OUR CORRESPONDENT,
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| • Al-Mustapha, Yakassai were the two others |
New findings by Saturday Mirror have revealed that James Onanafe Ibori, a 1986 graduate of Economics/ Statistics from University of Benin and former Governor of Delta State currently standing trial in the United Kingdom was actually one of the deadliest trio behind the reign of terror of late General Sani Abacha. The other two deadly men saddled with the task of fishing out and assassinating the real and perceived enemies of the late dictator were Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Col (Dr.) Ibrahim Yakassai.
Saturday Mirror authoritatively learnt last night that Ibori, al-Mustapha and Yakassai who proclaimed their undying and eternal loyalty to Abacha between 1994 and 1998, supervised the assassination of those perceived as political threats to the ambition of Gen. Abacha to transmute from a military head of state to a civilian president . Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, was the head of the over three hundred tripartite killer squads comprising the Strike Force, Brigade of Guards and the Intelligence Unit. He allegedly authorised most of the assassinations that took place during the inglorious era based on intelligence reports from Ibori and some other civilian spies.
Colonel Yakassai, a medical doctor, who doubled as a security officer, was the head of Brigade of Guards and was in charge of the health of the team. Ibori, who was allegedly introduced to Abacha by Al-Mustapha, was the only civilian among the three and was placed in charge of the intelligence network outside of the military circle. Saturday Mirror’s source further revealed that Ibori, who was the actual spymaster of the deadly regime in the civilian world, was reaping the reward of his membership of Abacha’s killer squad after he met Hamza Al Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer. The source said Ibori would first carry out the espionage on the regime’s targets before the combined team of the Strike Force and the Brigade of Guards would go after them , an act for which he was handsomely compensated.
Some of the atrocities committed by the three deadly men, the source said, included espionage on pro-democracy activists and the murder of the regime’s real or perceived enemies. Our source said that the assassination of Alfred Rewane, a financier and backer of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), was “Ibori’s most notable hit.” Mr. Rewane was killed in 1995 at his home in GRA Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos. The source also stated that Ibori participated in the killing of General Shehu Musa Yar’adua (rtd). Yar’adua was reportedly injected with the blood of a member of Abacha’s dreaded Strike Force/BG member who died of AIDS shortly after returning from training in Libya.
Ibori sacrificed his newspaper editor, Niran Malaolu, to one of Abacha’s phantom coup trials that earned him life imprisonment until Abacha died, the source further stated. Apart from the local runs, Ibori was said to have also handled money laundering assignments for both Abacha and Al-Mustapha in Europe and the US. A US justice department source who was familiar with a money laundering case instituted against Ibori hinted about a document pertaining to an asset forfeiture settlement between Ibori and the United States Secret Service in the US District Court in Maryland. The case stemmed from numerous wire transfers of substantial sums of cash into Ibori’s accounts with Citibank.
The funds were wired from accounts in Switzerland. In an “affidavit in support of arrest in rem” sworn to by USSS agent, Eddie L. Coulter, it was revealed that Ibori began receiving huge sums of money into a Citibank account he opened in the last quarter of 1994, when Abacha began recruiting civilian assassins to serve his regime. In court papers obtained by Saturday Mirror, US investigators laid out a case that Ibori’s stunning deposits were the proceeds of some 419 activities.
They revealed that, prior to making the amazing transfers, Ibori and his wife, Theresa Nakanda, lived in England in assisted public housing. Both Ibori and his wife were receiving public assistance at the time that the inexplicable money transfers started flowing into his CitiBank accounts. Caught in the crosshairs of American law enforcement, Ibori then wangled documents with the help of the Abacha regime claiming that the monies came from legitimate sources. In court documents, he claimed part of the deposits came from payments from a debt collection he undertook for a company that was owed huge sums of money by the ministry of petroleum resources as well as Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance.
Unfortunately for the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) that once interrogated Ibori over mysterious Abacha-era assassinations, the court documents were the missing link in their inquiry to link Al-Mustapha and Ibori as close business associates during the Abacha years. Col. Ibrahim Yakassai, one of the three dangerous men had told the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) that investigated Abacha-era killings and corruption that a good deal of monies stolen in the name of “security votes” went to Ibori who maintained strong business dealings with Al-Mustapha. Col. (Dr.) Yakassai was the head of the murderous special force known as the “BG”.
Ibori and Al-Mustapha were the joint owners of Diet Communications Limited, publishers of Diet newspapers. The floating of the newspaper was part of the strategy to actualise “Abacha-forever” plot. Sources at the Corporate Affairs Commission, Garki, Abuja, disclosed that Al-Mustapha used his brother, Hadi Hamza, in the business deal. The outfit, with registration number 301608 of 10 October 1996, had Ibori James as a partner. Both have N50,000 shares bringing the total capital to N100,000. Yakassai had earlier in his confessional statement said that one of the main assignments given them by Abacha was to terminate about six people. The six included Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar’Adua, Col. Lawan Gwadabe, Col. Bello Fadile and Major Akinyemi (rtd). “It was God that saved them,” he said. Meanwhile, it would be recalled that indications emerged during the week that Ibori may be jailed for 10 years. An informed source, who is a Queens Counsel, on Thursday told National Mirror that the former governor might bag not less than 10 years jail term over alleged cases of stealing and money laundering against him in a London court.
Saturday Mirror authoritatively learnt last night that Ibori, al-Mustapha and Yakassai who proclaimed their undying and eternal loyalty to Abacha between 1994 and 1998, supervised the assassination of those perceived as political threats to the ambition of Gen. Abacha to transmute from a military head of state to a civilian president . Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, was the head of the over three hundred tripartite killer squads comprising the Strike Force, Brigade of Guards and the Intelligence Unit. He allegedly authorised most of the assassinations that took place during the inglorious era based on intelligence reports from Ibori and some other civilian spies.
Colonel Yakassai, a medical doctor, who doubled as a security officer, was the head of Brigade of Guards and was in charge of the health of the team. Ibori, who was allegedly introduced to Abacha by Al-Mustapha, was the only civilian among the three and was placed in charge of the intelligence network outside of the military circle. Saturday Mirror’s source further revealed that Ibori, who was the actual spymaster of the deadly regime in the civilian world, was reaping the reward of his membership of Abacha’s killer squad after he met Hamza Al Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer. The source said Ibori would first carry out the espionage on the regime’s targets before the combined team of the Strike Force and the Brigade of Guards would go after them , an act for which he was handsomely compensated.
Some of the atrocities committed by the three deadly men, the source said, included espionage on pro-democracy activists and the murder of the regime’s real or perceived enemies. Our source said that the assassination of Alfred Rewane, a financier and backer of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), was “Ibori’s most notable hit.” Mr. Rewane was killed in 1995 at his home in GRA Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos. The source also stated that Ibori participated in the killing of General Shehu Musa Yar’adua (rtd). Yar’adua was reportedly injected with the blood of a member of Abacha’s dreaded Strike Force/BG member who died of AIDS shortly after returning from training in Libya.
Ibori sacrificed his newspaper editor, Niran Malaolu, to one of Abacha’s phantom coup trials that earned him life imprisonment until Abacha died, the source further stated. Apart from the local runs, Ibori was said to have also handled money laundering assignments for both Abacha and Al-Mustapha in Europe and the US. A US justice department source who was familiar with a money laundering case instituted against Ibori hinted about a document pertaining to an asset forfeiture settlement between Ibori and the United States Secret Service in the US District Court in Maryland. The case stemmed from numerous wire transfers of substantial sums of cash into Ibori’s accounts with Citibank.
The funds were wired from accounts in Switzerland. In an “affidavit in support of arrest in rem” sworn to by USSS agent, Eddie L. Coulter, it was revealed that Ibori began receiving huge sums of money into a Citibank account he opened in the last quarter of 1994, when Abacha began recruiting civilian assassins to serve his regime. In court papers obtained by Saturday Mirror, US investigators laid out a case that Ibori’s stunning deposits were the proceeds of some 419 activities.
They revealed that, prior to making the amazing transfers, Ibori and his wife, Theresa Nakanda, lived in England in assisted public housing. Both Ibori and his wife were receiving public assistance at the time that the inexplicable money transfers started flowing into his CitiBank accounts. Caught in the crosshairs of American law enforcement, Ibori then wangled documents with the help of the Abacha regime claiming that the monies came from legitimate sources. In court documents, he claimed part of the deposits came from payments from a debt collection he undertook for a company that was owed huge sums of money by the ministry of petroleum resources as well as Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance.
Unfortunately for the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) that once interrogated Ibori over mysterious Abacha-era assassinations, the court documents were the missing link in their inquiry to link Al-Mustapha and Ibori as close business associates during the Abacha years. Col. Ibrahim Yakassai, one of the three dangerous men had told the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) that investigated Abacha-era killings and corruption that a good deal of monies stolen in the name of “security votes” went to Ibori who maintained strong business dealings with Al-Mustapha. Col. (Dr.) Yakassai was the head of the murderous special force known as the “BG”.
Ibori and Al-Mustapha were the joint owners of Diet Communications Limited, publishers of Diet newspapers. The floating of the newspaper was part of the strategy to actualise “Abacha-forever” plot. Sources at the Corporate Affairs Commission, Garki, Abuja, disclosed that Al-Mustapha used his brother, Hadi Hamza, in the business deal. The outfit, with registration number 301608 of 10 October 1996, had Ibori James as a partner. Both have N50,000 shares bringing the total capital to N100,000. Yakassai had earlier in his confessional statement said that one of the main assignments given them by Abacha was to terminate about six people. The six included Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar’Adua, Col. Lawan Gwadabe, Col. Bello Fadile and Major Akinyemi (rtd). “It was God that saved them,” he said. Meanwhile, it would be recalled that indications emerged during the week that Ibori may be jailed for 10 years. An informed source, who is a Queens Counsel, on Thursday told National Mirror that the former governor might bag not less than 10 years jail term over alleged cases of stealing and money laundering against him in a London court.
Source, National Mirror
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