How Diezani Madueke Bought Le Meridien Hotel Port Harcourt

Clockwise: Anthony Ukpo, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Dauda Lawal
 
Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Petroleum Resources Minister, purchased Port Harcourt’s Le Meridien Hotel for $25million from a former Rivers State military administrator, Anthony Akpo, SaharaReporters learned at the weekend.
 
Our sources say that the transaction was carried out using several persons, including Dauda Lawal, a First Bank of Nigeria Executive Director.
 
Lawal’s role, according to investigators at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was to pick up from Skye Bank in Lagos and innocuously drop off $25million cash into a bank account at Sterling Bank PLC.
 
The directive to pick up the huge cash haul was coordinated by Stanley Lawson, a former group executive director of Finance and accounts at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
 
During EFCC interrogations, Dauda claimed he did not know that the transaction was aimed at purchasing Le Meriden Hotel in Port Harcourt, and that he was only helping a friend, Mr. Lawson, to run errands.  People knowledgeable about Mr. Lawal’s closeness to Diezani, which some say sometimes appeared to be romantic, said he may not be telling the whole truth.
 
Lawal was one of the bankers arrested by the EFCC in a recent fraud-related raid of high profile bankers involved in financial crimes perpetrated by Mrs. Alison-Madueke.  Others include Herbert Wigwe of Access Bank PLC, Nnamdi Okonkwo of Fidelity Bank PLC, and Yemi Adeola, the MD of Standard Bank PLC.
 
Le Meriden hotel was conceived as a five-star hotel. It was built in 2003 by retired Brigadier General Ukpo with the help of Julius Berger, the construction company with whom he became acquainted during his early days first as the military administrator of Rivers state and later as the Principal Secretary to former Military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida.  Ukpo sold the 87-room luxury hotel to Mrs. Alison-Madueke through a web of actors with the hope that no one would find out.
 
After the EFCC discovered the fraudulent sale, Ukpo reportedly offered to hand over the hotel to the federal government, but President Buhari is believed to have rejected the offer, saying the government has no business managing a hotel, and insisting that Ukpo return $25m to the federation account.
 
It is unclear why the former army chief has not yet been arrested.
 
Source: SaharaReporters

Comments

Post a Comment

ORDER FOR YOUR FABRICS AND ACCESSORIES. +2348066186964

ORDER FOR YOUR FABRICS AND ACCESSORIES. +2348066186964
Buy

Popular posts from this blog

Girls Flash Their Breasts for 100 Dollars in the Street (Photo+Video)

Image
The girls were tricked into flashing their breasts for $100    A prankster has shared hilarious video of girls flashing their boobs for $100. The video which was uploaded on YouTube channel called PrankGenerator shows the host asking a lot of ladies in the street to show their boobs on camera for $100.      Although some were shy, they agreed but to their surprise, the money wasn't real and the whole thing was a set up prank. Some of the girls were pissed after learning of the trick. However, it was just a funny way to cool off the heat for many.   Watch video below:  
Read more

School Bullies Humiliate, Beat-up and Strip Female Teenager in Public Over an Argument (Photos+Video)

Image
A group of reckless bullies have humiliated, beaten and stripped a fellow teenager in public while recording the act on camera. The students humiliating and beating the student in public   Another horrific bullying video has recently surfaced from China showing a group of teenagers beating and stripping a female student in public.   The teenage, a girl from the city of Hengshui in Anping County was filmed being savagely beaten by a group of several girls then stripped to her underwear, reports the People's Daily Online.   She was stripped and beaten mercilessly   The incident took place on January 21, but it wasn't until February 3 that the video went viral online. Since the footage was uploaded, all of the bullies have surrendered to the police.   Her clothes were removed forcefully and shamed   Three of the suspects have been named as Li, Jia, and Hou, aged 14, 13 and 16. According the report, they went to the police station with their pa
Read more

Pretty Mistress Brutally Beaten and Face Disfigured After She Was Caught by Lover's Wife (Photos+Video)

Image
This is thought to be the photo of the woman who was brutally beaten and left disfigured   A Chinese woman who was allegedly caught cheating with another woman's man has been brutally beaten and left disfigured on the street yesterday.   Dailymail reports  that Chinese media claimed that the 28-year-old woman was thought to be a mistress and she had been beaten after getting caught by her lover's wife in Anqiu city, eastern China's Shandong Province.     Passersby who found the woman in the shrubs alerted the police, who are currently investigating the case.   According to Apple Daily, the woman was found on the crossroads of Shangchang Road and Jian'an Road.    The woman is allegedly a mistress and she had been assaulted after her lover's wife discovered their affair, said Apple Daily.    Photos of the unidentified woman seemed to have come from the Chinese social media.      They were first shared yesterday by 'Zui Huo H
Read more

Over 100 prostitutes arrested by Sharia police in Kano state

Image
Over 100 prostitutes arrested by Sharia police in Kano state The Hisbah operatives in a joint operation with the personnel of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed the centre and arrested the suspected prostitutes as well as found banned substances in their custody during the operation. The state Director of the Hisbah Board, Dr Abba Saidu Sufi, told journalists yesterday in his office in Kano that 20 under-age boys were also arrested during the operation. According to him, the arrested girls whose age range between 13, 14 and 17, noted that 19 out of them were notorious to Hisbah Board. Over 100 prostitutes arrested by Sharia police in Kano state. Photo Credit: Premium Times Sufi explained that the law which banned prostitution and immoral act is still in force. He said the prohibition law number four of 2001 would be adequately applied on those arrested. Sufi said the board also identified some other black spots were illicit substances are being
Read more

Story of 'Big Booty' African Slave, Sara Baartman Who was Abused by Europeans and Used as a Circus Animal (Photo)

Image
Sara Baartman was abused and used as a circus animal by Europeans   On 29 October 1810, Saartjie “Sara” Baartman, a nineteen year old Khoisan woman signed a contract to be taken from Cape Town to London to be exhibited for entertainment purposes. Though she was illiterate, history allegedly claims she signed the contract with an English ship surgeon named William Dunlop who was a friend to Pieter Willem Cezar and Hendrik Cezar. Pieter Willem Cezar had bought Sara Baartman as a slave at sixteen and she worked for Pieter’s brother, Hendrik. It was here that she was named Saartjie, the Dutch form of Sara.   The history of colonialism was so unfair to her that she was stripped of her identity and her bodily integrity. Her story is the full representation of the evils of a hybrid of colonialism, slavery, racism and sexism. The Europeans even disrespected her humanity to the extent of displaying her brain, skeleton and sexual organs in a Paris museum until 1974. She only go
Read more

Daddy Freeze Begs T.B Joshua, Fayose, Keyamo, Basketmouth for Forgiveness

Image
  Popular Cool FM Lagos on-air-personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, widely known as Daddy Freeze, took to his Instagram page on Monday night, to seek the forgiveness of the biggest recipients of his harshest criticism.   The radio personality who is famously opinionated and hardly used to care whose ox was gored when commenting on a public discourse, has humbled himself as it seems a part of him may be changing.   In different posts made on his Instagram page, Daddy Freeze apologised to Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose, comedian Basketmouth, Prophet T.B Joshua, popular Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, and others.   Below are his forgiveness post;  
Read more

List of Phones That Will Not Support Whatsapp Anymore from 31st Dec 2016

Image
  As part of effort in bringing better services to their esteem customers, Whatsapp have decided to announce December 31st 2016 as the end date of supporting some types of phone. Whatsapp which is the most popular messaging application platform used by almost 90 percent of smartphone users in the world will no longer support some mobile devices as their planning to expand their app features and add more security tools to their App. The affected mobile devices include:- All Blackberry phones including blackberry 10 devices. All Symbian Phones Includes; Nokia 500, Nokia E6, Nokia 5228, Nokia 5230, Nokia E63, Nokia 5233, Nokia E66, Nokia 5235, Nokia 5250, Nokia E7, Nokia 5320, Nokia E71, Nokia 5530, Nokia E72, Nokia 5630, Nokia E73, Nokia 5700, Nokia E75, Nokia 5730, Nokia E90 Communicator, Nokia 5800, Nokia N76, Nokia 600, Nokia N78, Nokia 603, Nokia N79, Nokia 6110, Nokia N8, Nokia 6120, Nokia N81, Nokia 6121, Nokia N81 8 GB, Nokia 6124,Nokia N82,Nokia 6210,Nokia N85, Nokia 6220,
Read more