Femi Fani-Kayode As An Assassin In Government: The Story Unfolds

By:Sahara Reporters Host
Femi Fani-Kayode As An Assassin In Government: The Story Unfurls
By Enobong Umohette (enobong_umohette@yahoo.com) This is a true account of Femi Fani-Kayode’s role as an agent of lawlessness during the years he served in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government. What I am about to relate are eyewitness accounts. For the record, I served as security detail and Chief Security Officer (C.S.O) to Mr. Fani-Kayode. From my vantage position I saw and heard some of the most despicable acts perpetrated by the ex-chief spokesman of the Obasanjo Presidency who later became a minister—first of Culture and later of Aviation.The Obasanjo era, from 1999 to 2007, saw the reign of demonic power. Evil thrived in the land and demons were unleashed on our society through perfidy, violence and corruption. The greatest tragedy wrought on our national existence as a country manifested in that calamitous administration that held sway for eight years. It was a period when the powers that be and their shameless minions broke all records in recklessness, rascality and impunity. Fani-Kayode was at the top of the ladder of that regime’s evil agents.In September 2007, I gave an exclusive interview to Saharareporters on my experiences as an ex-SSS operative turned amateur boxer. In that interview I made reference to Femi Fani-Kayode’s effort to threaten Olusegun Adeniyi, former Thisday editor and current presidential spokesman. The opprobrium and public outburst that trailed that interview provoked Mr. Adeniyi to term my statements, in one of two of his private emails to me, as ‘libelous’, ‘nonsense’ and ‘allusions’.advertisement To my surprise, he didn’t take his vituperations to the public realm, as many Nigerian government functionaries (both serving and past) are wont to do. I was also surprised that, despite claiming to be scandalized, Mr. Adeniyi did not fire the famous rhetoric or threaten court action to “defend his good name.”He was proud to declare in his emails to me that Femi Fani- Kayode called him to apologize over the ‘phone stalking and threatening’ incident and one Chief Omisore (a biological cousin of the globally famed senator, Otunba Iyiola Omisore of the Bola Ige murder saga) brought the phone stalker lady in question to his office to beg for her and Femi Fani-Kayode’s behalf. According to Mr. Adeniyi, “that was the end of that matter”.In my response to Mr. Adeniyi, I praised his public spiritedness over the incident in question, citing where he was quick to use the public as a shield to hold Femi Fani-Kayode accountable for his safety. Yet, when Femi Fani-Kayode apologized in person and sent one Chief Omisore and the lady to reinforce his contrition, Adeniyi conveniently didn’t seem to be under any moral obligation to disclose these apologies to the same public on whose platform, according to him, he “fought and won”.
It is now obvious that Mr Olusegun Adeniyi had answers to some of my earlier ‘allusions’. In my opinion he is a clear example of an individual who needs more education on the concept of ‘PUBLIC INTEREST’, which is randomly debased in Nigeria. My poser to the presidential spokesman was this: I wonder what other disclosures he is yet to make, what disclosures he has conveniently not told the public and what other issues of public concern and interest, he has tidily foreclosed as “end of that matter”. The two well-timed colossal tragedies that visited Mr. Segun Adeniyi’s THISDAY newspaper in the form of an inferno and the cold-blooded assassination of Godwin Agbroko are still begging for answers. Unsurprisingly, the focus and direction, in the wake of those tragedies already suggests the “end of that matter”It seems matters for public knowledge must either be selected for the strategic convenience of government or some powerful interests, or must be censored under obnoxious and incongruous statutes through the courts.Reproduced herein is the contentious back page article that Mr Olusegun Adeniyi wrote on the threatening phone calls and stalking incident that I mentioned in my initial statement to Saharareporters. Mr. Adeniyi’s column was titled “ASO ROCK AND THE ‘ANONYMOUS’ CALLER”. The piece was published on 31st January 2004. When I asked Adeniyi and his THISDAY NEWSPAPER crew for a copy of the column, they could not provide it, despite their pledges to do so. It is marked asDOCUMENT 1: Aso Rock and the 'Anonymous' Caller By Olusegun Adeniyi In March 2003, I was dispatched with another SSS operative on VIP protective duties to Femi Fani-Kayode. It was our understanding that the Director General of the State Security Services (herein referred to as DG SSS) was responding to an assassination attempt on Femi Fani-Kayode who was then a member of the Obasanjo-Atiku campaign organization.Within weeks of this assignment, Femi Fani-Kayode elected to retain me as his Chief Security Officer (C.S.O). From my background in the SSS, he was aware that I was decorated as OVERALL BEST IN UNARMED COMBAT in my 2000 training cadre, proficient in weapons handling and marksmanship and was twice a security detail to the erstwhile Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong Victor Attah, and had a record of very challenging operations and assignments I had excelled at in the past.He was also aware that as a VIP protective detail, it was my supreme duty to ensure his protection and that of his family even if it meant at the expense of my life. This is a professional creed that I uphold as a protective security detail, but in Fani-Kayode’s thinking, this meant ABSOLUTE LOYALTY TO HIM. How mistaken he was. A few weeks into my service as his C.S.O, things started unraveling one after another. I discovered that the story of an assassination attempt on him as published in the print media was a hoax. It was contrived by Fani-Kayode with the assistance of his friends and contacts in the media. It was his intention to attract President Obasanjo’s sympathy to provide him with elite state protection. Femi Fani- Kayode’s insatiable desire for power was to manifest in much greater magnitude, as I was soon to realize.Fani-Kayode was later to make a written request to the Nigerian Police. After making calls to the Police Headquarters at the highest hierarchy, the then Deputy Commissioner Operations (D.C OPS), Lagos state Police command, Mr John Haruna, was directed to approve Fani-Kayode’s request for high police protection. Subsequently, mobile policemen were assigned to his residence on shift duties.advertisement Even prior to getting both SSS and police protection, Fani-Kayode was obsessed with personal security. His previous security consisted of four security men (known in Nigerian parlance as‘mai-guards’) of Niger Republic origin who manned his heavily fortified gate; two young daytime security hands courtesy of the Odua People’s Congress OPC (who later withdrew their services in protest); and about nine viciously trained guard dogs that were released on patrol only after midnight.With this ‘absolute loyalty’ misconception in the mind of Femi Fani-Kayode, next came the task of understanding his thought process. His propensity for violence, ill temperament and impulsiveness were unrivalled by anything I had ever seen before. Cooks, cleaners, cab drivers, stewards, laborers, craftsmen and employees who dared to ask for their unpaid wages and legitimate debts or requested to leave his employment, were thoroughly brutalized by him. In addition, these domestic staff were routinely arrested and detained by the police on trumped up charges ranging from stealing, spying, to posing a ‘security risk’ to Fani-Kayode.
Right inside his physically well-fortified abode, I witnessed the most horrific and bizarre aspect of the man’s twisted mind: torture sessions, which he personally carried out on individuals in his premises. One of the victims is Atkins Fani-Kayode, his biological older brother, a London trained lawyer. Atkins Fani-Kayode had remained a prisoner under Femi Fani-Kayode’s tyrannical imprisonment since 2001, locked in his younger brother’s dingy boys’ quarters and tortured on a weekly basis. Atkins was heavily monitored on a round-the-clock basis and denied access to the outside world. His life, freedom and dignity were simply snatched away from him.Femi Fani-Kayode would occasionally allow his brother to visit his main living quarters to watch his interviews on national television and interact with his guests. But Atkins’ occasional visits to the main house were done under the strictest and most stringent guidelines. Femi always warned him beforehand to watch his comments. Often, Femi would say, “If you make one stupid comment, I’ll skin you alive.” The trepid gentleman knew the harsh consequences that awaited him if he erred by speaking of his captivity.On numerous occasions Femi and Atkins Fani-Kayode’s sisters would telephone from London and ask to speak with Atkins. Before Femi handed the phone to his older brother, he would order him, under duress and threat of torture, to speak in a happy tone and to respond in monosyllables to their sisters’ enquiries. He was ordered to state that he was doing okay and that Femi was taking good care of him.As I write, it is uncertain if Femi did not eventually kill Atkins. I often worry that Atkins Fani-Kayode might have been tortured to death. But if that kind, intelligent and peaceful gentleman is dead, I pray that someone somewhere will ask a court to cause for his body to be exhumed from wherever it has been buried, be it in Nigeria or Ghana (where Femi Fani-Kayode has considerable investment and had planned to banish his elder sibling to). The least that will be discovered is a couple of broken bones or a cracked skull, even though I am most certain that an autopsy would have already been manufactured, to state the cause of death as an ‘ailment’ or ‘natural’. The full story of Mr Atkins Fani-Kayode’s journey into his younger brother’s (Femi Fani-Kayode) captivity is yet lined up, for another day.Another victim of Femi’s savagery was a male domestic staff (who will remain anonymous for now, until a later time). He worked and resided in Fani-Kayode’s house, but eventually became a prisoner on forced labor against his will for more than a month. He was often used as guinea pig to test the aggression and combat-readiness of two of Femi Fani-Kayode’s most vicious canines, all for Fani-Kayode’s amusement. The captive young man regularly sustained serious bite injuries from these dogs. That young man’s dramatic escape later provoked the mother of all police manhunts on heavily trumped up charges by Fani-Kayode. That epic story is for another day.Femi Fani-Kayode’s sordid libidinous degeneracy was another issue. He has an unbridled penchant for housemaids and a perverse impulse for sexual exploitation of young lady-employees in any establishment, no matter how lowly. He entertained himself to sexual orgies on an almost daily basis at various hotels in Apapa, one sharing the same fence with his residence and a couple more just down the street. A quarrel between Femi Fani-Kayode and one of his women of easy virtues in the privacy of a hotel room could lead to a telephone call to the DG SSS, Col Kayode Are (rtd) or the Police H/Q. The attendant consequence was immediate arrests and detentions of innocent people just going about minding their own business. His sexual assaults on his wife’s housemaids were constant. The traumatized victims were summarily branded ‘possessed’ and sent for ‘deliverance’ at the nearby Mountain of Fire Church/Ministries at Marine Road Apapa, Lagos whose members regularly came to offer prayers for Fani-Kayode at his residence. This is of course before some of those ‘delivered’ housemaids would soon after be arrested and detained by the police on fictitious charges leveled by Fani-Kayode.It was indeed a theatre of unfathomable depravity and absurdity. Sometimes I hoped that there would be some respite and logic from Femi’s born again, speaking-in-tongue, cherub-faced, God-fearing, Ghanaian-born wife Regina Fani-Kayode (nee Amoo), a deaconess.advertisement But she was a little terror in her own right. By her decree, no maid/chef dared taste of the food they assisted her to cook, but must feed and purchase their own food from outside. When calls from the Fani-Kayode sisters resident in London were made, this “deaconess” would be all sweet charm as she lied, “Atkins just went out.” She was the proprietress of MENU INTERNATIONAL BAR/RESTAURANT situated at No 7 Randle Road Apapa, Lagos, an establishment inherited from the late Chief Remi Fani-Kayode. (The building is now a church). This outfit was another conduit for all sorts of arbitrariness as staff who demanded unpaid wages were branded thieves, accused of misappropriating some bottles of beer, and summarily arrested and detained by Femi Fani-Kayode’s police stooges at the Apapa Area command on the instruction of ‘Madam’ Fani-Kayode. Madam’s ‘holy-holy’ was absolutely at face value indeed.
There was a case of one Musa Leshi, who worked for ‘Madam’ at MENU INTERNATIONAL. He had been owed wages and was keen on quitting and requested his wages with intention to quit. Incidentally, two environmental sanitation notices were served to ‘Madam’ Fani-Kayode through MENU INTERNATIONAL, which she promptly ignored as ‘rubbish’ and ‘an insult’.As Musa agitated for his wages, Madam put out a call to Femi Fani-Kayode’s police stooges. Those stooges were on the move to arrest and detain Musa at the instance of ‘Madam’ Fani-Kayode when the hand of fate struck on 28/7/03 as the Lagos State Environment Agency swooped in on MENU INTERNATIONAL with a warrant and arrested Musa Leshi charging him to court instantly for sanitation law violation committed by MENU INTERNATIONAL, which the proprietress ‘Madam’ Fani-Kayode should have been liable for. Madam greeted the news of Musa’s predicament with joy. It was now unnecessary for the police boys to go after Musa as she called them off. As far as she and Femi Fani-Kayode were concerned, he could rot in prison custody for all they cared.While pretending to be out on a purchase, I raced to the court premises and secured a surety and N5000 cash, just in the nick of time to effect Musa Leshi’s bail before he would be remanded in prison custody awaiting trial. The heavily traumatized Musa Leshi had just encountered a close shave with calamity and could not thank his stars enough for his freedom. A recent AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT on Nigeria seriously lampooned the Nigerian criminal justice system where people are thrown en masse into prison custody awaiting trial for the flimsiest of charges, yet they suffer ‘awaiting trial’ for many years, while many die. Is the reason as exemplified by this incident not obvious?FIND ATTACHED THE ORIGINAL BAIL BOND COPY IN THAT INCIDENT MARKED AS DOCUMENT 2As a Presidential Special Assistant, Fani-Kayode was a name that provoked panic and terror in Apapa. Directors of SSS could not cross paths with him, and no AIG would decline his request. After all, he was on direct dial with the President and the entire top echelon of the Intelligence community.Then came another incident in October 2003, when the Lagos State Valuation Office sent an inspection team to Femi Fani-Kayode’s residence. As the official notice from the team reached Femi Fani-Kayode and as the team waited outside to confirm a suitable date for their assignment with the owner of the property, Fani Kayode was incensed at their audacity as he declared his residence a “Presidential building”. He immediately put a call out to the highest police authorities alleging that he was under siege by unknown assailants armed and numbering more than 10. In no time, a crack team of policemen was dispatched to the rescue and en route to his premises. Meanwhile he had ordered the mobile policemen in his premises to be confined as he instructed his dog tender to release two of his most vicious canines on stand-by. While the evaluation team was outside his gate innocently awaiting a confirmation from the owner of the property, they were absolutely oblivious to the dangers they were in on two fronts.I visualized the disaster that would have ensued, if the trigger-happy, combat-ready crack police squad, eager to rescue “Baba’s Boy” had met with the evaluation team waiting outside Femi Fani-Kayode’s gate. The evaluation team would have vehemently and boldly confronted the cops on the confidence that they were performing their lawful duties. As was typical of the Nigerian police, with ‘marching orders to intercept and gun down the ‘UNKNOWN ASSAILANTS,’ there would certainly have been little room for inquiries in such an encounter.I desperately appealed to Fani-Kayode to allow me dialogue with the evaluation team, which he reluctantly obliged and the dogs were called off. I spoke with the evaluation team outside and hurriedly escorted them back to their office where a later date and time was fixed for Fani-Kayode to go there and provide information to sort out the evaluation of his property. Incidentally, we drove past an unmarked police wagon, filled with the combat ready cops. As the police crack squad arrived, Fani-Kayode maintained that the ‘unknown assailants’ had fled from his gate. A nasty scenario was thankfully averted.Attached is the notice sent by the LAGOS STATE VALUATION OFFICE TEAM that enraged Femi Fani-Kayode marked as DOCUMENT 2 (B)There were many more horrendous tales during this period April-November 2003, but this piece is about the most sinister sides of this journey where-in many would-be victims did not even know how close they were to their own deaths as a consequence of Fani-Kayode’s psycho–erratic whims.Barely two days after my first interview with Saharareporters was published, a historically unprecedented event happened. Six of Yar’adua’s cabinet ministers rejected SSS protection, among them the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa whose comments and activities upon the inception of this administration continue to evoke bewilderment, shock and consternation all over the globe.My question to these ministers is this: ARE THESE THE SAME OR EVEN WORSE INDISCRETIONS THAT THEY ARE AFRAID WILL BECOME INTELLIGENCE REPORTS BY THE ASSIGNED SSS DETAILS THEY REJECTED?

source:www.saharareporters.com