Former Presidential Liaison Officer (PLO)
and Board Chairman of the First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL),
Alhaji Ibrahim Kashim Imam, has said the apex regulatory agency of
pension administrators, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), saved
FGPL from total collapse.
He also described as untrue, the claim
by the former Vice Chairman, of the company, Nze Chidi Duru, that he
(Duru), was the chief promoter of the company.
Duru, a former member of House of
Representatives, had raised the alarm recently that PenCom and some
shareholders of FGPL were planning to take over the company he personally promoted from him.
But speaking to journalists in Abuja during the week, Imam described
the ex-lawmaker as fraudulent person, who he said had been declared
wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He also accused him of betraying the
trust and confidence reposed on him, noting that it was surprising that
Duru had not been sent to prison, four years after all his alleged
fraudulent activities were investigated and established by the PenCom
and EFCC.
According to him, by 2011 when Duru exited the company , after
eight years, following his indictment by PenCom, the company’s account
was in red to the tune of N385 million. Imam was however quick to add
that following the intervention of PenCom, an interim management was
formed, and the assets of the company have been grown to about N140
billion, with profit of over N3billion, just within four years.
On how FGPL was formed, Imam said:
‘’Technically speaking, Duru, cannot even
be said to have invested a dime in the business. But we did not know
this, until much later. The deposit we were supposed to make as the
initial capital, was never contributed by him.
‘’I agree with you; we ought to have verified this ab initio, and this we did not do based on trust. But like I said, findings
later showed that all the cheque he issued for the payment of his own
share of the initial deposit were never presented for clearance.
‘’As a matter of fact, another of his
friend, Nnamdi Anammah, a supposed investor, is also guilty of the same
thing. In all, they both issued seven different cheque, totaling N62 million, but sadly, the money could not be traced in the company’s account.’’
He alleged that
Duru issued three different cheque of N10million each, of Guardian
Express Bank, with numbers: 221 and 227 and another Diamond bank cheque,
while his friend, Anammah, issued two UBA cheque numbers: 3 and 18833,
of N10million and N2million respectively, Zenith Bank cheque number for N10million and Reliance Bank cheque number 194 also for N10 million.
‘’And when a few of the shareholders
pulled out, he refunded their money to them, issuing cheque in the name
of the company to such persons, yet fraudulently appropriating their
shares, as his own,” the new chairman of FGPL added.
He added: ‘’As a matter of fact, it was
my papers that were filed and verified at incorporation. The fit and
proper person’s test was duly conducted on my person and integrity.’’
Explaining how a South African Investor,
Novare Holding, represented by one Derrick Roper, was also indicted by
the EFCC, Imam said he wouldn’t know the relationship between him and
the South African investor, claiming that Duru first forged some
shareholders signatures to fraudulently applied for an expatriate quota.
He added: ‘’All those he brought, but
one, were deployed to the service of his own private companies. Again,
the agreement purportedly entered into between our company and Novare
Holdings, was fraudulently done single-handedly by Duru. But even at
that, Novare’s purported payment for shares, violated the agreement.”
He added that the investigation carried
out by the PenCom, established that part of the funds transferred into
FGPL, was again diverted to BP Outsourcing Limited and GT Retail
Limited, property companies, linked to Duru, saying all these are
contained in the Target Examination Report, carried out by PenCom, in
2011.
Imam said the petition Duru recently
wrote to the presidency was for the purpose of getting the woman at
PenCom sacked, because he has been going around saying the woman of Igbo
origin, was trying to handover the only ‘Igbo’ PFA, to an Hausa man.
By Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja
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