“Diezani sent someone to New York to offer me a bribe” – Sowore Omoyele alleges

Diezani

By KEMI KAYODE

Publisher and presidential candidate, Sowore Omoyele has alleged that former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke sent someone to offer him a bribe in New York during her time as minister to shut down negative stories on his platform.

He made this revelation while speaking in Part 2 of the 4-part docu-series ‘Is it Your Money?’, directed by Chude Jideonwo. Part 1 was released on Friday, 2 May and Part 2 was released today – exclusively on the premium streaming platform withChude.com.

“I told the guy not to stay too long in New York, because it is a crime to offer bribes to anyone in the US for political reasons, so he left,” Sowore said.

“He told me he was from Diezani. He was more upset with that I was not accepting (because) his own part of the bribe was going to suffer.”

His allegation – which the filmmakers make clear to state has not been independently verified – comes among several other hard-hitting exposes in the documentary, including the never-before told details of the ‘Diezani series’ from NEXT Newspaper in 2012. Multiple reporters including editor in chief of Premium Times, Musikilu Mojeed, managing editor of the same paper, Idris Akinbajo, and former NEXT reporter, Elor Nkereuwem spoke candidly about uncovering bribery schemes, inappropriate financial relationships and corruption under Alison-Madueke’s leadership of the ministry.

“We discovered a discreet scheme for bribery,” Mojeed said in the docu-series. “Mr. Rufai was the person designated to collect the bribe in dollars. He would then pass it on to the PPPRA source, who would then pass it on to the oil minister.”