Lawyer petitions IG over alleged illegal sale of client’s N20 billion assets by FCMB
Chief Aloysius Ezenduka, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, has asked the Inspector General of Police (IG), Kayode Egbetokun, to look into the alleged sale of his client’s company assets worth N20 billion by Mr. Emmanuel Adeyeye Oyebanji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who was appointed Receiver/Manager by CSL Trustees Limited on behalf of First City Monument Bank following a N350 million loan dispute.
In a petition dated January 7, 2024, Ezenduka requested that the police chief intervene and investigate “a case of criminal conversion, stealing, and selling of an asset worth over N20 billion” belonging to his clients, Chief Anthony Obidulu and his company, Algrain Foods Limited, located at No 15 – 17, Canal Avenue, Canal Estate, Okota, Lagos.
“Chief Obidulu is the managing director of Algrain Foods Limited, manufacturer of pasta and noodles.”
The petitioner alleged that the SAN and FCMB’s acts were despicable because four court matters – two at the Appeal Court in Lagos (CA/L/CV/1021/2021 and CA/L/CV/1024/2021) and two at the High Court of Lagos State – are pending and trials are proceeding.
Chief Obidulu filed two petitions in the High Court of Lagos State against Emmanuel Adeyeye Oyebanji, First City Monument Bank Plc, and Emmanuel Adeyeye Oyebanji, First Bank Limited, for trespassing on his property.
He stated that despite these cases being pending in court and undecided, Oyebanji, in collusion with the managing director of First City Monument Bank Plc, has been discretely selling all of the assets comprising vehicles, heavy machinery, and goods kept in the warehouse worth billions of naira over a purported judgment on appeal that claimed that FCMB was owed the paltry sum of N350 million, despite the fact that an audit report has shown that the company is not indebted to the bank or anyone.”
According to the petitioners, “The Court of Appeal on 10 October, 2023, allowed the petitioner to bring in document that showed that the purported loan in respect of which Adeyeye and FCMB procured court order is indeed a Federal Government Small and Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Scheme (SMECGS), which is guaranteed 80 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which FCMB has never redeemed before procuring court order with fraudulent documents.”
Worried about the actions of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria and FCMB, Ezenduka petitioned the IG to, among other things, “investigate these acts of forgery, alteration, procurement, and concealment of documents for the purpose of obtaining an illegal court order; conversion, stealing, and selling of goods belonging to Chief Obidulu and Algrain Foods Limited by Emmanuel Adeyeye, Oyebanji (SAN), and FCMB.” Investigate Oyebanji’s unwillingness to provide an account of the alleged receivership to the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Board of Directors of Algrain Foods Limited, as required by law. Investigate Oyebanji and FCMB’s managing director’s purported asset sales, conversions, and diversion of funds.
(Thisdaylive)