THE REPORT: The Man Ibru Tried To Pay $millions To Get Waziri Off Her Back

PHOTO: A PHOTO OF CHIEF VICTOR UWAJEH TAKEN AFTER HIS ARREST BY THE EFCC.

San Francisco Jan 18, (THEWILL) – Who says desperate times do not call for desperate measures? That Cecilia Ibru, the former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank Plc was removed from her position by the Sanusi Lamido led Central Bank is no longer front-page news, but what you are about to learn may interest you.

On Wednesday January 13, 2010, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arrested one Chief Victor Ositah Uwajeh at his Wuse II residence in Abuja for parading himself as a staff of the Commission and using the agency’s name to extort money from persons who the commission was either prosecuting or investigating on the promise that EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri would let them off the hook when the funds get to her.

THEWILL has since learnt that Chief Mrs. Cecilia Ibru was one of such persons. She was on the verge of shelling out a whopping $2 million (Two million USD) to Chief Victor Uwajeh for onward transfer to Mrs. Waziri to enable her walk out of her current travails with the EFCC.

A source who is familiar with the matter told THEWILL in confidence that a top official in the current administration had collected millions of naira from Mrs. Ibru about when she was arrested by the EFCC under the pretext that it will be transferred to Mrs. Waziri as bribe to stop her trial. To her surprise, the trial didn’t stop and she didn’t get her millions back.

Disappointed that she paid out all that cash and did not cut a deal, she made another attempt at scuttling her trial and this time someone brought Victor Uwajeh to the table. Information on how Mrs. Ibru and Uwajeh met is still sketchy, but we were told that they had series of contacts and dialogues until an eventual agreement was reached. $2 million USD would be made available to Uwajeh to “settle” Mrs. Waziri.  But because she had parted with huge sums earlier without commensurate returns, Mrs. Ibru decided to double check with another EFCC contact she had reached out to just to confirm that Uwajeh was a trustworthy agency staff and insider who also had the backing of the Chair on the issue. This move turned out to be the saving grace for the desperate former bank boss.

Her other contact at the Commission did some checks and confirmed that Uwajeh was not a staff of the Commission, and was also not representing Mrs. Waziri. The EFCC officer brought the issue to the attention of the EFCC Chairman who ordered officers of the Commission to trail Uwajeh and bring him in.

Digging deeper into the matter, THEWILL discovered that Uwajeh was an informant used by the EFCC in its investigation into the assets allegedly owned by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a former Chairman of the Commission. Uwajeh, a titled chief and native of Onitcha-Ugbo, Aniocha North, Delta State is alleged to have married a second wife who is a relative of a top shot at the Commission in December 2008. THEWILL has  not been able to independently verify this claim hence we are unable to include the name of the officer in this report. The marriage to the relative gave him some level of access to the Commission and he has not looked back since then.

A source tells us that Victor Uwajeh, a Delta PDP chieftain and WAEC certificate holder made a fortune from the popular advance fee fraud scheme (419) a longtime ago but was fast running out of cash due to bad investment choices and his lifestyle. His new marriage was one of his bailout schemes. He was alleged to have used his new influence to work the Commission to tread softly on the bail request filed by Ndudi Elumelu, a member of the House of Representatives after his arrest by the Commission in the wake of the power sector scandal at the lower house.

When EFCC operatives stormed Uwajeh’s residence they found various fake EFCC documents including letterhead papers, a pack of EFCC embossed complimentary cards with his name printed on them, and a petition with EFCC’s acknowledgement stamp. They also recovered five vehicles including one Toyota Land Cruiser SUV; one GM Hummer SUV; one Honda jeep and; one Toyota Hilux jeep.

Chief Victor Uwajeh is still being detained at an EFCC cell and would most likely be charged to court for various crimes including forgery and impersonation.

On the other hand, we have been reliably informed that Mrs. Ibru has decided to put all her resources on winning her battle in court. Multiple sources told THEWILL that she is using some influential contacts of hers to lobby Justice Daniel Dantosho Abutu, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, who is also the presiding judge in her trial to ensure that she gets a favourable ruling.

Though the EFCC has gotten a Mareva injunction to freeze all her assets including cash, anyone who is familiar with the Ibru dynasty, which Mrs. Ibru has rubbished with her obsession with choice assets and financial recklessness, would know that access to cash for the former CEO would not be a big deal. Her husband, the multi- billionaire, Olorogun Michael Ibru owns the carrier, Aero Contractors and several choice real estate assets in Nigeria and overseas.

See attachment for EFCC statement on Chief Victor Uwajeh.