$18 million spent on influence-peddling; $18 million spent to fund last Edo Guber elections to unseat Obaseki being proceeds from sold company aircraft allegedly “pocketed” by Capt. Hosa himself! These are some of the mindboggling revelations from the dirty war between former Bank Chief Tunde Ayeni, oil guru Capt. Hosa Okunbor and Ned Nwoko as revealed through a petition by legal luminary Femi Falana, counsel to Dr Tunde Ayeni.
The allegations in the public domain are weighty in the sense that they reveal the type of people who call themselves our leaders; people that thousands flock to prostrate in their houses whenever they are around to receive gratification. The immediate impression is that of profligacy—high degree of waste and greed. When the going was good, they all rolled high, flew first class and all that. But that’s by the way. Now, those in support and against are up in arms coming out to ridicule themselves.
The bone of contention is: one party claims that the “other” is no longer a member of the company having sold his shares! From the layman’s point of view, that appears to be an arrant falsehood. How could someone like Ayeni—a high flyer– abandon where his “honeypot “is just because he is a “gentleman”. It doesn’t add up. They were friends alright; the only logical reason from out here is that Capt. Probably “bought” those shares ostensibly to protect his friend out of the storm he found himself. That’s how “friends” should work. It seems unimaginable for Ayeni—suffering financial stress—to just “dash” the “pot” where his “lifeline” is, just for the fun of it.
The truth which stands out like daylight whether anyone brings up video evidence or written scripts is that somebody tried to outsmart the other. Whoever that is, simply capitalized on the misfortunes of one to “play” out the other that has fallen with the aim of “posing”—for the “binge” to continue? This is typical of the behaviour of our businessmen who never fails to “cheat” at the slightest opportunity. It cannot be true that Ayeni sold his shares—this fact is clear.
The news that Ocean Marine Board has passed a vote of confidence on Capt. is also hasty and unnecessary. Ocean Marines belong to both Capt. Hosa Okunbor and Dr Tunde Ayeni and they should resolve their differences amicably. For Hosa, he should do well to account for the monies he wrongfully collected and spent—especially to remove a constitutional governor in Edo State. That’s where the real problem lies; had he succeeded, this is how he would have frittered away the treasury of Edo State people on frivolous ventures.
There are many sick people out there looking for philanthropists to help them; some looking for as low as N200, 000 to escape death, but here we are seeing people bashing monies from right, left and centre. For us at the newspaperman, this revelation vindicates our support for truth, equity and justice. For the people of Edo State, they should thank their stars that they got Obaseki in. Edo State would have been plunged into unprecedented debt. There was absolutely no reason to unseat Obaseki-other than greed and avarice. This is just the trace of people who are self-seeking, opportunistic and egoistic. If he indeed spent such an amount to unseat Obaseki, he could equally have tried to “recoup” the lost funds through the “backdoor”. This is likely what played out at Ocean Marine Solutions. Possibly so.
