We Are Ready For Probe ? Ambassador Adefuye
Mon, 23/07/2012 ? 1:33am | ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI Cover Stories News
The Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC has said that it is ready for probe in reaction to alleged fraud, money laundering and ill-treatment on its staff.
It also denied all allegations made against Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye, saying that they were fabricated by forces bent on preventing him from investigating their dirty deals.
In reaction to a story published by LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, Dr. S.M Baba, the Press and Public Relations Officer of the Embassy of Nigeria,? said that the Ambassador did not commit any of the alleged offences.
?The brain behind the so-called protest is a US-based Nigerian-born lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, who is currently standing trial for converting the sum of $1.5 million property of the embassy to his personal use. We have reported him to Maryland Bar and? the EFCC. He was once put in EFCC custody but he is currently out on bail. For not allowing him to walk away with the embassy?s fund, he has promised to destroy the image of the embassy, the Ambassador and Nigeria. This is all what the so called demonstration is about.
?It was Ugwuonye who coordinated the series of publications on the so called frozen accounts of Nigerian embassies in the US. He knew that 37 African embassies had to change banks because of the implementation of the US Patriots Act. But he contrived lies to embarrass the mission and the ambassador. Now that the truth is out, he has shifted gear,? he said.
?It is the same Ugwuonye who is now posing to be Mrs Olubufumis solicitor. In September 2010?? just six months after the current Ambassador assumed duty, Mrs. Olubufunmi tried to defraud the wife of the vice president by using a non-registered and illegal company to organise a phantom conference without reference to the embassy.
When the 20 women delegation led by the wife of the vice President and including past and present women ministers arrived at the venue, only three people Mrs Olubufunmi, her daughter and a friend were present.
?In order to save the vice-president?s wife from embarrassment, the embassy quickly organised a reception for the Nigerian entourage attended by the spouses of the African ambassadors the following day. The Nigerian delegation returned home two days later. The embassy was not aware that payment of money was involved until Mrs. Olubufunmi wrote to say that the embassy should refund her for the losses she suffered after the embassy hijacked her event.
?It was later that we learnt that she was expecting each of the participants to pay 3000 dollars. Mrs Olubufunmi tried to embarrass the mission and the ambassador by taking her case to Sahara reporters. When the embassy stated its own side of the story, Sahara reporters dropped it. Now it is Ugwuonye , the internet newspaper? the republic and sadly enough THE LEADERSHIP,? the statement said.
?Real estate transactions were carried out in 2004 in the Mission. Ambassador Adefuye assumed duty in 2010. Yet the organisers of the planned demonstration are asking him to explain what happened to the money.? How unfair and unrealistic can people be?
However, in an interview with our Correspondent yesterday, Ambassador Ade Adefuye said that the allegation that the federal government sent the total sum of $528,000 to Mrs. Carol Olubufunmi through the Embassy in Washington DC was very untrue.
Ambassador Adefuye noted that there was no time that any money was sent to the Embassy in order to clear the debts that Mrs. Olubufunmi was claiming that she ran into as a result of her aborted conference.
He pressed further that the Nigerian government is even worried that he has not been able to report Mrs. Carol Olubufunmi, the organiser of the fake conference, to the United States authorities.
