Our
attention has been drawn to an on-going campaign of calumny by serial
blackmailer, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, an indigene of Enugu State and purported
owner of an Ibadan-based Technology Company, Citadel Oracle Concept, against
the Chairman, Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh which he has taken to the domain of
Premium Times after other online and print media houses who confirmed his story
as false refused to publish in a matter concerning a subject of criminal
proceeding against him.
Contrary
to his long-drawn campaign of calumny, threats to life and series of blackmail attempts
against our Chairman, Mr. Joseph was charged to court by the Police for false information
on Charge Number CR/216/16 before the FCT High Court, Abuja after forensic
evidence showed that a Board Resolution bearing his signature which he claimed
to have been forged was actually his.
Interestingly,
Mr. Joseph had never met with our Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh nor transacted any
business with Zinox Telecoms or Zinox Technologies Ltd. Our Chairman has also never met him in person or
even spoken with him on the phone. If Joseph has any evidence of such meeting
let him make it public. Mr. Joseph is only bent on spreading falsehood and
spurious allegations in a bid to blackmail our Chairman to call him for
negotiations to stop the blackmail.
The
truth is that the complaint arose from a business transaction between Citadel
Oracle Concept Limited (Mr. Joseph’s company) their appointed
staff/representatives, (Princess Kama and Chief Igbokwe), when they won a
contract for the supply of HP laptops to the Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS). Having no funds to execute the contract, his appointed staff/agents
approached one of our sister companies, Technology Distributions (an authorized
HP distributor and the biggest ICT distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa) to supply
them the laptops on credit pending payment by FIRS.
In
view of previous bad experience and in order to avoid exposing the business to
bad loans, it is our normal business practice that if a client is taking
products on credit for onward contractual supply to a customer, staff of
Technology Distributions would have to be signatories to an account opened for
the purpose of disbursement of funds as regards the contract. This is the only
security for the laptops supplied on credit.
This was how our staff, Mr. Chris
Eze Ozims and Mrs. Shade Oyebode became signatories to the account, but nowhere
did they represent that they were directors of Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd. If
Mr. Joseph has evidence to the contrary let him produce it. Immediately the
contract was executed and payment effected by the FIRS, Technology
Distributions simply deducted the pre-agreed invoice sum of the laptops and had
its staff resign as signatories to the said account. This was the same
procedure/process applied to other customers who had similar contract with FIRS
for the supply of similar HP laptops at same time.
It
is interesting to note that problem only started when Mr. Joseph could not
agree on the profit sharing formula with his appointed agent/representative,
Princess Kama. It was then that he reported the case to the SFU for
investigation. The question is: if he was paid the money he was asking for
after the contract was executed and at various meeting in the chambers of Afe
Babalola & Co., would he have now alleged fraud?
Mr.
Joseph reported the case to EFCC and the Special Fraud Unit of the Police in
Lagos and then, the Force Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters
in Abuja and the matter eventually got to the office of the former Inspector
General of Police, Solomon Arase. Subsequently, a detailed investigation was
conducted into the matter.
Since
the crux of the matter was the denial by the complainant (Mr. Joseph) of not
signing the Board Resolution to the account with which the FIRS remitted
payment for the supplied HP laptops, the Police sent the documents for forensic
analysis to determine its veracity. The evidence proved that the documents were
actually signed by him.
In
the light of this, the Police discovered that the issue was indeed a civil case
between Mr. Joseph and his representatives, Princess Kama and Chief Onny Igbokwe
who obtained the HP products from Technology Distributions on credit. The
disagreement between the trio led to Mr. Joseph petitioning the Police that his
signature was forged to execute the contract.
Based
on the discovery that the said documents were not forged and the computers were
deliver to FIRS, the Police charged Mr. Joseph to court with Charge Number
CR/216/16 before the FCT High Court, Abuja. This case is still pending against
him. Interestingly, in the series of publications he has continued to sponsor
against the Chairman, Mr. Joseph has never mentioned why he was charged to
court by the Police i.e. that the forensic report showed that he signed the
documents he is denying.
The
Police report also absolved our staff – Chris Eze Ozims, Folashade Oyebode and
Charles Adigwe of any complicity in the matter as money withdrawn by TD was
legitimate proceeds of HP laptops supplied to Citadel Oracle Concept through
the company representatives for onward transmission to FIRS and the FIRS
acknowledged receipt of the laptops.
Recognizing
that the game was up, Mr. Joseph petitioned the office of the Vice President, Yemi
Osinbajo SAN who did not know character, that our company Technology
Distributions, Chief Igbokwe and the FIRS were in collusion to defraud the
Federal Government of over N200m, alleging that the HP laptops were never supplied.
The Vice President duly forwarded the petition to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation.
We
are aware the Commission had carried out a detailed investigation and in the
process, conducted searches at the FIRS office, confirmed for the third time
that the laptops were indeed supplied and receipted by the FIRS and their
serial numbers noted.
It
is worth reiterating here that the aim of Mr. Joseph is to tarnish the image of
our Chairman to extort money as he has repeatedly boasted of having dealt in
like manner with bigger public figures.
We
have refrained from going public with this matter because the facts are subjudice
based on a pending civil case at the Lagos State High Court with suit number
LD/4335/14 and the Criminal Proceeding with Charge Sheet Number CR/216/16
before the FCT High Court, Abuja.
Again,
we are waiting for the EFCC to apply the machinery of the law in bringing Mr. Joseph
to justice based on the false petition to the office of the Vice President,
just as the Police did by charging him to court on false and/or misleading
information.
*Contributed by Gideon O. Ayogu, Head, Corporate Communications, Zinox Technologies Ltd.
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