Dr. Osita Emmanuel Okereke is the formal Presidential Candidate of African Liberation Party (ALP) and the Director General, National Taskforce to combat illegal importation of Goods, small arms, ammunition and light weapons, NATFORCE. He has been in the news; recently he was purportedly sacked as the President of Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) and the DG-NATFORCE by BoT members. In this interview with RAPHAEL ONYEKACHUKWU, he said he remain the DG-NATFORCE and President IMAN. He also spoke on the fight against corruption and warned against media trial on cases that cannot be properly prosecuted in the court.
EXCERPT:
Do you think the federal government fight against corruption so far is in line with the global best practices?
Well, I can say that I am satisfied because number one, this corruption is like a revolution and when revolutions come you don’t expect the type of revolution that happened in Ghana to happen in Nigeria, because Nigeria is a peaceful nation. I thank God that somebody likes Buhari emerged as the president of Nigeria today and he as a man that have large and a lion heart. He is fighting corruption but there are lots of sentiments on the corruption crusade and that is while I am calling Nigeria to give him support. Election is over and we should remove party sentiment for now and fight for liberation of our country and join hand in the fight against corruption. The key problem in this country is corruption, country where one person will seat on trillions of Nigeria. If you are a man of 40 years what are you doing with trillions let alone those who are 50, 60, 70 years and above and they are still stealing money and keeping and that is the reason I issued the statement that those who have been indicted in this corruption war, their children studying abroad should be deported back to this country so that they can equally see what the children of poor masses are seen. I can tell you that those who are causing this problem today are not more than 0.6 percent, it should be 00.1 percent but they held the economy of this nation to ransom but I believe on president Buhari’s ability to redress these anomalies.
Those who held sensitive position and have escaped to other countries should be extradited back to face their crime; somebody like Dikko the former custom boss and EFCC boss, Ibrahim Lamorde because these are the people that caused the problems we are suffering today. I trust Buhari he may have been giving order, like Jonathan did to bring these people back but some people may be sabotaging the order.
Lots of people were involved in the arms scandal but it should be investigated whether those accused were informed that the money giving to them where arms fund. Whether they know what this money was meant to procure arms. There is a way government gives somebody money; they can tell you go and meet somebody like this, he is going to see you and you might not know that the money is meant for arms procurement.
Who are those people that knew that the fund is meant to purchase arms?
That is while Dasuki should tell us. There must be a committee that oversees the procurement of arms for the country who requested for the fund first of all. Those people know that this was not used for the purpose and they are away, such people should be brought to book because there are some politicians; like Olu Fale who was giving some little money out of the fund, he said he doesn’t know what the money is meant for only that party came to him and discussed with him and he reasoned with them and said I will support you. For me he has no problem. Those people that were giving money because of what they are doing or has done for the government shouldn’t be branded as corrupt people since they don’t know where the money come from or the purpose for which it was meant.
How can you describe the prosecution of Olisa Metu, the PDP spokesperson and the method of bring him in court chained while the person alleged to have giving him the money comes to court like king?
When I had problem with EFCC they chained me and I was handcuffed. Prison always chain you when you are leaving the prison premises because they said some people have escaped in their hand, but you are to make special arrangement with the warders if you don’t want them to chain or handcuff you. Three times I came to court I was handcuffed. May be while other accused persons had special arrangement with the prison warders that is while they come to court free of handcuff.
Is that proper?
Well I don’t know, but they said it is their rule. It left for the court to decide. Let me tell you that the warders are most wicked people on earth, they don’t respect anybody. I was there and I can tell you my experience with them. I told them I am not a criminal and that the charge that brought me here was a trump-up. I know what I have achieved for this country, how can you handcuff me and they said I must be handcuffed. It is the Judges that can make a consequential order that prison warders should not chain people who are not criminals and have not been convicted for offence which they are standing trial. Olisa Metu cannot run or escape and where is he running to. If Metu can be handcuffed why is Dasuki who committed all the atrocities come to court without handcuff, unless if Olisa Metu has special problem with the prison warders.
He was accused of destroying his own statement with EFCC. Is purported confessional statement that people were always subjected to sign which you didn’t voluntarily giving a right thing?
If he is the one who write the statement and tears it, it is an offence. But I can’t say for sure what happened; it left for the EFCC to prove the case before the court. What I know is that I cannot sign any statement I didn’t voluntarily giving to any security agencies. I can’t sign my death sentence and things are not done that way. If I write a statement and I discovered mistakes or so many cancelations, I will request for fresh form and tears the previous one and give you what I know. Any statement signed under duress is not acceptable in any court of law and is only at the point of death to save my life that I can only sign statement not voluntarily given to security agencies and when I come to court I will tell my lawyer that I signed such statement under duress. It is better to be alive and witness the trial than allow them to kill you in their detention, as I speak to you one of my cousin in EFCC detention was poisoned and the case is before the court, there is nothing those people cannot do. But that is EFCC of Lamorde, and they have killed so many people including my cousin.
Is it lawful to detain somebody for seven to twenty days to allow investigation?
That is unacceptable. Anti-graft agencies should finish investigation before embarking on arrest. They supposed to have done their investigation before going for arrest. You are not an armed robber were you hear that there is robbery and you start arresting people in the street and is those once you can keep for some days, but you don’t do it in such high profile cases. If you committee any offence in UK and US for instance; the crime investigation agency monitor suspects for close to one year or more before they can go for an arrest when evidences have been gathered. When they have allegation against you they monitor you for one year and you will not know and they keep on following you to all the places you go, and all the meetings you do. They can monitor for one year but the day they nab you, you have entered and you cannot escape it because they have gathered all the evidences they need to jail you. But is in Nigeria you say this man is this and they will arrest and start looking for evidences. They will take somebody to court and ask court to detain him because he will tamper with the investigation and that is idiotic. Before you take somebody to court, you should have gathered all your evidences to prosecute the case like is done in any other clime. So before you will arrest anybody you should have investigated him, gathered all evidences so that within 24hours of his arrest you will take him to court. If court is not convinced, he should be taken into prison. The law said 24hrs but if you want to disobey the law, it said 48hrs the person should appear in court and let the court decided. Even if you keep him you are not the one going to sentence him and President Buhari should look into this and advise all the security agencies. We should build institutions in line with the international best practices.
What is your thinking about the media trial of those alleged to have committed corruption?
The media trial of corruption cases is good to some extent; it will enlighten Nigerians on the dangers of corruption if you are caught. But in other way it is bad if such allegations against such person(s) are not established at the end of trial. More especially leaking a statement of somebody in EFCC, Police or DSS custody to the press is unprofessional. The statement DSS and EFCC are leaking to the media is against their oath of secrecy that their jobs demand. So those cases that have been tried in the media supposed not to come to court anymore because if the court decide otherwise based on evidence presented to court, the government and people will label such judge as corrupt and if it goes the other way, the judge will be seen as already influenced by the government. It is because EFCC staffs don’t know much on the workings of the law that is why they don’t win cases and now they have resorted to leaking documents for media trial which shows their ineptitude. EFCC was setup in 2002 and we are in 2016, this is 14 years the EFCC was setup and how many cases have they won. Somebody will take a bottle of water they give him 120 counts charge and at the end if court strikeout one, others will follow. How many ex-Governors have they convicted since 2003 till date that is because they don’t even investigate the case well before going to court? I think they should be cultured because it is dangerous for you to expose case you cannot win because those people can equally sue for damages. There was a time my name was in pages of newspapers, what offence did I committee nothing, but to destroy my name and wit hunt.
Recently a ‘Disclaim was published in Daily Trust Newspapers, where it said you are no longer the DG-NATFORCE’ and it was signed by some persons said to be members of BoT NATFORCE. Are you still the DG-NATFORCE?
Those people are not normal people. I am founder of NATFORCE; I am the President of Importers Association of Nigeria IMAN since 2010 till date. We initiated the NATFORCE as Public Private Partner with over fifteen retired generals as members. When they said we are going to be disbanding, Mike Okiro was the DG-NATFORCE. As of then we brought Okiro in and some time I was with Okiro around 10 to 11pm later, he told me that he was going for a meeting that he is going to call me. After 3hrs to 4hrs Mr. Okiro called me that Inspector General of Police called him that we are going to be disbanded, that we are going to be disband. I told him my friend what are you talking about, he said that he is going to resign and that has already resigned, and so I laughed. He resigned and I took over and went to court when the disbandment came. I took all our documents to Barr. Chris Uche (SAN) and he give me confident that we are going to win the matter. We then went to court for 2yrs and 10months, those people who said they are BoT members never attended meeting and never asked about it till date. They didn’t know how much we paid to the lawyers and they never come to court to witness whether this matter is going to be possible or not. It is today they know they are members because I have done all they think no human being can do and a criminal Kinsley Chikeize who have been using my name to extort money from people, signing signature on top of my name, and collecting money from every state in Nigeria. I discovered this when I send a committee to Sokoto and the committee discovered that he had collected millions of naira with my name. The committee came back and called him to go and talk to the DG otherwise if he sees this report you are in trouble.
(Cue in). Is the report with you?
Yes.
He knew that I am bitter and doesn’t tolerate nonsense. He has to go and call one criminal that said he is Ambassador Dr. Raphael John, an Igboman who have no surname JPDDD who we gave office as media person in River State, to assist people that were there when he told me that he knows everybody in Nigeria. The man went there and started collecting money from people, printing our letter headed paper, signing an appointment letter and creating divisions. The same Chikeize who was our secretary, who was even suspended one time and I brought him back in my capacity as the DG went and gang-up with the criminal he wrote his sack letter, and now said he is the chairman of BoT of NATFORCE to tell you that they are gang of criminals.
The National Executive Council (NEC) of NATFORCE in her recent meeting held in our National Headquarter, Abuja attended by all state chairmen and secretaries has dissolved the BoT. The NEC was empowered by our constitution to dissolve the BoT because they equally appointed them. Our constitution stated that if you don’t attend our meeting four consecutive times you will lose your membership and they had lost their membership when they refused to attend meeting for 5years. Now they know because I made a publication against the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki having been working hand-in-hand with him they went and consult Mr. Mike Okiro and he told them to remove me, but they cannot and have no power to remove me. Some time ago I ask Kinsley Chikeize where our CAC Certificate is and he told me that he lost it during an armed robbery attack. We approached CAC for reissuance certificate and after due process another certificate was issued to the Organization in 2011. Since then they never know that I forged the CAC certificate. When the matter was in court they didn’t know and now I have finished the matter they now know because they have seen that President Buhari is coming to sign NATFORCE into law. I have sponsored a bill through the National Assembly, which have passed 1st and 2nd reading, do they ever ask or contributed anything. Who are they going to remove me or their father?
For scorning my name in that publication, I have sued them for N200 million. They are going nowhere because they are frustrated people. You see there is how God works when you are working with bad elements; in one second God will single them out and that is exactly what happened to Kinsley Chikeize. The NEC have dissolved them and appointed another Secretary General Idris Iman from Kastina, he is now the new secretary.
