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Olugbemi. Adeyinka Ogunleye
1 month ago
Overview
The Jennifer Madike Story
On October 22, 1990, Jennifer Madike, a prominent Lagos socialite, marked her 31st birthday with a lavish party. High society figures and senior government officials showed up.
The guest of honour was Fidelis Oyakhilome, then chairman of the NDLEA and a former military governor of Rivers State.
Three months later, police arrested and detained Madike over a drug-related scandal that would ultimately end Oyakhilome’s tenure at the NDLEA.
A Newswatch investigation later reconstructed what unfolded:
▶️ Ahead of her birthday, Madike contacted relatives of Gregory Odilibe, a man the NDLEA had declared a wanted drug baron after several of his alleged associates were detained. She claimed she could secure their release and reverse Odilibe’s wanted status, citing her access to Oyakhilome. All they had to do was pay her ₦1 million.
▶️ Photographs of Madike with Oyakhilome and other senior officials, including the Minister of Health, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, at the birthday party, were presented to Odilibe’s associates as proof of her influence.
▶️They paid ₦800,000 to Madike in four instalments. She then approached Oyakhilome, alleging that Odilibe was working for unnamed figures within the Ibrahim Babangida regime. She asked him to release his associates.
▶️ When Oyakhilome refused, Madike claimed she had actually been sent to him by the First Lady, Maryam Babangida, and warned that the head of state was already considering dismissing him for embarrassing the regime.
▶️ Oyakhilome subsequently contacted Maryam Babangida, who denied knowing Madike.
▶️ Odilibe’s lawyer, Udi Shaldas, later reported the transaction directly to Oyakhilome at the NDLEA office. He advised her to submit a formal petition, which led to Madike’s arrest on January 10, 1991.
▶️ In a recorded conversation between Madike and Oyakhilome, a day before her arrest, she claimed drug traffickers were pressuring her to admit she had collected money from them and passed it on to him. She denied receiving any funds.
▶️ But after her arrest, she filed an affidavit in her defence, alleging that it was Oyakhilome who initiated contact with the Odilibe family and requested ₦1 million, paid through her. She claimed to have passed ₦600,000 of the amount to him.
▶️ The affidavit also stated that Oyakhilome was chairman of her company, Bioafrika Ventures Limited, which handled major NDLEA contracts approved during his tenure, as well as a separate ₦400,000 contract with the Ministry of Health to supply AIDS screening materials.
▶️ Oyakhilome denied all the allegations, insisting that his relationship with Madike, whom he had known for ten years, was strictly a “father and daughter” one.
▶️ On March 8, 1991, NTA announced that the Government had suspended Oyakhilome indefinitely as NDLEA chairman.
Source: archivi ng X handle
