The appointment of Emmanuel Lulu Enaboifo into the Umar Yar’Adua administration puts a question mark on the moral and anti-corruption sermon of the Federal Government
By Ademola Adegbamigb
When he buried his mother, Mrs. Cecilia Egonria Enabaifo, in Benin City, on 7 February 2009, Emmanuel Olutokunbo Lulu Enaboifo, Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Nigeria-São Tomé and Principe Joint Development Authority, painted the capital of Edo State red.
At the Benin Airport, the calibre of the invited guests could be determined by the many private jets that perched on the tarmac like cattle egrets, perhaps making those in charge to pray fervently that the not-so-busy facility would wake up to more business.
Indeed, Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church at 1st East Circular Road, venue of the funeral service, and the Court Yard on Boundary Road, where the reception took place, were swarming with the who-is-who in the society. Politicians, former governors, captains of industry, contractors, federal and state government officials, hangers-on of different hues, flotsam and jetsam in the political equation in the state and federal levels and others thronged the two locations.
Former Governor James Ibori, dressed in white lace and the Urhobo/Itsekiri circular beads, was the grand patron of the day. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Dangote Group of Companies, who appeared in a deep grey suit, light blue shirt and a blue tie, was present. So also was Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Oil, whose pair of dark eyeglasses contrasted sharply with his white buba and sokoto. Former Governor Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, with his well groomed moustache, was there too in a light yellow agbada with a black cap. Among other big shots that graced the occasion were former governors Odigie Oyegun, Segun Osoba, Bola Tinubu and Joshua Dariye of Edo, Ogun, Lagos and Plateau states, in that order. Governors Adams Oshiomhole, Emmanuel Uduaghan, of Delta and Edo states, respectively; Professor Adebayo Williams, Nduka Irabor and others were not left out either.
The pall bearers from Ebony Caskets also lent some colour to the occasion. They wore cream suits, white shirts and their wine ties matched the colour of the casket upon which a bass relief of the Madonna holding the half-clad image of Christ, who had just been brought down from the cross, was etched. Two ladies, also dressed in cream skirt suits with the same colour of hats, carried two wreaths ahead of the funeral procession which swayed dramatically to the drumming of the Ebony Band. The band members who wore white shirts, pairs of black trousers and black waist coats, were beating their white ‘premier’ drums and blowing their trombones so hard that the veins on their necks became as taut as cables.
Why would Enaboifo, an Executive Director but dubious individual, attract such high-heeled and well respected individuals? TheNEWS learnt that these people did not attend the funeral on the strength of “Lulu’s” legend, but on the invitation of former governor Ibori. Honouring an invitation to attend a bash thrown by “Lulu”, an Ibori boy, was political. A big cheese who attended the function confided in this magazine: “Since Ibori is so close to Yar’Adua, attendance by the politicians and business moguls was a show of loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief who also presides over who gets what, when and how.” Another factor, according to a different source at the party, was that many of the guests, perhaps, did not know the secret of the man that hosted them. Worse still, could President Yar’Adua be oblivious of Lulu’s background?
Recently, Yar’Adua appointed Enaboifo as Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Nigeria-São Tomé and Principe Joint Development Authority. But, as Saharareporters, an online investigative medium, discovered, Enaboifo is a fugitive from justice in the United States. A US District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania convicted him of bank fraud in 1986.
This, to observers, is a big indictment of the Yar’Adua government, which claims, with papal seriousness, to set great store by anti-corruption and high government business ethics. True, when Yar’Adua was sworn in on 29 May 2007, he, in his maiden address to the nation, claimed that he was determined to intensify the war against corruption, because corruption is central to the spread of poverty. He observed that the corrosive effect of corruption was all too visible in all aspects of life in the country. Since the past administration made significant progress in recent years, Yar’Adua promised to maintain the momentum.
In his words: “Over the past eight years, Nigerians have reached a national consensus in at least four areas: to deepen democracy and the rule of law; build an economy driven primarily by the private sector, not government; display zero tolerance for corruption in all its forms, and finally, restructure and staff our government to ensure efficiency and good governance.”
Here lies the rub! Analysts submitted that Yar’Adua, by staffing his government with people like Enaboifo, can never ensure efficiency and good governance. On 8 August ,1986, Enaboifo was arrested at 5702 North Oaks Boulevard, North Brunswick, New Jersey. That time, he was a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, from where he was later expelled on account of this fraud.
A federal grand jury then reportedly indicted and convicted him, but he fled the United States before he could be sentenced. “From on or about 1 April 1986 to or about June 2, 1986, at Philadelphia, in Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendants CHARLES OLA and OLUTOKUNBO ENABOIFO knowingly, intentionally and unlawfully did conspire, combine, confederate and agree together with each other, and with other persons known and unknown to this grand jury to attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS) of moneys in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344 (a) (1),” the judgment paper read.
On 3 September 1986, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Enaboifo and his co-traveller in crime, Charles Ola. However, by 20 October 1986, when Enaboifo appeared before the District Court, Ola had bolted, leaving Enaboifo alone to face the music three days later. In fact, the jury returned verdicts of guilty against Enaboifo on both counts.
But in his delicate brain matter, Enaboifo was planning something. The judges discovered to their chagrin that the defendant had voted with his feet, perhaps taking a cue from Ola, his side-kick. Thus, on 24 November 1986 at 9:30 am, when the judges were to give their verdict, Enaboifo failed to appear. Consequently, the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest and the US Secret Service, thereafter, entered his warrant in the National Crime Information Centre, NCIC.
After waiting for a long time for Enaboifo to resurface, the US Attorney’s Office, on 24 February 2004, re-opened the case and worked towards sentencing him in absentia. Thus, on 15 April, the same year, a judgment in a criminal case was entered against Enaboifo “of 8600 Lindbergh Blvd, Apartment #1907, Philadelphia, P 19153 in Case Number: CR 86-360-2.” The judgment states: “Olutokunbo Enaboifo be sentenced to a term of six months incarceration for counts one and two to run concurrently and that a fine of $1,000 be imposed and entered against the defendant.”
Two years after Enaboifo evaporated from the United States, he landed himself a plum job in the Yar’Adua Jonathan Campaign Organisation as Chief Logistics Officer, working with people like Laolu Saraki, Aisha Rimi and Ibori’s former Commissioner for Finance, David Edevbie. That appointment itself was a form of political IoU for Enaboifo who, according to reports, considerably assisted the former governor when he was still a struggling young man in the United Kingdom. Enaboifo, apart from coordinating the use of Ibori’s Wings Aviation jets, used for Yar’Adua’s election, allegedly held the war chest for the former Delta Governor, the biggest financier of Yar’Adua’s campaign. Another proof of their closeness was that when Enaboifo celebrated his 50th birthday in Lagos, he invited guests to his Parkview Estate, Ikoyi house, which was allegedly bought for him by James Ibori.
How did Enaboifo, a man from a disciplined background, become so crooked? TheNEWS gathered that his father, Wilson Enaboifo, was a complete gentleman. He was a classmate of the late Ogun state governor’s, Bisi Onabanjo, at the Baptist Academy, Lagos and, as a member of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria. He was also an ally of the late governor of the defunct Bendel state, Professor Ambrose Ali.
The appointment of Enaboifo, according to Professor Akin Oyebode, Head, Department of Jurisprudence, University of Lagos, is not new. In his words: “You remember the case of a fellow who escaped from Nigeria on the basis of being wanted for scams in a bank he ran. He later surfaced in the Abuja plot scandal. Like bad coins, these people keep resurfacing. I read the story about the fellow (Enaboifo) in the US and it seems Aso Rock does not execute due diligence before appointments are made in order to check the background and bona fides of candidates.”
The Professor said he would expect that once these people were found out, they should drink their hemlock. He added that it seems here in Nigeria, people make all the noise and nothing happens. “That is it my bother. Unfortunately, Nigerians in their collective amnesia, forget easily,” he lamented.
The Presidency did not seem to be immune to this general forgetfulness. Otherwise, analysts believed, Yar’Adua, given the scandal that rocked the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority, JDA, in 2005, setting the two countries against each other, a man who is not a walking sepulchre would have been better suited for the office of DG on the Nigerian side. This is because, according to the document setting up the body, it “is governed by a board consisting of four executive directors. Two appointed by the Head of State of Nigeria from among Nigerian nationals of suitable qualifications and experience”.
Foundation for the JDA was laid in 1999 by Obasanjo and his counterpart in Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique de Menezes, giving officials of both countries the task of working out how they could work together for joint exploration of oil in the Gulf of Guinea. This culminated in the August 2000 agreement by the two leaders. Finally, the JDA was formally inaugurated in January 2002.
The key provisions of the treaty setting up the organisation were that 60 per cent of resources would be for Nigeria, while 40 per cent would be for Sao Tomé and Principe. The treaty was to last for 45 years, with a review due after 30 years. There would also be no renunciation of claims to zone by both countries. According to the treaty, the affairs of the Joint Development Zone will be managed by a Joint Development Authority, JDA, that reports to a Joint Ministerial Council, which has overall responsibility for all matters relating to the exploration for and exploitation of the resources in the JDZ, and “such other functions as the States Parties may entrust to it”.
Just one year after this treaty, things almost fell apart between the two countries. TheNEWS, in its 30 January, 2006 edition, reported that trouble started after the 2003 first licensing round, FLR, of oil bloc awards. In 2005, the Sao Tome Attorney-General, Adelino Pereira, as this magazine reported, investigated an allegation raised by a United States of America-based major oil company on certain shady deals it said characterised the FLR awards by the JDA. “The investigations,” as reported, “were backed by the World Bank and Dobie Langenkamp, a professor of Energy at the University of Tulsa in the USA.”
According to our earlier report, the grumbling oil company bid substantially higher than the Nigerian companies that were eventually awarded concession. “But alleged political manipulation and certain option rights to Environmental Remediation Holding Corporation, ERHC, the major beneficiary of the awards, frustrated the US firm to abandon the cause even though it was far more qualified and possesses the requisite financial, technical and managerial capabilities to handle the lead operations in the JDZ than the favoured companies.” EHRC is owned by Chief Emeka Offor, a controversial politician and friend to Obasanjo. Other figures close to Obasanjo were fingered as beneficiaries of the award: Chief Anthony Anenih, now Nigerian Ports Authority Chairman, who owns controlling shares in A & Harmattan Ltd. which won oil bloc 2; Godsonic Incorporated Oil and Gas, which succeeded in bloc 4; Aliko Dangote clinched bloc 3 through his company, DEER. So also was Mike Adenuga, whose Conoil won in bloc 4 .
“Kema Chikwe, former Aviation Minister,” as this magazine wrote, “is believed to have recruited Hope Uzodinma, an Obasanjo crony (who has just been arrested by the Economic and Finacial Commission over an alleged scam), to float Filtzim-Huzod Oil and gas. The company, registered in the Cayman Islands, was yet another beneficiary, as was Sahara Energy, owned by Tonye Cole, son of Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, a former Special Adviser to Obasanjo…”
Apart from lack of a geological or petroleum engineering academic or professional expertise, the companies, as the Sao Tome government alleged, “equally lack the financial guarantee to actualise operation”. The Sao Tome AG’s office alleged further: “The procedures used to select the companies which received concessions contained serious flaws and did not satisfy the minimum standards required for the award of such licences.”
The report views the Nigerian-owned companies awarded exploration rights as emergency “investment vehicles of financial speculators with no track record of achievement in oil producing or exploration”. Also regulatory documents published in the USA, where ERHC is domiciled, described Offor’s company as “little more than a paper company with no operations and just one favourable contract in its portfolio”. To many observers, the appointment of Enaboifo is to perpetuate this negative status. Analysts wonder which resume he presented to qualify to be in charge of Finance and Administration at a major bi-national commission like the JDZ.
Many Nigerians are actually afraid that Enaboifo is a different brand of Robin Hood. Unlike the original one who hid in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, the United Kingdom, to rob the rich to give to the poor, Enaboifo, given his antecedents and his coterie of friends and associates, would fleece the two oil-laden countries to make the rich richer.
http://thenewsng.com/announce/conman-in-government/2009/02?version=print
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