How late whistleblower named oil magnate in alleged plot to assassinate Ned Nwoko

Ikechukwu Olisa

On Friday, November 20, 2020, the nation was alerted about a plot to assassinate billionaire business magnate and renowned International Lawyer and philanthropist, Prince Ned Nwoko.

The alert came through an open letter signed by Prince Ned Nwoko’s most powerful media team that include Dr Henry Ifediba, Dr Uche Mark-Harrison, Zik Zulu Okafor, Nwanne Dilibe, PhD and Prof Didi Tonye-Gold. Titled “A Plot to Assassinate Prince Ned Nwoko: Very Urgent Open Letter to the Inspector- General of Police, IGP, Nigeria “, the epistle chronicled how an inmate stumbled on a conversation revolving around a plot to assassinate Prince Ned.

It was inside the Correctional Centre he was held for a minor domestic issue.The inmate who did not even know the respected politician, Prince Ned, then passed on the dreadful information through text messages to someone that knew his wife, the Chairman of Safire Perfumes company. Regina Daniels, Prince Ned’s wife , is the Brand Ambassador to Safire Perfumes. She naturally passed the horrifying message to her husband promptly. The story was so graphic in that the inmate mentioned the names of the death merchants in the prison and tried to describe their alleged sponsor whose name, like every human being, had slipped his mind. Many Nigerians were shocked by the revelation. They waited for the unmasking of the terrible hoodlums and their sponsors. The assassination story took a dreadful new turn as the whistle blower mysteriously died shortly after his release from prison. And this sudden death was after he had made statements to the the police and DSS about threats to his life.

But the boss of Rainoil, Gabriel Ogbechie, who also hails from Idumuje-Ugboko like Prince Ned emerged from nowhere to rattle the Nigerian public and Idumuje-Ugboko community in particular as he asserted emphatically in several media publications that Prince Ned’s story is a hoax without providing any plausible evidence to authenticate his claim. In the frivolous publication titled, “Ned Nwoko’s assassination story, a hoax, The truth of the matter “, Ogbochie narrated how he was invited to the FCT Police Command over a petition written by Prince Ned Nwoko and the curious death of Ossy Bosah, the whistle blower. He went on to state how he got there and almost in fleeting minutes refuted Prince Ned’s assassination story and left the place in no time.

But alas, on Friday, May 12, 2021, the police IG, put a lie to Ogbechie’s claims as he ordered a full investigation into the assassination plot against the iconic Lawyer and business man, now fighting to eradicate malaria from Africa. Still, the IG didn’t stop there. He also directed his men to thoroughly look into the circumstances surrounding the sudden and mysterious death of Ossy Bosah, the man that leaked the conversation of the two inmates who are facing terrorism charges.

It is important to note that the IG’s order didn’t happen by caprice. He actually invited both Ogbechie and Prince Ned , the petitioner and others present including a DIG. Sources at the meeting revealed that when asked to throw more light on his petition, Prince Ned focused purely on the subject matter of the petition which are the assassination plot, Bosah’s mysterious death and terrorism which brought the plotters of the assassination to prison. Ogbechie on the other hand stuttered repeatedly as he tried to raise issues of land which he and his fronts have lost several times in court and dismissed by the police after investigations proved their claims to be a concoction of lies for which three of them are still being prosecuted for giving false information to the police.
The IG, said our source, had to tell him in terse language to focus on the object of their meeting which was assassination and terrorism plus mysterious, if not suspicious , death of Ossy Bosah.

Having listened to both of them, the police chief came to the evident conclusion that Prince Ned’s story was credible , contrary to Ogbechie’s hoax hypothesis and must therefore be fully investigated.

However, while the meeting was going on, the IG , according to sources at the meeting, opened a file on his desk only to see the statement made by late Ossy Bosah and that spurred his decision and directive for a full investigation into his sudden death.
This writer was able to have a glimpse of the statement. Dated November 19, 2020 , it was written on a police letterhead with the inscription, ” THE NIGERIA POLICE STATEMENT OF COMPLAINER/WITNESS” , all in block letters.

The late Ossy, in it, gave his full name as Bosah Osemeka Oscar. In the statement, he narrated how he was in Suleja Prison, Cell 5, from September 14, 2020.
He then went ahead to reveal how he met the two prisoners, Cheta and Onyeisi in Isolation Room, Cell 5 , how they asked what brought him to prison and in return he requested to know what brought them after telling his own story, a common ritual of introduction in the prison. That simple question of what brought them turned out the crux of the matter.
Now Gabriel Ogbechie has peddled endlessly the narrative that the two prisoners and others facing terrorism charges are in detention over land matters. In responding to Bosah’s question, they also chorused Ogbechie’s narrative that they were in prison over land matter in Delta state. But these were the same people arrested for the mayhem and unspeakable havoc wrecked on Idumuje-Ugboko and its people between May 18 and 25, 2017. They were grievous atrocities that left people dead, houses torched, properties and cars vandalised and men, women of traditional high standing subjected to outrageous brutalization and shame.

So, you ask, how was it, what coincidence was it that these suspected hardened criminals were parroting Ogbechie’s own dubious land story.
These suspects then boasted before Bosah that they would be granted bail no matter what it takes including staking properties in Abuja if need be be to secure their bail and that their case would be transferred to a judge that would ensure their bail.

Continuing Bosah exposed how they revealed to him that the man behind them owns many fuel stations in Delta state and how he finally learnt that the man was Gabriel Ogbechie.
His statement was so comprehensive that it would have amounted to a criminal violation of justice for any man to treat the evidence with levity.
Shockingly, the two inmates have been granted bail as they boasted in the presence of now late Bosah.

It will be recalled that in his May 20, 2020, publication in Vanguard, titled ” The Quest for Peace in Idumuje-Ugboko-My Perspectives “, Ogbechie admitted the crass violence that took place in Idumuje-Ugboko in from May 18, 2017, but down played it, claiming it was a revenge by the youths over disruption of two meeting sessions at the Idumuje-Ugboko Palace. The question that still begs for the oil magnate’s answer is , ” how do you explain the scale of destruction, the murder and mindless vandalism that were perpetrated by your ” youths” and that is if we discard the obvious presence of hired mercenaries and hoodlums.

The tragic scale was so confounding that both the police and Nigerian Human Rights Commission had no iota of qualms declaring it an act of terrorism.
All these notwithstanding, Ogbechie seemingly numbed by his inordinate ambition and deaf to crystal reason and loud evidence, again embarked on another journey of fictitious claims in yet another media blitz on February 18, 2021. He claimed in the said publications that Prince Ned’s story was a hoax, that he , Prince Ned, was questioned and asked to produce Ossy Bosah and he could neither produce him nor prove he died mysteriously and that was the end of the case.

But the IG of the Police has finally spoken and Nigerians now know who is a man of honour and who is indeed a despicable character devoid of any modicum of honour.
As for Bosah’s death, his statements to the Police and Directorate of State Services, DSS, will be handy as the investigations continue.

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