EXCLUSIVE: Popular Nigerian Governor Cries Out For Help After Being Dumped, Loses Over $6 Million Private Jet
Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara state is in a dilemma and seriously weighing his limited options after getting swindled by a Lagos couple who assumed full ownership of his private jet worth $6.3 million.
Despite being duped of his multi-million dollar jet, Mr Lawal —an incumbent governor and powerful political figure in the nation— could not report his swindlers to the authorities to avoid scrutiny particularly questions about how he amassed the humongous wealth with which he acquired the aircraft given he was only working as a director at a commercial bank at the time he purchased it.
The sources anonymity to speak freely about an ongoing sensitive matter that may attract retribution should their identities be made known.
In 2014, Mr Lawal bought a private jet at the rate of $6.3 million from Jet Lease Support Services Ltd, a company that deals in fleet management, flight servicing and acquires aircrafts for private individuals.
There was , however, a hitch. As an executive director at First Bank, he could never have afforded the private jet outright, therefore he couldn’t risk purchasing it in his own name
There was, however, a hiccup. He couldn’t risk buying the private jet in his own name due to the fact that his salary as an executive director at First Bank could never afford the cost of the aircraft.
Mr Lawal was identified as one of Diezani Allison-Madueke’s top allies particularly in the former petroleum minister’s multi billion-naira money-laundering scandal across Nigeria and the UK. He filed a claim to $40 million of the $153 million forfeited by Ms Allison-Madueke to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2017.
Mr Lawal’s name was repeatedly mentioned in the investigation case stacked against Ms Alison-Madueke and was invited on several occasions by the anti-graft commission to clarify his involvement or lack thereof in the multibillion-naira money-laundering scandal.
He denied all corruption accusations of helping Ms Allison-Madueke hide stolen government funds and insisted their relationship was purely “professional.”
According to a statement in 2016, Mr Lawal said all Nigerian banks were eager to build a rapport with Ms Alison-Madueke who was petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015, implicitly suggesting that First Bank was no exception from the ex-minister’s favour seekers.
It was during the same period that Mr Lawal lavished millions of dollars to purchase the luxury jet.
To avoid any controversy that might have arisen over his acquisition of the jet in 2014 and non-commensurate salary, Mr Lawal engaged Jet Lease with a broker fee of $250,000 to hold the title of the jet and manage its use for him.
The arrangement, however, turned sour after the couple, Gloria Osazele Collins and her ex-husband, had a nasty fallout that ended in divorce.
Ms Collins, in her asylum application filings in May, admitted to the Canadian authorities that her ex-husband changed the title of the private jet from Mr Dauda’s name to his own name.
She further said her ex-husband was dangerous and that he sent Black Axe cult members to take her life, leading her to seek refuge in Canada, according to a federal court filing in Ottawa, Ontario before Madam Justice Strickland docketed IMM-4649-23 and obtained by The Gazette.
After the Canadian government rejected Ms Collins’ application for asylum, she filed an appeal seeking a judicial review of the decision.
Despite this, the appeal upheld the foreign government’s decision to deny her asylum, citing inconsistencies in her account of events involving threats to life and other documents.
Mr Lawal has since been suffering in silence, unable to report the scam to security agencies in order to recover the aircraft, sources said. To further complicate the matter, Ms Collins’ husband was at large and the whereabouts of the private jet, unknown.
Sources revealed Mr Lawal cannot make noise about the matter as he does not want to draw attention to the illicit funds he used to acquire the jet, a knowledge that the scammer was presumably exploiting to abscond with the jet without fear of getting nabbed.
The bank executive resigned his job to run for office in 2023 under the Peoples Democratic Party against accusations by political opponents that he was a money-launderer. He denied the allegations.
The governor and his aides declined comments to The Gazette despite repeated promises to revert and clarify the matter.
The legal representative for Ms Collins also did not respond to requests for comments.
The governor was in a dilemma; either to alert authorities to find the scammer and damn the consequences of what investigations into the source of his wealth could uncover or suffer in silence forever and bid a painful bye to his luxury jet.
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