On Friday, the United States
department of justice announced that Allen Onyema, chief executive officer of
Air Peace, one of the leading airlines in Nigeria, had been indicted for money
laundering.
The US authorities, which have
reportedly issued warrant for Onyema’s arrest, said he used several fraudulent
letters of credit to American banks and initiated wire transfers to the tune of
$44.9 million between 2010 and 2018.
The funds were reportedly
transferred from the Nigerian bank accounts of organisations founded by Onyema.
They include Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for
Non-Violence and Peace Development, All-Time Peace Media Communications
Limited, and Every Child Limited.
The Nigerian businessman has
since denied the allegation, saying he is ready to clear his name.
But as far back as 2014, Diepreye
Dikibo, spokesman of the ex-Militant Leaders Forum in the Niger Delta, alleged
that Onyema and Kingsley Kuku, former adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan
on Niger Delta Affairs, used funds meant for the amnesty programme to float Air
Peace.
Kuku was the coordinator of the
project while Onyema was a consultant.
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Kuku, Onyema with President Barrack Obama and VP Joe Biden
during the inauguration party for Obama’s second term.
Below is the full statement from
the spokesman of the ex-militant leaders:
Initially, there were rumors that
Air Peace, a new Airline whose aircraft have recently been cited at Lagos
Airports belong to the First Lady Patience Faka Jonathan. That is all not true.
We believe at this moment, that those who churned out the story that the
Airlines belonged to the First Lady did so deliberately to hide the truth and
to mislead the people.
The truth did not take too long
to come out. Business concerns owned by Allen Onyema, a Lagos based
businessman, colleague and close confidant of the Special adviser to the
President on Niger Delta & Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme
Kingsley Kuku have not been confirmed as responsible for the Airlines and more
to that, Allen Onyema has now publicly confirmed that he is the Chairman of the
Air Peace Airlines.
Allen Onyeama’s business outfit
handled the demobilization and orientation of former Niger Delta militants
which cost billions of Naira to run. Allen Onyema has also been responsible for
high valued training contracts (running into billions) in the areas of welding
training as well as aviation training for the Presidential Amnesty Programme in
countries such as South Africa, The United States and Dubai.
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| Onyema’s airline |
Kingsley Kuku, Allen Onyema with House of Reps Committee Members on the Niger Delta visiting Proclad Academy, Dubai (Where Allen Onyema’s business outfit ICNPD) is training Niger Delta youths in Welding for millions of dollars.
Kingsley Kuku, Allen Onyema with House of Reps Committee Members on the
Niger Delta visiting Proclad Academy, Dubai (Where Allen Onyema’s business
outfit ICNPD) is training Niger Delta youths in Welding for millions of
dollars. The appointment of Kingsley Kuku as SA, Niger Delta & Chairman of
the Amnesty Programme in January 2011, was a huge blessing for Allen Onyema as
it gives him automatic access to a monster chunk of the more sixty billion
naira allocated to the amnesty programme yearly.
Two of Allen Onyeama’s NGOs which also double as business outfits are known to be the biggest beneficiary of large value Presidential Amnesty Contracts and we can confirm that none of these outfits has any ties to the First Lady Patience Jonathan.
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| Onyema: He has described the allegations against him as strange |
They include the Foundation for
Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN) and the International Center for Non-violence
& Peace Development (ICNPD).
All the contracts awarded to
Allen Onyema and his business run into millions of dollars and are all grossly
inflated and over valued in a manner designed to short change the Amnesty
Programme and steal the billions of naira yearly allocated to the manage the
amnesty program me in the Niger Delta.
Sources close to Kingsley Kuku
and Allen Onyeama say that Kingsley Kuku’s fears that the President might not
return in 2015 and the need to settle his future spurred Kuku and Onyeama to
start the Airlines on time rather than wait for the Presidential election in
2015.
Over time, Ex-militant leaders in
the Niger Delta had spoken up about the rot in the Presidential Amnesty
Programme but were not listened to.
Rather, a band of lesser known
and less credible leaders are being patronized by the Amnesty Programme and
paid to issue press releases that threaten mayhem to Nigerians if President
Jonathan is not elected in 2015 as though it was their votes that brought him
to power in 2011.
As a group of committed leaders
of the Niger Delta, we have over time resolved to work with all Nigerians for
the success of President Jonathan in carrying out his responsibilities as a son
of the Niger Delta, President of Nigeria and a father to all Nigerians. The
journey to success in 2015 will be done in collaboration with all well meaning Nigerians
because we believe, like many other Nigerians, that President Jonathan means
well.
In the times past, we spoke about
the false records of militants that the Amnesty Office parades but we were
ignored.
We exposed the faulty award of
scholarships to so-called Niger Deltans and we were again ignored even when we
made it clear that Kingsley Kuku had been awarding scholarships to girlfriends,
children of girlfriends and many others who had no business with the Niger
Delta and that scholarship award.
Novena University is one of the
Universities used by the Presidential amnesty Programme to train program
recipients YET the children of the owner of Novena University are also included
in Amnesty Programme.
A scion of a former political
rival to President Jonathan, Timi Alaibe, Kingsley Kuku was not the first
choice for the position of Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta
& Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme. The first choice candidate had
been Dr Felix Tuodolor, an Ijaw intellectual and highly cerebral first
President of the Ijaw Youth Council. Felix Tuodolor was upstaged because there
was a believe in certain Ijaw and Niger Delta quarters that he will not ‘SHARE’
money for the boys.
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| Kuku left the country towards the end of Jonathan’s administration |
Kingsley Kuku it is, who likes to
brag that he has the Chief of Army Staff in his pocket and that he settles the
President’s wife very regularly. Quite sordid.
In January 2013, It was Allen
Onyema who paid tens of thousands of dollars to the Obama campaign support
group to enable Onyema and Kingsley Kuku to enjoy a photo-shot with President
Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their wives.
Clearly, It would therefore not
be difficult to start an airline with such heavy financial support.
Question is, will Kuku and his
Air Peace Airlines recruit all the Pilots they say that Amnesty has trained? Or
will they allow the poor fellows to go out there themselves and make bread for
their families?
Our collected call to the
President is that Kingsley Kuku be immediately removed as SA to the President
on Niger Delta & Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme. A reject a thief
lording over the collective destiny of the Niger Delta and we call on the
President to do the needful as a matter of urgency.
Kingsley Kuku’s loyalty is
clearly not to the President but to his pockets and to his former lords.
A word has always been good
enough for the wise.
IF our call is not heeded, we
will announce a withdrawal of our support for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
in the 2015 elections. We have suffered enough.
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