Encomium Weekly, Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, obviously, would have started regretting the day his path and that of one Chioma Anasoh crossed. The reason being that fresh facts emanating from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, his prosecutors, have it that it was the dark skinned lady that supplied all his financial secrets and dealings at the Aviation Ministry to the anti-graft agency.
Sources close to both of them told us that while FFK was still a Minister, Chioma combined her duties as his special assistant with that of an alleged mistress. And so hot and sizzling was the alleged romance that her words were laws then at the ministry. “She was simply the Margaret Thatcher of the Ministry then”. But because of what has allegedly happened between her and her boss, nobody could complain. Or rather, many only grumbled inaudibly.
The bubble, however, burst when Chioma allegedly insisted on being made wife number 2 and FFK said he would have none of that. And like a woman scorned, she decided to teach him a bitter lesson.
After all, she was privy to most of the things that FFK did in office as his special assistant. Although, there is another school of thought which believes that the lady, a Zoology graduate, is out to ruin the former Minister’s political future. And that she is working in connivance with the man’s political opponents and enemies considering his bright chances in the guber race of Osun State.
Chioma, the sources added, made so much money at the ministry. According to them, she has landed properties in Lagos and Abuja, there’s also a fleet of cars, among them a Peugeot Sport car, with registration number HOMA 1.
FFK, meanwhile, is currently on bail following a 47-count charge slammed on him by the EFCC. He was arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos for alleged money laundering. About N250 million was said to have been found in his account at the Apapa, Lagos branch of Finland Bank. More money was also uncovered in another account belonging to his daughter, Remilekun, in the same bank. He will return to the court on Wednesday, January 28, 2009-to know his fate.
The son of the late Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria’s second Queen’s counsel and deputy premier of the defunct Western Region, he trained as a lawyer at the University of Cambridge. Married to a Ghanaian, Regina, he started out in ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet as a presidential spokesman, then Minister of Culture and later, Minister of Aviation.
Our text message to FFK’s spokesman, Bayo Oladeji, was not replied. Efforts to speak with EFCC also didn’t yield much as their media man insisted that the case is still in court, and as much he would not want to comment. Although, another insider at the anti-graft agency confirmed our story.