By Austin Ogwuda
…. vows to prove her innocence to the logical conclusion
THE suspended Special Assistant SA to the Delta State Governor on Morals and Diaspora, Ms Favour Obakoro a.k.a Vida Modelo presently facing Police interrogation in the nation’s capital, Abuja has vowed to proof her innocence over the allegation of Visa scam leveled against her to the logical conclusion.
She maintained that she had been an Entrepreneur long before she was appointed by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s administration, involved in the legitimate business of Travels consultancy.
The embattled SA revealed that one of her companies known as; Vida Modela Multi Media involved in Travels and Travels Consultancy was contracted by a company from Türkiye known as ERM Partners for their clients to transfer monies through their Nigerian Account and for them to facilitate the collection of foreign exchange in Türkiye and the company did.
She pointed out that her Travel company does not facilitate visa but only help in the application forms and vetting of documents and not offering of visa as only the Embassies have the right to issue visas.
According to her, “one Ibrahim who is the CEO of ERM Partners in Türkiye reached out to me after seeing our advert on social media and contracted us to help facilitate foreign currency for the clients in Nigeria to Turkiye.
“Mr Ibrahim said the monies were meant for companies formation, offer letters and consultations and we offered to work with them. I work for several other brands and make my money to my staff as well. Subsequently, I sent my Vida Modelo Multi Media account to ERM Partners who in turn gave to their clients to pay in the monies through Vida Modelo Multi Media to them in Turkiye. It’s ERM that the individuals and companies have signed legal documentation and agreements with and not me or my company.
“My company only helped to facilitate the money to ERM by ensuring that ERM gets the forex at the other end after Naira had been deposited into Vida Modelo Multi Media account. The monies are transferred to ERM Partners and there are receipts and acknowledgement of the transferred monies to ERM in Türkiye. I don’t have any business about the alleged monies for procurement of visas or scamming any person and not giving them visa”.
She challenged any person with such claims over visa and with a legal document of doing such visa business with Vida Modelo Multi Media to show up with the necessary proofs, saying, “I am a government person. I have a reputation to protect. I hold a sensitive office that’s called; Morals and Diaspora Affairs. I was not in government or appointee when this business (Travel Consultancy) started”, he explained.
