Nigerian immigration authorities have detained the privately owned Kenyan jet worth over Sh500 million, claiming it contravened International Air Travel and Aviation (IATA) regulations when it landed at Murtala Muhammad airport, carrying Chinedu and several accomplices.
Chinedu, in a telephone interview with The People yesterday and another published in the Nigerian online publication SundayOnline, claimed he was unfairly deported, denies drug dealing and says he has real estate and business property worth Sh400 million (USD5 million) in Nairobi.
The Nigerian authorities appeared to have bought his story as the Kenyan aircraft remained grounded at the airport, as Chinedu applied that it be sold and proceeds handed to him as compensation. The developments unfolded as President Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking at the National Conference on Drug Abuse in Nairobi, ordered deportation of all foreigners dealing in drugs.
Chinedu appeared to have worked up his government against the action taken against him, as he spoke of his ordeal, including an alleged scheme to deport him with the sole intention of grabbing his property. Kenyan authorities ordered his deportation last week. He had been having a long-running feud with estranged wife, Joyce Akinyi, with whom he has divorce proceeding pending in court.
He said by phone yesterday: “They detained me till Monday (last week) when they finally deported me via a chartered flight. They seized my three iphones, those of my wife (another Nigerian wife) and my friends that were in my house. They then took us to an isolated place and held me incommunicado without food, bathing water and ventilation.
I saw hell, my brother. In fact, they treated me like an animal and made it difficult for the Nigerian mission in Nairobi officials to know where we were.” The Nigerian High Commission could not be reached for comment yesterday. Chinedu added: “I commend the decision of the Nigerian authorities to ground that controversial chattered aircraft.
That plane would be enough to pay for my property. I can even forget about pressing for other damages because I don’t even want to go back to Kenya.” High profile deportees are usually transported on chartered aircraft since scheduled airliners reject them to avoid immigration complications at destination. The once-notorious Artur brothers were deported in 2006 to Dubai on a chartered jet.
An email to the Nigerian airports authority over the impounded jet went unanswered for two days prior to this story. Chinedu, in the interview, accuses a local politician and some unnamed influential politicians and senior security personnel of plotting to inherit his business empire. He says he did not sign his deportation papers as stipulated under the Geneva Convention.
However, Chinedu, who had been arrested for drug offences in the recent past says the arrests wereall stage-managed to have him deported. He claims he was involved in ‘clean business’. He said that 25 armed policemen burst into his residence in Nairobi on May 26, arrested him and held him incommunicado for a day, before bundling him into a chartered plane.
However, a deportation anywhere in the world strips the deportee of his rights to property, and in this case, money made from criminal activities and illegal business that Chinedu is accused involvement in cannot be returned or even repatriated to his country. The Immigration department in Nairobi and JKIA officials could not comment on the matter, referring questions to the ministry headquarters.
Chinedu said that since his marriage to Joyce Akinyi hit the rocks in 2007 he had encountered several brushes with the law. Last evening, former Budalangi MP, Raphael Wanjala whom Chinedu accuses of causing the breakup of his marriage to Akinyi, denied any involvement in the woes facing the Nigerian and challenged him to specifically name the properties in question.
“Those are baseless allegations, nonsense and sheer malice. How does Wanjala come into the whole saga? I am neither a government official nor a security agent with powers to deport anybody. I have never done any business with that man and I don’t want to get involved in his dirty claims,” Wanjala told The People on telephone from Busia where he was attending the hearing of an election petition he has filed against the election of Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba. Asked if he would fight the deportation, Chinedu retorted: “I’m no longer interested in going back”.
source: the people
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