The report of an online medium Sahara Reporters alleging that former aviation Minister Stella Oduah procured a property for $1.2 million has proven to be false.
According to a document obtained by our correspondent, the allegations by the medium seem to be false as the details given about the said property did not tally with the document obtained from the UK department of Lands.
Both the cost of the house and the time it was acquired did not tally with the details on the document which is an extract from the UK lands Department.
Sahara Reporters alleged that the house which was kept secret was blown in the open when Oduah who is now a senator representing Anambra decided to put the house up for rent.
According to the document, the title number for the house that is in Oduah’s name is NGL860208 while Sahara reporters gave theirs as NGL834683.
The registered address of the house allegedly bought by Oduah was given by the medium as 22 to 37 Monck Street, 84 Horseferry Road and 65 Great Peter Street, London.
However, the land document obtained gives the property address as Apartment 209, Cavendish House, 31 Monck Street, London (SW1P 2AS).
Sahara reporters quoted the registered owner as: ADRIATIC LAND 4 LIMITED, incorporated in Guernsey in the United Kingdom.
Registration No. 56274, of Mont Crevelt House, Bulwer Avenue, St. Sampson, Guernsey, GY2 4LH.
However the document obtained shows the registered owner as: STELLA ADAEZE ODUAH of Longacre, St. Leonards Hill, Windsor SL4 4AL.
While Sahara Reporters quoted that the house was bought for £1,155,000 million, the property registered in Oduah’s name was bought for £700,000.
Sahara reporters also alleged that the property was bought while she was the minister of Aviation, but the title document obtained from the UK Lands Office showed that Stella Oduah bought her London property in 2005, 6 years before she was made a minister of Aviation in 2011.
The online medium also attached a picture of a tenancy agreement allegedly made by Sen. Oduah in March 2017. But rather than carry the address of the property which the medium alleged the minister bought for 1.2 million pounds (22 to 37 Monck Street, 84 Horseferry Road and 65 Great Peter Street, London.), the tenancy agreement bore the address of the original property belonging to Mrs Oduah and which was bought for 700,000 pounds in 2005 (Apartment 209, Cavendish House, 31 Monck Street, London (SW1P 2AS).
Evidently, the report of the medium does not correspond with what the document shows.
In a hurry to put out falsehood, Sahara Reporters also failed to align the currency: while the figure in its report was in dollars, the figure on the document which it quoted was in pounds sterling.
Recall that recently, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Senator Oduah stressed that she had no involvement with the procurement of the BMW cars for N255m when she was the minister of aviation.
Sahara Reporters had alleged that the Anti-Graft Agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had concluded its investigation but was delaying prosecution.
However, Oduah said that she could not be called to question for a car that was procured, owned and still being used by the Federal Government.
“To start with, I do not know where any letter on the probe is because nobody has invited me, and as far as I know, there is nothing and there cannot be anything on invitation for purchase of a BMW.
“I did not buy a BMW; I have never bought a BMW. The BMW is a property of the government, and it is still in government care. “The car is with the agency that bought it.
“The agency is still using it, and so, why will the car which belongs to government and in the care of government and being used by government, be an issue for me?
“I have since left the ministry,” she said.
She said that the reports were the handiworks of persons, who were not comfortable with the tremendous achievements she made in the aviation sector and wanted to tarnish her image.
