No immunity, Nigerian diplomat will pay for 'crime'

New Delhi: Captain G A Ojedokun, defence advisor to the Nigerian envoy in India, has earned a dubious distinction: he will become the first diplomat in the country to be penalized for a crime.
Ojedokun was detained at the New Delhi international airport on May 21 after he was caught with $2.27 million (around Rs 10 crore) in his personal luggage while trying to board a flight for Lagos. He was detained but later released.
After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Nigerian President Alhaji Umaru Musa Yaradua at the sidelines of G-8 summit at Berlin in June, Captain Ojedokun was asked to come to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) headquarters in Delhi last week and give a confessional statement.
CNN-IBN has now learnt how Captain Ojedokun collected the dollars illegally in India. Over a period of 10 days, starting from last week of April, he withdrew Indian currency from his account in the Bank of Tokyo. Then he purchased the dollars from several hawala operators in Delhi. Questions are now being raised why the Nigerian diplomat was buying US dollars through hawala channel.
Sources in the ED indicate that officials are investigating Ojedokun was carrying drug money or whether he part of an international money laundering operation.
15/07/07 Sumon K Chakrabarti/CNN-IBN

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Categories: Airports Jul 2007, Foreign Jul 2007