Chicason Group, a technology-driven company, has explained how
Alexander Okafor, its chief executive office, got involved with
Amina Mohammed, suspected impersonator of Aisha Buhari, wife of the
president.
In December, the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested
Mohammed for allegedly impersonating Buhari’s wife and Rashida
Bello, wife of Kogi governor.
In a statement issued by Haruna Gamson, Chicason group head of
corporate communications, the company said Mohammed defrauded
Okafor of N150 million.
The statement said Okafor started dealing with Mohammed after a
traditional ruler informed him of the sale of some landed property
in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The statement said Okafor paid N150m for one of the two plots of
land he was asked to buy but Mohammed failed to tender the
documents for the property.
Read the statement below:
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 bride 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.