OBASANJO TO AWUJALE OF IJEBULAND: YOU ARE A HABITUAL LIE

LAGOS, Nigeria – Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has lashed out at the Awujale of Ijebuland, Alaiyeluwa .S. K Adetona Ogbagba II, describing the assertions in his autobiography on pages 187 to 195 as nothing but complete lie.

The autobiography was published by Mosuro Publishers. In the letter addressed to His Royal Majesty, HRM, Obasanjo said, “ Your assertion in the publication was a tissue of lies and untruth”, he said.

The former President said the invitation to Globacom Chairman, Mike Adenuga to contribute to the building of Library Block of Bells University was issued to by then Vice Chancellor, Professor Julius Okogie.

According to Obasanjo, the former VC did not tell him of the invitation until Mike pulled out. “And that I have not and will not talk to Mike about it should convince you that I know nothing about its genesis”, he said.

“Under my watch, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC was free to do its job as it saw fit. Common sense would suggest that wild rumours should not be perpetrated by an Oba of your caliber. Kabiyesi, your cousin did not tell you that my Chief of Staff, Abdul Mohammed put his reputation on the line by assuring EFCC that Mike would go nowhere and that they should trust him to give him his passport. I did not even know that Abdul had done that until the Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu reported the case of my Chief of Staff seeming colluding with Mike to run out of the country”, he said.

He said Mike does not need to send any document to him as the sitting President since it is the EFCC he needed to satisfy.
“I did not consider it right for me as President of Nigeria to be undermining EFCC by hobnobbing with that person. EFCC must be given free hand to do its work. Even if such a person was my child, the best I could do would be to secure a good lawyer to handle the matter before the EFCC for that child”, he said.

He accused the Oba of habitual rumour mongering, pointing out that when Rasak Okoya’s daughter, Abiola approached him to placate her father to forgive her, the HRM told him that he Obasanjo went to Okoya seeking the hand of his daughter , Abiola in marriage.
He explained that though he failed to personally support S. O. Bakare according to his wish, he nevertheless instructed Chief Tony Aninih as Minister for Works to patronize S. O Bakare as a Peugeot car dealer.

He told the Oba that all he wanted him to do as President with regards Mike Adenuga was improper.
He explained that contrary to the Oba’s insinuation, he did not hate Mike hence he got the Glo licence that has made him a billionaire.

“It was my prerogative as President, so to do. You may also be reminded that in the first round of the auction which Mike did not make, the country earned $US 285 million for each license. The country earned only US$200 million from the license transaction with Mike and in the subsequent transaction with Etisalat, the country earned US$400 million. It was a deliberate action on my part that a Nigerian should win one of the licenses. Anybody but Mike could have been that Nigerian”, he said.