The current nefarious activity hanging on the neck of the Phillips Oduoza’s led-troubled financial institution is the multi billion naira money fraud perpetrated in Ondo State by late former Governor of the State, Olusegun Agagu. The report is messy, but we bring it to you here unedited as reported by the original writers…See below…
One of the top staff at the Phillip Oduoza-led mega financial institution, United Bank for Africa, Mr. Lawrence Ehindero has been answering questions from detectives attached to the Ondo State Police Command, Akure to explain what he knows about some fraudulent dealings and illegal withdrawals from a fixed deposit account of N2billion belonging to the Ondo State Government
According to sources, Mr. Ehindero who’s UBA’s Regional Manager, Ondo/Ekiti States has been questioned severally over the mega fraud and we gathered the police are closing in on the culprits and might be arraigned as soon as investigations are concluded.
We gathered reliably that, some of the bank’s top staff have been operating an account belonging to the Ondo State government without prior knowledge of the State executive to the extent that, millions of Naira were withdrawn before bubble burst recently.
Tracing the genesis of the monumental fraud that’s presently rocking UBA, almost to its very root, we gathered the money, about N2billion (Two Billion Naira Only) was lodged in two separate accounts with the bank’s Alagbaka quarters, Akure branch, in form of fixed deposit investment, by the immediate past governor of the State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu but because the transition between Dr. Agagu and Mimiko was not smooth and official, the incoming governor then, Mimiko didn’t really get wind of the investment thereby giving a leeway for the alleged fraud by the set of “smart bankers’
It would be recalled however that, the immediate past governor of the State, Dr. Agagu had to flee the State hurriedly owing to circumstances surrounding Mimiko’s emergence, and this did not permit the official hand-over, so many properties such as cars and other assets, belonging to the State were said to have been converted to personal use by the former governor and some of his aides.
This office was told that, the bank’s management led by one Deolu Olugbenga (formerly the Regional Head), Kemi Johnson (former Business Manager, Akure) and co were said to have kept mum on the status of the investment when the new administration assumed office, and to the chagrin of the State governor, the bank was said to have bailed out the State by giving it a loan of N500m with heavy interest charges sometime ago before the bubble eventually burst.
The said investments, we were made to understand were being operated and rolled over by some of the bank’s “smart alec” without the State’s consent, and at a time, the source confided in us that, the sum of N40m (Forty Million Naira) was even transferred from the money to the FUTA branch where one Ms. Dami who has been sacked on account of this fraud was the branch head.
Acting on a petition filed by a group-Ondo Citizens For Good Governance and Accountability and signed by Barrister Akintububo Esq, the State governor, we gathered got wind of the fraud and promptly summoned some of the bank’s staff led by the Regional Head, Lawrence Ehindero via an official letter demanding for an insight to the fraud. The Regional Head, we gathered has since been running from pillar to post in order to find a lasting solution to the imbroglio but as at now, Ehindero has released the sum of N450m (Four Hundred and Fifty Million Naira only) out of the money to pacify the governor.
In our normal investigative manner, we tried to get in touch with Ehindero through a text message to tell us what he knows about the fraud but instead of being civil, the banker called us and started blabbing, ‘look, I’ve reported you to the Commissioner of Police and he wants to see you, you need to come tell him how you got that story and what you know about it, who do you think you’re playing with, for your information, I’ve informed Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Police who happened to be one of my brother’s aides when he (my brother-Sunday Ehindero) was the IG”.
The UBA ‘s Regional Manager, Lawrence Ehindero went on and on threatening fire and brimstone and was only ready to listen to us when we told him we have also filed a letter to the UBA Headquarters in Marina, Lagos for a formal response. A letter addressed to Lola Osungbesan, The Legal Officer, The UBA Group, Legal Department on May 13th, 2015 was received at the headquarters but they never deemed it fit to get back to us. In another development, efforts to get hold of people in the Communications department were also abortive as several calls placed to them were left unanswered.
One of the anonymous police detectives at the Alagbaka Command in Akure, Ondo State who spoke to us has promised to give us details of the fraud as events unfold.
-Culled from National Enquirer Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment