President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua has ordered an investigation into allegations that the Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ambassador Sam Edem, spent N1billion to secure the services of a sorcerer to employ spiritual means to enable him secure contracts from the Akwa Ibom State Government.
The President also directed the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to get to the root of the matter.
Edem was also alleged to have burnt N270 million at a Port Harcourt cemetery, which he later bathed with in order to realise his wishes from the state government functionaries.
According to a statement made by the sorcerer, Dr. Perekambowei Ogah, also known as Matthew Sonoma, at the Zone 5 Police Headquarters in Benin, Edo State and published in the latest edition of Newswatch magazine, Edem paid into his executive savings account at the Ughelli, Delta State branch of one of the new generation banks, N15 million to make some sacrifice in order to retain his position as NNDC chairman when the board was dissolved.
Ogah also claimed to have received three different requests from Edem notably to work on the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Dr. Godswill Akpabio, in order to secure contracts from him; to kill the Managing Director of NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe, who also works in the same office with him to enable him have his way in decision making processes and to work on Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to always provide him support if there is any plan to remove him.
For the above tasks, Ogah charged N570,000,000 for which Edem paid in instalments of N220,000,000, N50,000.000 and N40,000.000 respectively amounting to N310,000.000 with a balance of N260.000.000.
According to the sorcerer, at the expiration of the date for Alaibe�s demise, which never happened, Edem demanded a refund while Ogah stood his ground that the payment was not completed prompting Edem to report the matter to the police as a case of fraud.
�That after the expiration of the period within which the said Timi Alaibe was to die, the petitioner came to ask me why the charm did not work and I told him that his (Alaibe�s) spirit is too strong. On that note he grew annoyed and asked me to refund the money he paid for Timi�s work,� he said.
The NDDC chairman in his statement at the same Zone 5 Police headquarters, Benin, said he was under a spell when he made the payments.
According to him, �The amount of money the fraudster collected from me through the hypnotic spell is about N800million. The extortion spread over months and were always with death threats to my person and family members, friends and staff�.
Aug82008