SaharaReporters discovered that there were some discrepancies in the travel records after obtaining another document, a medical report he deposited at a federal high court in Lagos where he was standing trial for corruption-related cases.
Saharareporters has authentic documents including a police report which indicted Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, a serving senator and a former governor of Enugu State for using two officials of Enugu State High Court, Joseph Oyibo and Eze L.N, to forge court affidavits and documents.
A letter from the Deputy Inspector General of Police Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department dated 5 June 2019 with Ref. No CR : 3000/X/FHQ/ABJ/VOL 250/37 obtained by Saharareporters shows how the two court officials were shielded from police invitation by the chief registrar of Enugu state high court.
The registrar through one O.S Chukwuni Esq in a letter dated 12 November, 2018 responded to the police invitation with Ref No CR :3000/X/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.236/862 stating that the Enugu high court does not have power to release a judiciary staff for police invitation.
Chukwuni asked the police to address the letter to the chief judge of the state and the police obliged but months after the police wrote to the chief judge, the judicial officers have refused to show up to date.
The officials were alleged to have operated as a criminal syndicate, conspired with other politically exposed persons in Enugu State to forge documents and impersonated the identity of the said senator.
The action, the police believed, was aimed at protecting the political interest of Nnamani who was not in Nigeria when the screening and primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party was conducted.
A letter dated 21 March 2019 with Ref. No CR : 3000/X/FHQ/ABJ/ VOL.238/250 written by the police and addressed to the Chief Compliance Officer, AIRTEL Nigeria, the investigating team made some enquiries about some GSM numbers belonging to Nnamani.
The telecoms firm availed the investigating team the certified true copies of the call logs record of a telephone line, 08022255522, which purportedly belonged to one Chimaroke Nnamani from 1 September, 2018 to 30 December 2018, both in soft and hard copies.
The classified document stated, “Artel Nigeria in their response, via letter dated 26th March 2019 stated that they have no record of call made on the Airtel network with GSM number within the period requested . However, the investigating team for the second time approached Airtel Nigeria again with the same request on same GSM number through the office of Assistant Inspector General of Police Force Intelligence Bureau Abuja.
“Airtel in a response to the request and obliged the investigation team with call-log records of the aforementioned GSM number from January to April 2019 which infers that there was no record of calls from 1st September 2018 to 31st December 2018. It is therefore obvious that the GSM number 08022255522 was not in use in Airtel Nigeria Network Space as at the period in question (1st September, 2018 to 31st December, 2018 ).”
The Airtel Nigeria Call Data Records (CDR) showed that the mobile number was never active which meant that the subscriber was not active within the Aitel network from September 1 to December 30, 2018.
The Airtel response dated May 28, 2019 showed that the moment the phone number, 08022255522, became active call data record were generated showing the period from January 2019 to date which is a proof that the 08022255522 became active during that period.
Police investigations revealed that MTN call data record analysis of 08033249029 belonging to Joseph Oyibo showed that there were several call exchanges between 08022255522 and 08033249029 purportedly belonging to Chimaroke Nnamani starting from January 2019 which was also the period the Airtel number 08022255522 became active.
In a suit filed by the then-APC candidate of Enugu East senatorial district, Prince Lawrence Eze, at the election tribunal challenging the candidacy of Nnamani as the PDP candidate, the petitioner told the court that Nnamani was not in Nigeria when the primary election was conducted.
Same claim was also made in a pre-election suit filed by Senator Gilbert Nnaji and Chinedu Nneji, who contested the PDP primaries alongside Nnamani.
Both claimed that Nnamani was not present at the screening excercise and also at the primary election.
They also claimed that he had left the country since December 2015 and had yet to come back at the time the suit was instituted.
However, Nnamani claimed that he was in the country when the primary election was conducted.
The claim which compelled the court to subpoena the Nigeria Immigration Service to ascertain the travel history of the senator.
But the court claiming want of time, failed to give the officials of NIS enough time to appear before it.
A civil society organisation, Youth Awareness Initiative For Social Reform and Ideal Change, sometimes in 2019 took interest in the matter and wrote to the immigration service demanding the travel records of the senator.
In response, the service in a letter dated 29 April, 2019 with Ref. No NIS /HQ/LEG/476/ and signed by Deputy Director/Legal Adviser, Bolarinde Omoluabi, provided the Electronic Passenger Registration System ( E-PARS) travel history of Chimaroke Nnamani showing that the senator travelled to the United States of America through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport using both his Nigerian and American passports.
The documents showed that he travelled on 20 December, 2015 and returned on 22 December 2015.
But SaharaReporters discovered that there were some discrepancies in the travel records after obtaining another document, a medical report he deposited at a federal high court in Lagos where he was standing trial for corruption-related cases.
The medical report dated 3 January, 2018 which was submitted at a federal high court in Lagos by his personal physician, Segun Toyin Dawodu, to persuade the court to withdraw a bench warrant which was issued on Nnamani in December 2017 for failing to appear in court on several occasions.
Nnamani through his physician claimed he had been in the United States of America to attend to his failing health.
Nnamani’s travel records from the immigration agency revealed that he returned to the country on December 22 2015 and no records of leaving since then was the same in a hospital in the US in January 2018.
Though the police said in their letter that investigations were ongoing, not much has been revealed since March this year.
When Saharareporters contacted the senator on his two mobile, 08022255522, to get his reaction to the allegations, he replied via text saying, “Sorry, I can’t talk right now.”
Also his second mobile number, 08033249029, kept ringing but at a point it was saying “number busy”.
Nnamani who is currently a serving senator was a two-term governor of Enugu from 1999 to 2007 and also represented Enugu East Senatorial District in the senate from 2007 to 2011.
