News
The Many Lies Of Udom Emmanuel by Clement Ikpatt
On Friday, June 01, 2018, Udom Emmanuel invited his predecessor, Sen. Godswill Akpabio (PDP, Akwa Ibom) to commission the Greenwell Technologies Fertilizer Blending Plant located in Abak Local Government Area.
The much publicized commissioning was for the following purposes:
1. to officially commence the production of fertilizer products by a Public Private Partnership between Greenwell Technologies and the Akwa Ibom State Government.
2. to register as a milestone in the implementation of Udom Emmanuel’s industrialization policy while standing as Nigeria’s best (400,000 metric tons per year) fertilizer producing facility.
3. to unfold as one of major events celebrating the third anniversary of Udom Emmanuel’s government.
A Big Scam
It is now irrefutable that Udom Emmanuel takes Akwa Ibom people as illiterate _(he actually said that some Akwa Ibomites are illiterate)_ fools who can be sold snake oil put in any deceptive package.
There is no fertilizer manufacturing or blending operations by Greenwell Technologies. Ralther than for the above stated purposes, the commissioning ceremony spun to expose the underbelly of a desperate and dysfunctional government scamming invited guests and other Akwa Ibomites into believing a phantom industrialization project.There are neither raw materials nor blending machines for the production of different types of fertilizer as claimed by the Udom Emmanuel government. There is a simple bagging machine (see picture below) for the repackaging of bulk fertilizer products supplied from elsewhere.
For the sake of emphasis, let me repeat that there is no fertilizer manufacturing or blending taking place at the Greenwell Technologies facility in Abak. Rather, what was commissioned is a dilapidating warehouse for the repackaging of bulk and finished fertilizer products.
Greenwell Technologies has no staff list because no one is yet been employed. It is also shocking to discover that the company has neither filed for approval from the National Security Adviser (NSA) to manufacture fertilizer products nor file for Standards Organization (SON) certification. Both certifications are required so that explosives and other illegal items are not mananufactured using raw materials for fertilizer production.
I challenge the management of Greenwell Technologies and the Akwa Ibom State Government to provide those certifications if available.
Whoever disagrees should go on a fact finding tour of the warehouse. I call on concerned Akwa Ibom citizens and independent investigators and Journalists to visit and tour the facility in order to verify my assertions.
A Sloppy, Disrespectful And Embarrassing Event
Not only was Sen. Godswill Akpabio deceived into commissioning a mere fertilizer repackging warehouse, he was denied due honour, respect and standard practice of citing his name on the official plaque. In hindsight, it is good that his name is not engraved on anything to do with Udom Emmanuel’s violation of the Akwa Ibom people.
Udom Emmanuel’s name was engraved on the marble plaque (see picture below) as the official who commissioned the warehouse facility. The dishonour may have been deliberately and spitefully done in anticipation that when capacity will have been added unto a full blown fertilizer producing plant., if ever, Udom Emmanuel should take the glory.Sen. Akpabio must have been thoroughly embarrassed, knowing how meticulous he is with details and his knack for excellence. When he commissioned roads constructed by Gov. Nyesom Wike in Rivers State (see picture below), his name was properly cited. But, in Udom Emmanuel’s Akwa Ibom State, Sen. Akpabio was set up to be deliberately embarrassed and disrespected.
A Dilapidating Warehouse
The Greenwell Technolgies fertilizer repackaging warehouse sits on where the abandoned PAMIL Nigeria Limited was.
PAMIL, a South Eastern State owned palm oil trading company established about fifty years was sold to the late Chief Ime Umanah, but the land and facilities bought over by Akwa Ibom State government during the Godswill Akpabio administration.
Neither Greenwell Technologies nor Akwa Ibom State has done any major site rehabilitation work since the little that was done by the late Chief Ime Umanah (see pictures below). Even the German flooring is as incomplete as it was left decades ago.
Yet, Udom Emmanuel continues to embarrass Akwa Ibomites with wanton lies about his phantom industrialization of Akwa Ibom State.
Udom’s Wanton Lies
There is nothing more industrial in repackaging bulk and already blended fertilizer products than the repacking of bulk rice supplies into different bag sizes.So, Udom Emmanuel lied all the way through, just as he has been lying about to the world about his industrialization of Akwa Ibom State.
Serially lying about the set up of industries has become a signpost of the Udom Emmanuel government. Industrialization begets a manufacturing economy. Yet, in Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel’s industrialization policy implementation plan begets mere products packaging operations:
1. the Pencil and Toothpick packaging warehouse in Ekom Oman, near Uyo, was presented as an industrial facility. In reality, pencil parts are imported from China and assembled in the operationally epileptic cottage facility. There are just a few low level employees packing pencils and toothpick in a warehouse that struggles to pay its rent.
2. the electric meter solutions facility in Onna was presented as an electric meters manufacturing facility. In reality, it is an assembly line for meter parts manufactured in China.
3. the controversial Jubilee Syringe factory in Onna was presented as manufacturing facility. In reality, all needle and plastic components are imported and assembled into syringes in the facility.
4. the Ibaka Deep Seaport project, the grandfather scam project of the Udom Emmanuel government, is 75% documents ready. In reality, what should have been the industrialization anchor has been craftily abandoned in Udom’s web of lies mixed with leadership incompetence.
Akwa Ibom people are in for a long drawn scam from a clueless administration. I am making a modest request to anyone who doubts what I am writing here. Anybody who says Akwa Ibom has a Fertilizer Blending Plant should immediately organize a facility tour of the plant by independent Journalists and they should come back here and post their findings. The conclusion will be that there is no such Blending Plant anywhere.
News
Panic As Governor’s Official Car Got Stolen
Confusion and fear was the order of the day at one of the Government houses in the Southwest some days ago when one of the official vehicles of the Governor, a bullet-proof jeep allegedly disappeared from the garage.
The SUV which is said to be one of the three bullet-proof vehicles being used for the Governor’s official assignment was discovered missing.
The Governor who was out of the country on a short, rest leave was claimed to have been disturbed when he was alerted.
Sources claimed it wasn’t the first time things would get missing at the Governor’s private residence.
‘There had been series of thefts, ranging from missing cash, phones and other expensive items, it’s usually swept under the carpet. Indiscipline is the order of the day here’, a source confirmed this to papermacheonline.
The State Governor, a quiet individual who is spending his second time in office was said to have been disturbed by the occurrence that he had to cut short his leave and return home. One of his closest aides was also kidnapped recently.
Business
Former First Bank Employee Accuses Oba Otudeko, Bisi Onasanya Of Massive Fraud
A former First Bank of Nigeria Limited employee, Adesuwa Ezenwa, has accused billionaire industrialist Oba Otudeko and former Managing Director Bisi Onasanya of massive fraud during Otudeko’s tenure as chairman of FBN Holdings Plc.
In court documents filed at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Ezenwa alleges that unsecured loans of approximately N12 billion were granted to a company in which Otudeko has significant investments, disguised as loans to Stallion Group of Companies.
Ezenwa, who was summarily dismissed in October 2016, is seeking redress for her termination and demanding N500 million in damages and N25 million in legal costs. She claims that she was made to bear the consequences of granting unsecured loan facilities worth billions of naira to companies linked to Otudeko and Onasanya, while her superiors who approved the credit were not penalized.
Ezenwa joined First Bank in 2002 and became a relationship manager in the corporate banking division in February 2016. She alleges that her superiors, including Abiodun Olatunji and Cecilia Majekodunmi, who worked closely with Onasanya, were involved in the fraudulent activities.
“As a relationship manager, I worked under the supervision and direction of my branch manager and group head and signed official correspondence only after they had approved and/or signed same. I had no independent authority in relation to the grant or disbursement of loans or other banking facilities,” Mrs Ezenwa said.
According to the claimant, she executed a large number of documents while she was still employed by First Bank, but only after approval by her bosses and on their direction.
She said she was summoned on 25 August 2015 to appear before a credit disciplinary committee reviewing facilities availed to a company known as Supply and Services Limited, a subsidiary of Royal Ceramics Group, one of the major customers of the bank.
The plaintiff said the committee could not determine whether she had a personal interest in any of the loans granted or whether she made any gain related to her duties. She said she was, however, blamed during proceedings for not whistleblowing on some of the deals endorsed by Mr Olatunji and Mrs Majekodunmi.
“The admonition was most unfair and unwarranted as I was in no position to whistleblow on my superiors … The persons to whom these reports would have been made were the very persons who were the perpetrators of the misdeeds,” she said.
A litany of allegations against Mr Otudeko
Mrs Ezenwa disclosed that unsecured loans of roughly N12 billion were availed, on one occasion, to a company in which Mr Otudeko has significant investment even though the facility was masked as loans granted to Stallion Group of Companies, which later spotted the false entry in its statement of account and complained.
In one case in 2012, she further alleged, an unsecured credit estimated at N2 billion was granted to Broadwaters Resources Company Nigeria Limited, which ended up being a conduit pipe used by Mrs Majekodunmi and Mr Onasanya to siphon monies from the bank. The claimant said the loan was never repaid.
“Out of the N12 billion camouflaged as lending to the Stallion Group, N8.21 billion was transferred through various accounts to a final destination account belonging to a company known as V-TECH LTD, which belongs to the chairman of FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko, while the sum of N4.45 billion out of the same fictitious facility was transferred to Ontario Oil and Gas. The facility remains unpaid to date,” Mrs Ezenwa said in court fillings.
According to her, several similar loans were granted by Mr Olatunji and Mrs Majekodunmi, including to Supplies and Services Limited, which were “subsequently sublet and disbursed in smaller bits to several customers on more profitable terms to both officers.”
Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc, Orbit Cargo, Netconstruct Nigeria Limited, and High-Performance Distributions Limited were among the companies named as beneficiaries of the loan disbursement.
Mrs Ezenwa disclosed that such loans could not have been granted without the involvement of the board of First Bank, considering that the amounts involved were huge and above the approval limits of the executive directors, the vice president and the managing director of the bank.
According to the complainant, her dismissal by the bank brought her into disrepute, threatening her chances of securing employment in reputable companies in future.
“The action of the defendant (First Bank) has consequently caused the claimant untold mental distress and is all the more damaging as the claimant is in her thirties and has simply been made a scapegoat for the malfeasance of some of the lapses of the management of the bank,” she said.
Among other demands, Mrs Ezenwa is urging the court to declare that there was no basis for the bank to dismiss her.
“She is being made a scapegoat for a lot of questionable transactions within the bank, which she is claiming innocent of,” Seyi Sowemimo, the claimant’s lawyer, told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday. “So far, the trial has started. We have subpoenaed the EFCC, and we have subpoenaed the central bank to bring the audit reports of the bank,” Seyi Sowemimo, the claimant’s lawyer, told PREMIUM TIMES.
The allegations have sparked a legal battle, with Ezenwa seeking justice for her dismissal and damages for the fraudulent activities she claims to have uncovered.
Business
“AMCON MD In Trouble Over Keystone Bank Acquisition By Father In-law”, Isa Funtua
Why Bank Customers Are Making Panic Withdrawals…
Following the controversy generated by the leading opposition party, the People’s Democratic party, PDP, over the alleged acquisition of Keystone bank and Etisalat by Alhaji Isa Funtua and the CEO of AMCON, Ahmed Kuru, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered probe into the alleged fraud.
A highly placed source at the headquarters of the Economic and financial crimes Commission, EFCC yesterday told daybreak that the President was thoroughly embarrassed with the allegations linking him to the transactions.
According to the source, a discrete panel will be set up soon comprising of the Chairman of the EFCC, representative of the DSS, ICPC, federal ministry of Justice to look into the allegations.
The source further added that, both Isa Funtua, Ahmed Kuru, the governor of the central bank of Nigeria, CBN, Chief Godwin Emefiele and management Staff of the Keystone Bank and 9Mobile will be quizzed by the operatives of the EFCC for some interactions.
Recently, a mindboggling scandal broke out to public knowledge about how Keystone Bank and 9Mobile were acquired in controversial circumstances by the business interests of one Alhaji Isa Funtua, a close friend of President Muhammadu Buhari, via the instrumentality of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
The PDP challenged the federal government to come out clean on what could be a serious dent on its anti-corruption stance, there is indeed no smoke without fire.
The leading opposition party also confirmed fact that the son-in-law of Isa Funtua, Ahmed Kuru, is the current CEO of AMCON.
Before him, the previous CEO, Chike Obi, was a first-class gentleman and technocrat who was strangely removed from office before the expiration of his term and was replaced with Kuru, the son-in-law of Isa Funtua.
Now, let us get into the insider details of how Funtua bought Keystone Bank and 9Mobile in the most bizarre of dealings that circumvent the laws of the land. Keystone Bank was sold by the current CEO of AMCON to his father-in-law, Funtua, without any AMCON Board’s approval and with the active connivance of CBN and NDIC at a grossly undervalued price of 25 Billion Naira. To put things in context, let us recall that Enterprise Bank was sold for over 60 Billion Naira and Mainstreet Bank was sold for over 100 Billion Naira under the former CEO of AMCON.
Before the sale of Keystone Bank to Isa Funtua, all bad debts in the books of the Bank were taken over by AMCON. So, it was a clean Bank with all the Assets and no Liabilities that was sold to the Buyers.
The Executive Management of AMCON was coerced into approving the transaction and those who were willing to submit a much higher bid were disqualified under a most opaque, suspicious process that lacks all transparency. The process was just manipulated in favour of the father-in-law of the AMCON CEO.
The Corrupt Payment for Keystone Bank The most disgusting part of the entire sale of Keystone Bank is how the 25 Billion Naira sales price was paid to AMCON.
The Isa Funtua Team paid 5 Billion Naira to AMCON, and then the balance of 20 Billion Naira was later paid through the most criminal and corrupt approach ever perpetrated by AMCON in favour of the Buyer. What happened was that AMCON moved 20 Billion Naira of their own funds as a fixed deposit at GTBank to Heritage Bank. Heritage Bank then paid the 20 Billion Naira on behalf of the Funtua Group to AMCON. In other words, AMCON used their own funds as a collateral for a loan to the Funtua Group for 20 Billion Naira!
When the Funtua Group took over Keystone Bank, they went borrowing immediately at the Interbank Market for 20 Billion Naira to refund AMCON’s funds. This has left a hole in Keystone Bank’s Balance Sheet and makes the Bank one of the most undercapitalized Banks in the Country as at today. The evidence of this highly compromised acquisition process can be obtained from the current and former staff of AMCON, from NDIC, CBN and from the current staff of Keystone Bank itself.
Another suspicious acquisition scandal surrounding the Funtua Group is about the untidy way 9-Mobile, formerly known as Etisalat, was bought. It is Mr. Adrian Wood of Teleology Holdings, a very sound telecoms professional, who collaborated with the Funtua Group for the acquisition of 9-Mobile.
The problem with their bid was the lack of a qualified Operator to support the bid which was one of the minimum conditions of NCC. Adrian Wood alone was not a substitute for an Operator.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gave several conditions that must be met by the Ultimate Buyer of 9-Mobile to ensure the protection of shareholders value, prevent loss of jobs, protect the telecoms industry from slipping into a crisis and ensure transparency and professionalism in the post-acquisition entity.
The conditions listed by NCC that must be met by the Buyer are Strong Telecoms Operating Experience, Strong Financial Capabilities, Strong Technical Knowledge and Strong Administrative Skills.
The first thing that happened once Teleology was announced as the preferred winner was that the Funtua Group edged Adrian Woods out of Management and turned him to an Insignificant Shareholder.
The second development was that the Funtua Group raided Keystone Bank again and forced the Bank to Pay 50 million Dollars as down payment for the acquisition of 9-Mobile.
The third issue was that Teleology Nigeria replaced Teleology Holdings to remove any influence of Adrian Woods from 9-Mobile totally. The fourth step taken the Funtua Group was to borrow 260 Million Dollars from African Exim Bank.
The fifth thing was to coerce NCC to approve the sale at all cost without meeting 90% of the conditions set up ab-initio by the NCC.
The sixth strange action of the Funtua Group was to force the board of NCC to approve the sale through the influence and pressure from the Presidency. And the seventh Funtua infraction was to use the influence of CBN to force the Banks to the table and waive their own conditions of sale of 9-Mobile to the Teleology Nigeria group.
Efforts to reach the acting Head media and publicity of Economic and financial crimes Commission,EFCC, Mr. Tony Orilade to confirmed the latest developments proved abortive as his lines were not connecting.
Source; The Capital
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