According to reports, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is looking into an All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives candidate from the Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency named Lanre A. Sanusi for possible fraud.
According to reports, 4runner Limited, a logistics company, filed a petition against Sanusi, and he was subsequently arrested.
With the help of two of his friends who were truck drivers and in charge of the materials, he was also accused of diverting COVID-19 supplies, hand sanitizers, and face masks worth millions of dollars from Dallas City Government Hospital in the United States.
According to reports, Sanusi was stripped of his commission in 2019 after allegedly presenting a fake academic certificate purportedly issued by a US university.
Lanre Sanusi hired 4runner Limited through Mr. Femi Dada to find four 40-foot shipping containers to load Covid-19 materials, like face masks and hand sanitizers, and ship them from the United States of America to Nigeria, according to a petition filed by 4runner Limited with the anti-graft agency.
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“To also give drivers and haulage companies such container specifications, among other things. To transport the material from its location in Dallas to the port, from which it will ultimately be shipped to Nigeria, and Lanre, on the other hand, would be in charge of managing the clearing and offloading in Nigeria. Through WhatsApp chats and calls, all of this conversation and the service agreement were conducted electronically (copy of the print out of the WhatsApp chats between Mr Lanre Sanusi and Femi Dada is hereby attached as Appendix A).
The bill of charge, which represented the agreed-upon amount that Mr. Lanre Sanusi would pay 4runner Limited via Mr. Femi Dada, amounted to $33,000.00 (Thirty Three Thousand American Dollars) during the course of this process. Which was broken down in a WhatsApp chat and approved by both parties. Everything appeared to be going according to plan; containers were at the loading location, and drivers were also available. Every action was done in Mr. Lanre Sanusi’s presence, so we began loading the materials with his assistance.
He was physically involved throughout, up until two containers had been fully loaded and transported to the port. After the loaded container departed the US for Lagos, Nigeria, and Lanre was nowhere to be found, things got heated. We used every method at our disposal in a desperate attempt to contact him, but to no avail.
“Our calls went unanswered for days, and the chats we sent him went unread. The reputation of the company was being tarnished, and we grew impatient and frustrated. As we invested money in this project, our capital was also constrained. However, after we completed the work Lanre had contracted us to do, he abandoned the project and vanished without a trace.
Even his friend, Adebayo Godson, paid a financial commitment to us ($1700 USD). We engaged him in conflict at various points, but it never produced a fruitful result. After that, an invoice and a request for payment were sent to Mr. Lanre Sanusi in order to properly demand payment for the provided service. (A copy of both can be found in Appendix C).
“All of this was done to make sure we were able to recoup our investment and to determine whether he wanted to continue with the project or not.
Because of Mr. Lanre Sanusi’s dishonest behaviour, lack of professionalism, and misrepresentation of the truth regarding the entire project, we decided to check his background while looking into the reasons why he abandoned the project midway, broke his agreement with us, and unavoidably endangered our reputation and relationships with foreign contacts.
But our research and findings were shocking and alarming. We discovered that Mr. Lanre Sanusi had lied to us about certain project-related facts, which is against the law in Nigeria, where our company is based.
“Two of his friends, who are truck drivers and in charge of the materials, helped divert the Covid-19 supplies, including hand sanitizers and face masks worth millions of dollars, from Dallas City Government Hospital in the United States.
It should interest you to know that while Lanre was running for the House of Representatives and representing the Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency, he intentionally set fire to the materials he had no capacity to ship to Nigeria and abandoned the materials that had already been shipped and those that were scheduled to be shipped to Nigeria with the intention of using them as campaign souvenirs. (Appendix D, which includes a photo of the burned materials, is attached.)
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“The reason for this action was that he learned that Nigeria’s Covid-19 protocols had been relaxed and that using such materials as election mementos would not be well received. Due to this, he abandoned the project without providing proper notice and a bill of settlement.
Our initial agreed-upon invoice was for $33,000.00 USD (thirty thousand dollars), but due to significant demurrage and other service fees on the third and fourth containers, as well as the high exchange rate in Nigeria, the bill of charges is now $51,870.00 USD (fifty one thousand, eight hundred, and seventy dollars).
