Aishas Buhari. |
The
management of Chikason Group has come out to clarify and to tell their own side
of what transpired between the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr.
Chika Okafor and the woman who impersonated the wife of the president, Mrs.
Aisha Buhari after the lady invited and took him to Aso Rock, after-
which she
defrauded him of whooping 150Million.
According
to a statement by Haruna Gamson, the Group Head of Corporate Communications of
Chikason Group, the ordeal between the company and the impersonator, Amina
Mohammed started when Alexander Okafor, Chikason’s Chief Executive Officer, got
involved with her after a traditional ruler informed of two plots of lands
which were for sale in Ikoyi, Lagos and then, money started exchanging hands.
The
statement by Haruna Gamson reads:
Due
to the need to keep the record straight, we at Chicason Group deem it necessary
to explain what transpired between our organisation and the lady known as Amina
Mohammed (also known as Amina Villa), who was paraded recently by the
Department of State Services.
Sometime
in July 2017, a traditional ruler approached the Chairman/CEO of Chicason Group
of Companies, Chief (Dr) Alexander Chika Okafor, KSC, OON, and informed him
that the property beside Chief Okafor’s residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, made up of 2
plots belonging to the Court of Appeal, was up for sale by the Federal
Government Implementation Committee on disposal of FG Landed Property. The
Royal Father said that he would have applied for it but was short of funds, but
asked Chief Okafor to apply for it. He gave Chief Okafor the forms to fill for
the property.
Although
the Chairman of Chicason Group had NEVER bought any property from the Federal
Government, he decided to give this a try because of the seemingly trusted
source. He got the forms filled for the two plots through two companies under
the Chicason Group: Cason Travels Ltd and Uslasiya Nigeria Ltd.
Two
weeks after, he received a call from a lady, who was identified by Truecaller
as “Amina Villa.” She introduced herself as the sister of the First Lady. The
lady said that some people brought the application forms by our companies to
her sister to assist in the procurement of the property. Amina Villa said her
sister asked her to confirm that the identity of the owners of the companies
used in the forms was genuine.
Subsequently,
Amina Villa visited the Abuja office of the Chicason Group for confirmation and
promised to fix a meeting with her sister upon her availability.
On
a later date she called Chief Okafor and said she had arranged a meeting for
him at the Villa with the First Lady. By the time he arrived the Villa in the
evening for the meeting, his details were already in the system as an expected
visitor. His biometrics was taken and he was cleared. Amina received him and
took him to the First Lady’s lounge where someone offered him water. But he
wondered why the lounge was so quiet and bereft of the expected human activity.
Amina apologised that the First Lady had to travel for the lesser hajj that
morning and that was why she made frantic effort for Chief Okafor to meet the
First Lady the previous day. On hearing that the First Lady was not around,
Chief Okafor left the Villa immediately.
Amina,
on two other different occasions that the First Lady travelled out of the
country, made calls to Chief Okafor that reported on Truecaller that she was
calling from the country where the First Lady travelled to. With the benefit of
hindsight, she was doing all that to build confidence by demonstrating that she
was in the company of the First Lady.
On
the landed property, Amina said each of the plots of the property was
officially up for sale at 150 million naira. She asked that since Chief Okafor
was always travelling, that he should give her the money, so that she could pay
promptly from the account she controls and be in charge of the transaction, to make
it seamless.
Chief
Okafor said he would pay for one plot first, and would pay for the second after
the first had been approved and documents released to him. He asked for the
account details and went on to make the payment totalling 150 million naira.
At
no stage of the conversation was the issue of bribery mentioned. We have with
us all the telephone and WhatsApp messages of the exchanges. Our Chairman
insisted that an account number be provided, before making any payment. No
reasonable person would pay a bribe into a bank account using his
corporate or personal bank account. The only thing mentioned by Amina was that
she would be paid a commission at the successful completion of the transaction,
which is normal in property transactions.
Few
months after the payment, the traditional ruler confirmed to our Chairman that
the documents were out. Amina also confirmed that there was an approval for the
allocation of the plot to our company and that she had the document. She then
asked for a commission of twenty million naira but Chief Okafor insisted on
documentary evidence of the approval to be made available to him before
releasing the commission. It was from that point that the hide-and-seek
started, with excuses made each day why the document could not be presented.
After
months of hide-and-seek from Amina, our Chairman decided to contact officials
at the Presidential Villa to report the matter. He was asked to write a formal
petition. The petition led to the scrutiny of all the ladies working for the
First Lady to identify her, but none was Amina. The matter was referred to the
DSS, who tracked her and invited her. She initially denied having any property
transaction with Chicason Group but later confessed and acknowledged collecting
the money for the property purchase when some evidence was presented to her.
The
matter is being handled by the DSS, and we are waiting for the result from
their investigation. That was why we kept quiet all this while.
However,
this press release was necessitated by the need to ensure that the image of our
organization and the integrity of our Chairman, Chief (Dr) Alexander Chika
Okafor, OON, are not tarnished through the presentation of inaccurate account
of the event.
When
Mohammed was quizzed by the DSS, she had named Babachir Lawal, former secretary
to the government of the federation (SGF), and one Moriyatu, said to be a
sister to Aisha Buhari, as her alleged accomplices.
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