Re: Ambassador Adefuye, Mrs Olubufunmi & Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo
- Details
- Category: GENERAL
- Published on Sunday, 15 July 2012 02:28
- Written by Elombah.com
Last week Elombah.com published an expose on how the office of the Embassy of Nigeria in the United States, headed by Nigerian Ambassador, Prof. Ade Adefuye seized the money paid by the office of the vice-president that sponsored the wife of the vice-president, Hajiya Sambo, and other participants, to defray their delegates’
payments and commitment fees and refused to pay the organizers of the Pan African Women Leaders Summit in Washington D.C in 2010.
We also reported that the Ambassador not only owes Mrs Olubufumi the sum of $528.0000 till date, but when she attempted to seek legal redress in the United States, Ambassador Adefuye last month wrote the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to arrest Mrs Carol Olubufunmi whenever she arrives Nigeria on a charge of “Attempt to Obtain by False Pretences”.
Following our reports, the Ambassador have responded to Elombah.com reports and claimed that his investigations revealed that the invitation given to the wife of Vice President Namadi Sambo, Hajiya Amina Sambo and other leading women civil society leaders including top women government functionaries was fraudulent.
Ambassador Adefuye also claimed that when Mrs. Sambo arrived at “the purported venue” of the “amorphous organization known as Pan African Women Network” in US, there were only two people waiting to receive her in a virtually empty events hall, apart from Mrs. Carol Olubufunmi, a long-time resident of Washington, D.C. and her daughter.
According to the Ambassador, the Mission was disappointed and saw that his was a scam, and in order to avoid the embarrassment, the Embassy quickly put up a different “befitting reception for the wife of the vice president and invited Nigerian woman as well as wives of some African Ambassadors to meet the vice president’s wife in our embassy the following day.”
Today we publish pictures of the events, full text of Ambassador adefuye`s response to our story and Mrs Olubufumi’s chronology of events to enable our reader’s judge for themselves.
Ambassador Adefuye welcoming Hajiya Sambo to the Conference
NTA Stand at the conference organised by Mrs Olubufumi's PANAWLS
Participants at the conference organised by Mrs Olubufumi's PANAWLS
A staff of Mrs Olubufumi's PANAWLS distributing conference brochures to Participants at the conference organised by PANAWALS
Participants at the conference organised by Mrs Olubufumi's PANAWLS, with Mrs Olubufunmi standing besides the Ambassador.
Ambassador Adefuye`s Response:
“Sometime in early September, the mission received a notice that the wife of the vice president would be coming to represent the first lady at the conference being organized by the Pan African Woman Network.
What normally happens is that when a Nigerian dignitary is invited by an organization, the mission informed and asked to check the Benefits of such an organization. This includes who they are, the composition of the membership, as well as their aims and objectives. That did not happen in this case. Mrs. Olubufunmi, a Nigerian lady resident, here in Washington for so many years apparently has some heavy connection in Abuja and succeeded in convincing that her organization, the Pan African Woman Network has the structures to organize such an event that would deserve the attendance of the first lady of her representative, in this case the wife of the vice president. The contrary was the case.
On the day the event was to take place; there were only two people apart from Mrs. Olubufunmi and her daughter. The others were members of the wife of the vice president entourage, which were 10 not 30 people as the woman must have told you. The mission was disappointed and saw that this was a scam. We then quickly organized a befitting reception for the wife of the vice president and invited Nigerian woman as well as wives of some African Ambassadors to meet the vice president’s wife in our embassy the following day. The wife of the vice president addressed the audience elaborating on the woman for change program of the first lady. Mrs. Olubufunmi herself was present and I told her, this is the kind of event she should have organized.”
The wife of the vice president left the following morning to join her husband who was on an official trip to the UK. But before the VP’s wife left, Mrs. Olubufunmi requested that the wife of the vice president should come with her to Capitol Hill to meet one unnamed congresswoman. As it was my duty to protect the woman of the vice president, I said, Mrs. Olubufunmi, who the congresswoman was, how important she was and weather the meeting had been planned, but I was not satisfied with her answer. I told her even if the meeting was planned it wasn’t appropriate for the wife of Nigeria’s number 2 to go and meet just one congresswoman. I said that if she was to meet a sizable number of congresswoman, she can go, but if it was only one congress woman protocol demands that the congresswoman should respect our country and she should be the one to visit the wife of our vice president in her hotel or at the Embassy.
I got to know about the issues of payment, just when the V.P’s wife was about to leave for the airport. Mrs. Olubufunmi had apparently planned to collect over 3 thousand dollars from each participant for the phony meeting or conference she was planning. But there was no conference and therefore people did not pay. Mrs. Olubufunmi wrote to me later demanding that the mission should pay her for losses incurred after the mission hijacked the program. I didn’t consider it necessary to dignify such a letter with a reply and told her so.
If we are to fight corruption we should fight the tendency towards corruption among some of our people here in Diaspora. This woman certainly knows some of the few people in Abuja and she is contrived to make some money out of it by pretending to organize a conference. I’m just about to complete my first year here and I will be on the lookout for such corrupt elements among our people in the Diaspora and frustrate their activities. It is no use criticizing those at home when those of us here practice such activities. You just asked Mrs. Olubufunmi for their registration certificate of her so called Pan Africa Woman Network. Who are the members? How long has the network been in existence? What activities have they been engaged in? Then you will realize what I’m talking about.
Let me here confirm that the mission will stand by to support genuine Nigerian based organization to showcase what is good in our country. But, we wouldn’t stand by and allow anyone to embarrass the office and the person of the wife of our vice president."
END
Mrs Olubufumi’s chronology of events
"The Pan African Women Leaders Summit was intended to showcase Nigerian Women Leadership to the American audience and to contribute in projecting Nigerian positively for the purpose of reducing the xenophobic attitude and treatment towards Nigerians, and building bridges by encouraging networking and brainstorming between Women Leaders of both Nations for the purpose of capacity building, also to project Nigerian women leaders transparency in good governance, accountability and true democracy in Nigeria.
Suffice to say that the summit was not funded by any entity (neither government nor private), although participants were expected to make payments for participation and it was communicated in the invitation letters sent to all participants, online registration was also optional to interested participants, but participants from Nigeria declined registration and remittance of payments prior to arrival for Summit as required. This requirement was only met by the Wife of the Benue State Governor (Mrs. Yemisi Suswan), whose payment came in after her arrival for the summit. Participation fees were not remitted to organizers by other members of the entourage of Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo neither did we receive any letter of confirmation of attendance from her office indicating her representation of the Summit Special Guest Of Honor (H.E. Dame Patience Jonathan) except Hajiya Sambo's profile which was rushed via e-mail to us about a week to the start of summit due to its importance in the summit program. While participants from the Ministry of women affairs promised making payments on arrival, with explanation of inability to remit funds.
A few days to the start of Summit, the organizers got an invitation from the embassy for a meeting with The Nigeria Ambassador to USA, Professor Adebowale Adefuye to discuss the attendance of {Wife of the Vice President} who is the representative of The summit Guest of Honor. {Dame Patience Jonathan} The 1st Lady of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria. In the said meeting, we were informed that the embassy would be represented by a member of staff by name Mr. Sule Ahmed to assist the organizers in ensuring a successful summit. However he also informed us that the group might not turn up for the summit as this was the usual practice of Nigerians to events of this nature, at this point his attention was brought to the non payment and lack of communication of the number of participants expected from Nigeria as this was already a challenge to logistics for the Summit. Based on this information we decided to cancel our commitment to participants’ accommodation, but insisted with participating hotels that incidentals should be included in room rates revoking our liability for such expenses.
On the group’s arrival for the summit at the venue of the hotel, there was drama at the hotel lobby, due to the participants’ reluctance to make payments for accommodation to the embarrassment of organizers, other hotel guests and staff.
On the first day of the summit prior to the opening session, we were surprised that registration and payment desks were avoided by participants who insisted on accreditation and collecting name tags through an intermediary without payment. Accreditation was a pre-requisite to participating in the event, participants sent down scantily filled out forms in their respective rooms with no payments, while a member of protocol to the 2nd lady made late payment for four of his colleagues some few hours before the summit opening session, suggesting that Hajiya Sambo's entourage would not be attending the event since payment were not made despite promises made through the protocol officer who explained that payment will be made individually by the women prior to taking part in the summit. To our disappointment everyone bypassed registration desk and rushed after Hajiya Sambo into the opening session avoiding registration, payment and accreditation while the ambassador's wife came up with her drama requesting for crowd not relevant to the summit. Her attention was brought to an understanding that the summit was specifically meant for women leaders to deliberate on good leadership in Africa with focus on Nigeria.
During the closing session of the opening ceremony, Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye, to the amazement of the organizers made announcement changing the cause of the summit program, with explanation that he would not be in town for the embassy' reception on the date reflected in our program without permission or notification to the summit organizers. Later on, Mr. Sule Ahmed the embassy's spokesman informed us via phone call that he was instructed by the Ambassador to cancel subsequent programs and meetings involving the 2nd lady and Nigerian delegates as the government is unable to come up with payment by participants. The next morning, one hour prior to the previously arranged meeting with the US Congress woman (where the topic of discussion was Democracy: Having a free & fair election) Mr. Sule Ahmed the embassy's spokesman informed us that the only condition for Hajiya Sambo’s attendance would be if the meeting was moved to her hotel room, as she could not travel to the US to meet with a Congress woman (however she had no problem meeting with journalists and touring their facilities as opposed to meeting with US officials and touring a National building). We were then asked to attain the minutes and materials of the meeting, while she was shopping with the wife of the head of chancery as we were informed.
However the embassy went on and circumvented the summit and ran a parallel program to our "women for women" summit making use of Panawls to hold such programs and interviews, while Hajiya Sambo disregarded Panawl’s set schedule. The Embassy's action deprived the 2nd lady from tapping into opportunities for Nigerian women leaders to impress and re-create a good image for the nation and Nigerians, especially diaspora resulting in the cancellation of several meetings scheduled with US women Leaders and other programs like;
•Meeting with the Congress Woman Eleanor Norton Holmes, one of the strong voices in the US congress and an interest group on democracy, good governance and free and fair elections in Africa with emphases on the Panawls call for US support for the upcoming Nigeria elections
•The US Capitol Building Visit
•Networking with US based International foundations on investments and developments in Africa
•Reception of Q&A at the embassy with Nigerian youths in diaspora in recognition of the importance of the role (Our leaders of Tomorrow are expected to play in building a corrupt free Country)
These were events that were canceled and replaced by a political fun fare reception at the embassy, a meeting with journalists and shopping expeditions over several days, an action undermining our gender focus and nonpartisan Summit.
The embassy spokesman was the person who initially informed us of the participants supposed request to cancel all further events so as to avoid the participation fee. The organizers declined an offer of payment for the use of the summit location for the opening session, knowing that their agenda was different from the summit goal of building a good reputation for Nigeria in the United States, in addition to the fact that every participant is required to pay a participation fee, which the group comprising more than thirty refused to pay till date.
NTA, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Information took a vantage position with posters all over the venue without so much as a request, or payment for such advertisement or sponsorship as suggested by their action. Several publications were made in Nigerian and foreign newspapers indicating that Hajiya Sambo and the First lady promoted Nigerian women leadership in the United States and saying the event was put together by a group of US Foundations, while the name of Panawls was used for such presentations without our knowledge. Our attention were brought to the Thisday paper of Oct 29th 2010, All Africa.com, of the 25th of Oct Voice of America {Hausa Version} and the NTA report of Nigeria second lady's big representation of Nigeria in Panawl Summit with no detailed recognition to the of Panawl or the background of the summit.
Several letters sent to the second lady requesting payment for the unpaid bills yielded no response and we have been put on notice by our associates and other vendors of their intention to take court action if payments are not made in the next 7 days. As women leaders we are committed to portraying a good image of our country, unfortunately our government representatives are frustrating our efforts and embarrassing the good name we are trying to rebuild for our country.
A certified letter was also sent to the Ambassador on the embassy's unacceptable role in the summit. All attendees were allowed entry and granted visas to USA to attend Pan African Women Leaders Summit, attendees collected conference materials indicating receiving service without payment in US soil with a system of accountability where taxes and operations by corporations are reported to Federal and state authorities.
Our organization has a history, our sister company (Cazogie Travels & Tours) has been in the business of projecting the image of our country positively through our various youth and women empowerment program around the world for almost two decades. In 1999, Hajiya Sambo’s first son was once a participant in one of our corporations, students’ activity& summer school programs to France and other European countries. He was then a student, of El’Amin international school Minna. As confirmed by Hajia Sambo herself.
We are of the opinion that women leaders should cooperate to build an indestructible name for our country Nigeria, If we do not do it ourselves no one can do it for us. And Pan Africa Women Leaders Networks is committed to ensure that leaders of today leave a good legacy for our youth, and children. They are our hope, and Nigerian future leaders"
END
For background details, please also read Revealed: How Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Adefuye Defrauded Mrs Olubufunmi, a US based Nigerian tourism consultant of $528,000
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