Saharareporters, New York


A rare e-mail that tells of the plots to cover up the looting of Delta State treasury by James Ibori. A copy of an e-mail obtained by Saharareporters tells of spirited and desperate attempt by James Ibori and his associates to destroy evidence of his money laundering activities in Nigeria.

This e-mail was addressed to Bimpe Pogoson (nee Faloye) at bpogoson@xxxx on Wednesday, 13 July 2005 from "Tinuola Faloye" reads:

Dear Sis,

I have completed the task and will mail the statements and retirements to you. The only thing delaying is the Citizens (meaning "Citizens Bank Nigeria) statements for the closed accounts. They have been reluctant to re-print them for me as this will require recalling the files we told them to get rid back unto the system. I could explain this to the Chairman if you want me to. However you could call Mrs. Ikpo Phillips of Citizens Bank on their landline 01-2610607 or 08023850372, in all fairness, they have a point. The things you asked for will be sent with or without Citizen Statements first thing on Thursday morning.

On the EFCC issues, i had a meeting with Chiedu (Ibie) and Davidson and discussed with Mr. David (Edevbie, Delta State Commissioner of Finance) and Oga (James Ibori) extensively yesterday. Also Mr. Fowora (Segun Fowora of PRIMI LLC, Florida USA) called to give me some tips on dealing with the situation. At this point, we have all concluded that there is no point trying to hide a connection between the companies as these people already has most of the info. Some people seem to be of the impression that we were simply to careless (strange how people shift the blame when push comes to shove). The major problems we have (in my opinion), from Oga/efcc perspective) are:

• In Charter House and KOLN statements, there were some cash payments to Banke, Koln, Alcac, Harefe, Emma Okafor and Bola.
  
• Oga's ECONET bills were paid with Koln cheques establishing a link with Oga
  
• Payents were made from Charter House to Alcac. So if Alcac is called up, Alcac Platinum will be called up. If so, Bayprojects will be called up too.
  
• If they go looking for Koln and Harefe in NNB, this will lead to even more accounts be called up.
  
• There was a deposit into NNB Koln by Solo Odule sometime in July last year (I hear this is the kind of thing they are looking for).
  
• The fact that Chiedu and I are signatories to all these accounts just complicates things.
  
• Davidson says there is no use trying to sort out Charter House from Abuja as they already have the incorporation documents /information. They say it's the first thing they do.
  
• Also perhaps we should have restricted ourselves to paying just cash. The problem is all the people we have paid with cheques- Silhouette, Paulina, e.t.c. It might be a problem if they call up these accounts as the bills for Silhouette; Paulins are for Oga or places like Oghara (Ibori's Country Home) and other private locations. We don't know how these people will fare under pressure and I don't want to complicate things by briefing everyone.
  

I was in NNB for a few hours yesterday and I went back there today. Davidson and Chiedu think there is no point but I was able to get some things deleted from the statements and I will continue trying. Davidson says I should isolate and show him the areas I want him to please get out of the statements of Alcac before they ask for it. I will sort that out tomorrow. I am really not too impressed with attitude all of a sudden. While I have been busy trying to explain things away, they say my explanation should be that I was not the one who did it or was not around when it transpired. That bothers me.

I am meeting Oga with all the bank statements tomorrow evening (Harefe, Alcac, Koln, Charter House and if he insists-Bayprojects) I will let you know how it goes.


Thank you

We have deleted the last paragraph of this e-mail because it was personal-Saharareporters.

Robot  # 1 | 29.10.2007 09:31

Saharareporters, New York A rare e-mail that tel...Read the full article.

Ebe  # 2 | 29.10.2007 10:18

Yawa don gas!!! And this reinforces my point that in the war on corrution Saharareporters has been infinitely more helpful and more investigatively engaged than our blabber mouth Ribadu and his EFCC. Thank you Sowore. Keep exposing the rogues. Next stop Odili, Igbinedion, Akume and others.....

dem  # 3 | 29.10.2007 11:32

I'm pretty much fed up with this now. For me, it is very dis-heartnening. Everyday, more evidence emerges of a very compromised EFCC, and I think they are just dancing around this Ibori's issue. Perhaps, perhaps, just like with Maurice Iwu, we have to look beyond Ribadu for EFCC to work well again.

Zanderlex  # 4 | 29.10.2007 12:11

Oh Lord what has happened in Delta? And my people cannot even access clean water. And Ibori is moving around while EFCC is sitting around as Sowore continues to dig. God go punish Obasanjo.

Dapxin  # 5 | 29.10.2007 12:13

I don't get it. Who are these characters ? Bimpe Pogoson (nee Faloye) at bpogoson@xxxx & "Tinuola Faloye" ? Oh well, they are James Ibori's goons... Does anyone need a clairvoyant to know that Ibori will be having sleepless nights trying to clear his name, even if it means balancing the books to the nearest 0.000 naira ? What can one say ? Saharareporters, I doff my hat though it would have been more beneficial if we could understand the relationship between these email folks & Ibori... This Ibori issue is clearly going on for too long and the EFCC is unbearably complicating the issue. If there are sufficient reasons to nail Ibori, I just wonder why the court process is not already ON against him in Nigeria. And the wait continues...

RAYNOSA  # 6 | 29.10.2007 13:15

SOOKIBOY PLEASE WERE ARE YOU PLEASE!!!! STILL SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE. WHAT IS THE LEGAL IMPLICATION OF ALL THIS FINDINGS. I will appreciate if LUCKY IGBINEDION'S is exposed too. As for EFCC i am begining to believe that they in collaboration with the FG are playing mind games with NIGERIAN.

ezyvic  # 7 | 29.10.2007 13:19

Sowore is at it again, a magnificent investigative job. I wonder, just suppose EFCC take this piece to the court as evidence against Ibori, what kind of names would villagers call him. This is an expose, but it now requires having these statements in facts and figures, and I bet you, the EFCC is catching up fast on loose ends. I can bet you that the writer of the e-mail would not stand up in court to give evidence against Ibori, as such, it would be proper to get all documents used for transaction during Ibori's tenure, then compare with the facts gotten on funds criminally laundered in the UK and around the world. This is no easy task considering that the courts grant 'home made' judgments, the finance commissioner in Delta State is not going to release the books, the Delta State governor is Ibori's cousin and stands to be roped into the deals (ex- secretary to the state government) and finally, the political will on the path of the president is still lacking (major sponsor of his campaign). We can all blame the EFCC to find an easy prey, but until we realize that a wrong move by the commission to try Ibori will compound the entire trial package and disrupt investigations by the Metropolitan police. We all saw how the Attorney General lost out in an attempt to 'kill' the EFCC, representing the Benue State government in court. The battle against the EFCC is coming from all fronts, and I humbly do not think most villagers are being objective in their critic or judgment of the EFCC. You can give a dog a bad name to kill it, but you better have wolves (AG, PDP crooks) on standby to watch the house.

salstep  # 8 | 29.10.2007 13:36

=dapxin;2091814646>I don't get it. Who are these characters ? Bimpe Pogoson (nee Faloye) at bpogoson@xxxx & "Tinuola Faloye" ? Oh well, they are James Ibori's goons... Does anyone need a clairvoyant to know that Ibori will be having sleepless nights trying to clear his name, even if it means balancing the books to the nearest 0.000 naira ? What can one say ? Saharareporters, I doff my hat though it would have been more beneficial if we could understand the relationship between these email folks & Ibori... This Ibori issue is clearly going on for too long and the EFCC is unbearably complicating the issue. If there are sufficient reasons to nail Ibori, I just wonder why the court process is not already ON against him in Nigeria. And the wait continues... Bimpe Pogoson was a special assistant(special Projects) to James Ibori. She use to be based in the Uk. I believe she is now back in the UK. Tinuola Faloye is more than likely a relative. Probably sister.

docokwy  # 9 | 29.10.2007 13:46

Good job, Sowore. That said, can you come clean and tell us how you happened on this email? Did you hack into these people's mail box to scoop this ''Breaking News''? These are seasons of exposures, afterall.

ajis15  # 10 | 29.10.2007 15:06

=docokwy;2091814676>Good job, Sowore. That said, can you come clean and tell us how you happened on this email? Did you hack into these people's mail box to scoop this ''Breaking News''? These are seasons of exposures, afterall. Docokwy: Sowore may not have to break into people's computer to get information. What you need to know is that people like Sowore is what we call "Hotline" in Fraud lexicon. A Hotline is a place you call or send incriminating information about fraud. Hotline is mostly used by people who know about a fraud and decided to report it either for patriotic reason or personal vendata. That is, denied a piece of the action. This is just my thought. I do not know how Sowore got his information. To us who are disgusted about a man acquiring a private jet from public fund in a country where people are hungry, I do not care what is done to put these *******s where they belong: jail.

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