WHERE IS THE GREAT JIDE OMOKORE?

Otunba Jide Omokore

The man affectionately referred then to as the "godfather", the "moneybag of moneybags", the "blesser of people" (this man's gifts to those he is pleased with her legendary), the one who taught many wealthy men how to enjoy and spend money or how to put good money, immense amount of money at that to extraordinary use, the good friend and partner of the nouveau rich man par excellence, the 'extra terrestrial Kola Aluko" the one we would love to refer to as the "the lord of money", the ultimate wealthy man who many many legends were spawned around, seems to have disappeared into thin air.  Gone are the days when no week goes by that one wouldn't have heard something extraordinary about him. He seems to have gone into oblivion!!!! This was one of the few that even Forbes magazine described as "Top 10 Nigerian multimillionaires you have never heard of".

Even the well known brand SPOG Petrochemical, one of the best known out of the severals of the brands he owns and used to control has gone totally quiet too! Unlike in the heydays, no week goes by without hearing SPOG this, SPOG that!

In fact, even his wife, Angela the "thorough bred professional" who at a time some speculated should have taken over at Access Bank as the CEO (she was a director at the bank at a point) has gone totally off the radar too, living a more quiet existence. Gone seemingly are those days, when things used to standstill in deference to this gorgeous lady known to be a "finicky shopper & privileged shopper", the legend then was that even Selfridges and Harrods recognised her and that Chanel knew her as a preferred client!

At the height of the prestige and benevolence of Chief/Otunba Jide Omokore, the billionaire from Kogi State (from Isanlu town, the HQ of Yagba LGA), the man literally and single handedly delivered one of the most expensive and most spoken about weddings in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates that got tongue wagging for several weeks. The opulence of the wedding was so humongous, it was staggering. It was speculated then that the wedding could conservatively have cost the moneybag about $8 million dollars! That amount in today's Naira value would have been around ₦2.9billion Naira! His in-law was the then Permanent Secretary Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

Many of our then top politicians, serving government functionaries (state & federal), state Governors, royal fathers, top business owners fell over themselves to attend the "then destination wedding of the year", which even the Arabs saluted as a "sheer display of availability of extraordinary resources".

Imagine that the number of private jets and chartered flights that landed in Dubai at that time from Nigeria and from other guests that came from around the world, was so extraordinary, it was staggering. The play by play of that wedding report is still one of the most well read on this platform till tomorrow.

Imagine a pre-wedding shindig that was at the legendary "Cavalli Club Dubai" and everything was said to have been literally "on the house"! Even Wizkid, Naeto C, Deejay Jimmy Jatt and other artistes/entertainers were flown in to perform, including Godbless & the Eboni band! The weekends of June 7th to the 9th of 2013 was colossal by all standards then.

Guests that were lucky to have entered the JW Marriott Marquis the venue of the wedding, where 2 floors were completely taken over went home with the best phone as at that time, BB Q10, a complete teaser, B&Q sound system speakers, super luxury towel set, Samsung Galaxy tabs etc!

So now just imagine a man with the kind of resume we have painted above all of a sudden going totally quiet and incognito just as soon as this present administration came on board! Mennnnnnn PMB has obviously stopped a lot of those things that used to keep us titillated!

What a mess!