procured a court injunction which prevented the panel from compelling him to appear before it.

Babangida will also have the Gulf War oil windfall allegation to grapple with. In October 1994, Pius Okigbo, an economist, chaired a panel set up by the late dictator, Sani Abacha, to reorganize the Central Bank of Nigeria. Okigbo revealed that $12.2 billion of the $12.4 billion that Nigeria realized from the sale of excess crude oil was wasted by the IBB regime. As Okigbo revealed, only $206 million was left and this was spent “on what could neither be adjudged genuine projects or truly regenerative investments.”  A catalogue of the wasteful projects: the Nigerian High Commission in London was allocated $18.2 million; the one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, $14.999 million; Iran $2.76 million; Niger Republic, $3.8 million; Pakistan, $3.8 million; Israel $13.67 million; Liberia, $1 million and Ghana, $0.5 million. IBB and his wife spent $9.94 million on frivolous trips and he wasted $23.98 million on Dodan Barracks and Aso Rock. Nigeria’s Journey to Nationhood, a documentary, swallowed $2.92 million.

“These disbursements,” as Okigbo reported, “were clandestinely undertaken while the country was openly reeling with crushing external debt overhang. These represent, no matter the initial justification for creating the accounts, a gross abuse of public trust.”

It is not only the EFCC or the Obasanjo government that is battling IBB. Dr. Patrick Wilmot, the Ahmadu Bello University don, whom the former dictator unjustifiably deported, has vowed to organize international opposition against IBB in 2007.

There are also elements in the North who are ready to frustrate the wily armored General’s ambition. Abdulkarim Daiyabu, leader of the Movement for Justice in Nigeria (MOJIN) told TheNEWS he is ready to lay down his life to frustrate IBB’s 2007 ambition. Daiyabu is based in Kano where Babangida was pelted with stones by angry youths during a marriage ceremony about two years ago.

As the multi-faceted odds mounted against Babangida last week, the question most political observers wanted answered was whether President Obasanjo could demonstrate the guts to call Babangida to proper accounting.

Moreover, pro-democracy activists like Chief Gani Fawehinmi and others have vowed to go back to the barricades to block the former dictator’s plans to rule Nigeria come 2007.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 21.08.2006 12:39

Gbegele

# 2 Thanks to Saharareporters.com for exposing the missing link between IBB's stupendous wealth and years of speculation. Now we are seeing and believing what we can see. Wow! $8.2 billion dollars. My entire family doesn't have 8200 naira! Yet this ass.... wants to come back to rule Nigeria? Thanks you Sowore, thanks to folks at Saharareporters.com, thanks to NVS for pushing hard against the bastards in my home country. I cry for Nigeria! Posted by Gbegele| 21.08.2006 12:52

guest

# 3 company’s website (www.fruitexlimited.com) was, according to Saharareporters, “shut down.� I am able to access the website Posted by guest| 21.08.2006 13:39

planet1899  Villager

# 4 Keep it coming...lets hear more. Posted by planet1899| 21.08.2006 13:42

Big-K  Villager

# 5 Vatsa and nine others culpable in the coup saga. According to him, Mrs. Vatsa’s petition is baseless. “She should shut up. Shut up! If you commit a coup and you know the punishment is death, then you should face it. That’s all. Those who plot a coup, when the coup fails, they die. Simple .� I have always maintained that all past coup plotters successful or not should be executed. Imagine the statement above - its like saying If an Armed Robber is only a thief if caught. Posted by Big-K| 21.08.2006 13:56

WaleAkin  Villager

# 6 Hi Villagers, I cant just fathom the fact that all these money bags and money miss roads come in to the UK most especially London metropolis to dump our national money and the UK government aint doing nothing about it. If you all recall my question to Dr Ferreira in that interview that Nigerians were embarrassed when Alamiesiegha was caught at Heathrow, i used the word EMBARRASSED cos it has become a norm amongst our political office holders to use London as dumping ground..........Now take a look at IBB 's Northwest abode, Northwest is basically a highbrow area that many of us cant afford despite working our arses out and thus we have settled for the countryside not for its lush vegetation but because its extremely cheap, even here in the diaspora, we are suffering!! I did a sales comparable on the properties in that area and 500 metres radius and this is my findings- 1. Babangida bought that house on the 17th of December 2004 at a whooping sum of THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS., the property in question is a flat on a leasehold and an established old building!! 2. Properties in that area are presently sold at about 1Million Pounds now (Flats!!) Its a shame that the UK government allow these boys in with so much money and then make a big noise when a fraudster is caught at a local Barclays branch with a forged cheque of 2,000 Pounds. Its even a bigger shame when an illegal Nigerian worker is caught and then repatriated back to Nigeria but these guys are left alone to continue to plunder our economy and briging the money back to the UK. We have so many of them and we must shame them, i was discussing with a fellow villager about 2 weeks that we need to do an expose on the following persons: 1. Chief Lam Adeshina (Former Executive Governor, Oyo State) Lam Adeshina has amassed so much wealth, he lives in a 3 Bed detached house in West Thamesmead overlooking the River Thames. Now the total salary of a Governor in Nigeria for a period of 4 years is 17.0 Million Naira Circa , where did Lam Adeshina get the money to buy such building in West Thamesmead? 2. Chief Opia (Former Chairman, OMPADEC) This was the former Chairman of OMPADEC, the body responsibility for the well being of the Niger Deltans well before NDDC was formed, Opia is married to Ruth Benamaisia Opia of the NTA News fame and former commissioner in Cross Rivers State. Chief Opia cant return back to Nigeria cos he siphoned all the funds meant for the development of the Delta and rushed to London to enjoy the wealth, he leaves in North Thamesmead off a popular street called Summerton Way right opposite the Thamesmead Golf Course in a 5 Bed House, his building also have a side view of the River Thames. I am so sure these properties were bought cash and in the same UK, its illegal to go give your Solicitors in a conveyance process cash above 300 Pounds (I mean Three Hundred Pounds), you must write a cheque, the solicitors will not even take the Land Registry Tax Payment in cash, you must provide a future link should incase you need to be traced (Its a either Cheque/Bank Draft) or no completion and still we have these scums coming to buy properties in cash here in the UK. Now do we blame them at all? We should blame the double standards on the part of the UK Government and who were they fooling when they sent back 1 Million Pounds to Nigeria with reagrds to Alamiesiegha? Outright Nonsense!!!! Just like Sowore finished up.................More Alarm go blow soon!! Cheers, WaleAkin Posted by WaleAkin| 21.08.2006 14:14

kvin33  Villager

# 7 Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope the spies of "the powers that be" are monitoring this! Inform your masters, this is just the begining! Those who have counted on illicit acts shrouded reliably under the cloak of state controlled media, those days are gone! You are losing your grip everyday, slowly, slowly. Imagine such a story in 1992 - 1999! African criminals, the game is up! watch out. Posted by kvin33| 21.08.2006 14:18

BABA FOR LIFE  Villager

# 8 clearly this is the case of the chicken coming home to roused.I have been described as an apologist for OBJ and i am for good reason. If you all will open your eyes you will see that the the events unfolding before our eyes are history in the making. The first for years of Obj was business as usual simply because he was beholden to the powers that put him in. He managed to shake off the excess baggage by the second term and we can see the results IE the Economies Team, Nuhu Ridadu. Can you all imagine what will have happened if he had succeeded in the third term project. The result will have been comparable to the much talked about Rawlings Options. Do not forget Baba is a man that have tasted power and voluntarily gave it up. Put yourselves in his shoes and imagine his disgust at the level of decadence that he saw when he got back and saw what had become of his beloved country. We are all witness to all these things pre 1999 .It took courage for him to say no enough is enough and go against the corrupt and shameless ruling class .This man is fighting for us all. Though i disagree with some of his choice of associate i.e Anineh ,Uba, Adedibu, and Ali but these political thugs are necessary because of the power they weld and can deliver to him. Like the sayings goes take the good and the bad to deliver the good. So fellow country men and women support this man . He has our best interest at heart .The alternative is not pretty. Posted by BABA FOR LIFE| 21.08.2006 14:22

Gunslinger  JJC

# 9 “He whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad�. This saying holds true for Babangida and co. travelers. Why would someone like Babangida be contemplating returning back to rule Nigeria again after bringing the nation and her economy to world record low? In true to the above saying, his inability to know when to stay totally away from Nigeria politics may be an attempt to get justice to the victimized masses of Nigeria by the gods. Posted by Gunslinger| 21.08.2006 14:29

WaleAkin  Villager

# 10 Baba for Life, If not for God, i would have sent what the Ondos call AIYELALA to ur domain right now for that response you just posted!!. Are u insinuating that we allow OBJ do a 3rd term? If yes, what are your reasons if you have any at all? Just because he brought in EFCC, should we then give him the permission to rule us for life and who told you OBJ never chopped money in 1979? Who told u that sef? Cheers, WaleAkin Posted by WaleAkin| 21.08.2006 14:34

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