By Uche Mbah
But for his defeat at the Polls, Abidemi Rufai, the disgraced Senior Special Assistant to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, would have shamed Nigeria more than he already did.
Rufai was arrested while at the JFK International Airport en route Nigeria, over wire fraud charges running into hundreds of thousands of Dollars he, allegedly, committed in the United States of America. He was detained, and has reportedly appeared in court.
His lawyer is pleading for bail, saying he presented no flight risks as his travel documents have been seized.
If Rufai had realised his ambition in 2019, Nigeria would have been thrown into unprecedented shame. His ambition was to be a Member of the House of Representatives to represent the Ijebu-north/Ijebu-east/ Ogun Waterside Federal Constituency under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. But he was defeated by the PDP candidate, Adekoya Adesegun.
Said a prominent Ogun State politician, “You can imagine the shame on Nigeria if this guy was a Federal House Member.”
Before Rufai’s arrest, he lived large, and was well-respected in the State and his Community. No wonder, Governor Abiodun, appointed him as one of his SSAs, to compensate him for losing the House seat, and for his contribution to the success of the party in the 2019 General Elections.
He was also a High Chief – Ogbeni Oja Gbogbo Egbe Bobamaiyegun Okunrin Akile Ijebu- a title he revered. In his New Year message to his people on January, 2, he wrote:
“As we step into another year, I’d like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you for your encouragement to move forward. I appreciate everyone who congratulated me as the new Ogbeni Oja Gbogbo Egbe Bobamaiyegun Okunrin Akile Ijebu.
“It is a great honour to be called for the people. I wish you a beautiful and prosperous New Year ahead.”
Now, in one fell swoop, he has been stripped of all dignity. It is not known if the Chieftaincy title will be withdrawn from him by his people, but a thoroughly embarrassed Governor Abiodun has suspended him from office.
Not a few people think the suspension is like a slap on the wrist. They are asking for more.
An APC Chieftain told this magazine: ” Abiodun should have sacked him. Why is he suspending him? For how long will the suspension last? The man disgraced the State and his Government. Instead of sacking him, you are suspending him. Why?”
Rufai’s shame started when he was nabbed in the United states by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, on multiple charges bordering on wire fraud.
He was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport by Federal agents as he was about to leave the country.
Until his arrest, Rufai was a Senior Special assistant to the Governor of Ogun State and a Human Resource expert.
Rufai has already been charged to court in US, on suspicion of swindling the Washington state of $650 million, which included $350 million unemployment fund from the Washington State Employment Security Department during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
“This is the first, but will not be the last significant arrest in our ongoing investigation of ESD fraud,” said Tessa Gorman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, in a statement Monday, as reported by the Seattle Times, an American local tabloid.
Rufai, who is a graduate of English of the Lagos state University, where he also did his Masters in Public Administrations, was arrested one year after the US authorities suspended unemployment benefit payments because criminals had used Social Security numbers and other social security information to file false claims and swindle the Government. They traced the fraud to Nigeria, to a group codenamed Scattered canary.
Using the moniker Sandy Tang, spread his tentacles to many areas- Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Kunle Somorin, who confirmed the incident and subsequent suspension of Rufai, told BBC that the law should take its course and that Rufai should answer the charges against him.
Rufai used different e-mail addresses to file for unemployment benefit paid to his online accounts like “green dot” accounts or wired to banks through complex control system. Over $288,000 was traced to accounts personally controlled by him. In Nigeria, he lives in style, driving exotic cars.
His overall net worth has not yet been estimated.
Rufai, 42, has his alleged schemes “extended well beyond unemployment fraud, according to the complaint. Investigators found “substantial evidence” in Rufai’s G-mail account “that the user was actively engaged in stealing and retaining the personal identifying information of American citizens,” the complaint alleges”, according to the Seattle Times.
