‘Secret Seven’: Mystery of the Osborne Dollars
Before I venture into the topic of the week, permit me to make some observations concerning our cover story of last week, that is, ”Death of Innocents at Queen’s College: Crime of Involuntary Manslaughter”. As you are aware, QC is my alma mater, and the tragedy that has taken place there, is so real and emotional for me. I actually wept as a result of the news, being a mother myself and a QC old girl. It is unthinkable that the people that were placed in a position of authority and trust, to educate, nurture and protect these young ladies, did the exact opposite. We did not die while we were in the care of Mrs Coker MFR (Coky) the first Nigerian Principal of QC, and Mrs Theresa Chukwuma (Chuksy), so how did it get to this?
If this Government is serious about ‘Change’, heads must roll for the crimes committed in QC. The people responsible for this catastrophe, must pay for their crimes against these innocent and helpless little girls. Simple. It must not be swept under the carpet. Those responsible, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law forthwith, from the School Principal, who not only permitted QC girls to live in such squalor, under such inhumane conditions, worse than prisoners, which subsequently led to the sickness of many and deaths of some, but allegedly, tried to cover up the goings-on and bully Parents into silence and submission; to her co-conspirators, both among the members of staff of QC, and the Federal Ministry of Education. Ditto for the school in Kebbi State, where it was reported that 4 students died from ailments, also resulting from the unsanitary conditions in the school.
One of my school mates sent me a video of one of the water storage tanks of QC being emptied. The water that was poured out from the bottom of the tank was green, totally contaminated, mixed with what looked like faeces, amoeba, paramecium and who knows what else. It is shocking and inconceivable, that any human being can give a fellow human being such filth to consume and utilise, without expecting them to fall violently ill or die! Furthermore, the issue of the male teacher accused of molesting the girls, must be revisited, now that we are aware of the level of conspiracy and complicity that has been going on in QC.
Money Everywhere Now to the topic of today. With the amount of money popping up all over the place like ‘ogun owo’ (literal meaning: medicine money, that is, juju money), we need to invite the “Secret Seven” to investigate, the latest mystery, being the mystery of the $43 million and other monies supposedly recovered from Flat 7B, Osborne Towers, 16, Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos (Osborne).
Some of us may remember the Secret Seven, a fictional group of 7 child detectives in a series of 15 detective stories authored by Enid Blyton between 1949 and 1963. I read most of the books as a child. This would be a perfect case for the “kiddy sleuths”. They would definitely solve this case, as they always solved all their cases, unlike our mostly clumsy law enforcement agencies. Till today, we still do not know who killed the late Dele Giwa, Funso Williams and Bola Ige, SAN.
Questions The list of questions that requires answers is endless. Firstly, the Secret Seven would ascertain how much, if any, was actually recovered from Osborne. Some say $50 million, some say $43 million. The $7 million difference is a lot of money. Which is it? Was the money really recovered from that flat? The video of the actual recovery was not shown from start to finish, like how they do it when they do a bust in the USA, for example. Who owns the building or are the flats owned individually? Who owns the flat that the money was allegedly lodged in? Did the owner rent it out? If so, who was the flat rented to? Does the building have CCTV cameras in the common areas? If so, where is the CCTV footage?
Surely, Osborne would have 24-7 security, have the management of the security company and all the guards that have worked there, been interviewed? Have the staff of the facilities management company that maintains Osborne been interviewed? The bag lady who was allegedly bringing in the money, was she arrested? How long had she been bringing money to Osborne? Who came into direct contact with her? Who saw her from a distance? Are the descriptions of her all the same? Can any of the security guards identify the lady? Has there been an identification parade of females which includes the suspected wife of the suspended Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director, Mrs Oke? Has Mrs Oke been interviewed? What has she revealed? What about the occupants and domestic staff of all the occupants of Osborne, especially that of Flat 7A which may be closest in proximity to 7B, have they been interviewed? Have they lifted fingerprints from Flat 7B? Why would EFCC be so clumsy, handling and counting the money without gloves, when the fingerprints of the owner of the money or those that have handled the money, could be lifted and lead the authorities to the owner of the money? Have any crime scene investigators been brought in to process Flat 7B and collect physical evidence that may be useful in solving the mystery? Has the American Government been contacted to trace the movement of the Dollars from when the money was printed over there? Who is this Ayo Oke? The Secret Seven would gather every information about him. Why was Ayo Oke initially denied access to Aso Villa? Had there been any allegations of impropriety against him in the past, thereby making this saga in which he is involved in, suspicious? Assuming, but not conceding, that Flat 7B was some sort of safe house for NIA, and the money indeed belongs to NIA, why would the wife of the Director be the one that would be ferrying NIA money up and down, instead of an NIA staff member who was part of the covert operation? After all, the NIA Director could not be the only one conducting the covert operation that the money was purportedly required for. Is the wife of the NIA Director also an NIA staff? The
Secret Seven would split themselves up and follow every lead, leaving no stone unturned, until the mystery is unravelled.
Ownership Theories There have been several theories as to the ownership of the Osborne Dollars, which I will not bother to reproduce here, since we have all heard them. The theory that the money belongs to a former Governor, I’m sorry to say, isn’t so shocking or hot, since we have all seen how his fellow former Governors and other public officials looted Nigeria dry.
However, the most interesting theory so far, seems to be the very convenient one, that the money belongs to the NIA. Ah ah! If the truth be told, I’m not so sure that I can believe that story. It smacks of a cover up to me. Whether the money belongs to some government official ranging from the former Governor to the suspended NIA Director himself, I hope the truth will be revealed soon.
If the Money Belongs to NIA.... The question is, are there exemptions or exceptions to lodging money in the famous TSA Account, that indeed, if in the unlikely event the money does belong to the NIA, it could just be left lying around in some flat? Such a huge amount of money. What would have stopped those in the know from helping themselves to the money whenever they felt like it? What about the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011? I guess its provisions are not applicable to the NIA in terms of how much dollar cash it can hold, since the money was for a 'covert operation'!
What does this say about 'Change' and the fight against corruption? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if indeed the money amounting to about N15 billion belongs to the NIA and it is just left lying around, while only N50 billion has been allocated to the whole of Nigeria for education, it just goes to show that our country is in trouble and we have our priorities extremely wrong. Also, if the money belongs to an individual who has stolen it from our country, again, it is the same conclusion, that our country is in grave trouble. I think I'm stating the obvious here!
While our innocent school girls, our future, are treated worse than prisoners, like animals, to the extent that they fall sick and die in school, where they were sent to acquire an education, partly because of inadequate funding and partly due to corruption, obscene amounts of looted money are lying around and being uncovered in every nook and cranny of the country. I implore President Buhari to ensure that this mystery is solved.
"HOWEVER, THE MOST INTERESTING THEORY SO FAR, SEEMS TO BE THE VERY CONVENIENT ONE, THAT THE MONEY BELONGS TO THE NIA. AH AH! IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD, I’M NOT SO SURE THAT I CAN BELIEVE THAT STORY. IT SMACKS OF A COVER UP TO ME"