A Lagos-based businessman, Chief Anthony Obidulu, has appealed to the Federal Government to checkmate what he described as the corruptness of commercial banks, News About Nigeria reports.
He made this appeal while speaking to newsmen in Okota, stating that his company is a victim of such crookedness.
He noted that one of the new-generation banks, whose name was withheld, deceived the court with false information on a loan owed it to claim ownership of the company.
He lamented that, as a result, his company had been sealed for seven years following the procurement of a court order by the bank to take over it.
According to him, this action by the bank crippled the company and rendered 300 direct employees and more than 2,800 people in its distribution chain jobless.
He further stated that some commercial banks adopted crookedness to manipulate accounting books relating to loans, adding that his company is a victim of such crookedness.
”Our company is one of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s intervention loans tagged Small and Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Scheme (SMECGS) in 2011. We got N100 million of the intervention fund through the bank (names withheld) because one of the conditions for getting the fund was that one must go through a commercial bank to access it. So we opened an account with the bank, from which the fund was accessed.
”The N100 million was guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the tune of 80% (principal and interest) and a tenure of 60 months with a 12-month moratorium. The final date of repayment ought to be November 2016, in respect of which the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a Guarantee Certificate to the bank dated March 15, 2012, containing the afore-mentioned terms that the bank concealed from the Federal High Court in securing the judgement they are peddling around.
“But the bank cooked up some fictitious figures and alleged that we owed about N350 million. They went to court behind us, procured an order to take over the company and eventually sealed the company. As of the time they went to court, we had only touched the federal government’s money, not the bank’s money. The offer letter that has not been drawn down is what they relied on to convince the court that our company owed them,” he lamented.
“The judge did not look at the drawdown but the offer letter, and he gave the judgement without telling them how much money they can recover from Algrain Foods Limited, thereby giving them an open ticket that has led to the looting that took place in the factory, as moveable assets worth over N20,000,000,000.00 (Twenty Billion Naira) have been stolen from the factory with the aid of Mobile Policemen illegally procured from Mopol 20, Ikeja, Lagos.”
He disclosed that moveable assets worth over N20,000,000,000.00 (twenty billion Naira) had been stolen from the factory with the aid of mobile policemen illegally procured from Mopol 20, Ikeja, Lagos.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to checkmate the activities of commercial banks to prevent such from happening to others.
He also urged Nigerians to beware of the obnoxious tendencies of the banks.
