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Sunday, 23 July 2023

Eco Bank CEO, Bolaji Lawal faces though time

Things are getting tougher for ECO Bank CEO, Bolaji Lawal who is earnestly looking forward to proving his mettle as the bank chief.

From eyeing N13.5 billion payout to boost operations, the financial institution he oversees is now deep neck down in a whooping N72.2 Billion debt.

That is the unfolding tale of an uphill task of the Eco Bank CEO- Bolaji Lawal.

Lawal officially took up the career-defining appointment as Chief Executive Officer at the Bank whose official name is Ecobank Transnational Inc (ETI) on March 1, 2022 after missing out of becoming the Managing Director at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank).the previous year.

The Eco Bank job was touted as the perfect opportunity to show his former employers they were wrong in letting him go.

But life has thrown a major stumbling block to what was about to be a quick start with N72.2billion damages in favour of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (HFMP).

The judgement is compensation for the huge loss HFMP suffered with the ex-parte order Eco Bank secured against its operation while seeking to recover a disputed loan.

The ex-parte order – motions for orders that can be granted without waiting for a response from the other side – frozen the assets of Honeywell Flour Mills as part of efforts by Eco Bank to force recovery of the disputed loan.

The development resulted in significant loss for HFMP, its stakeholders as well as the direct and indirect dependants on it operations – including what is termed “incalculable perception on credit worthiness”.

“Eco Bank secured the ex-parte orders from a Federal High court in November 2015, Honeywell regained it assets in 2016 through the Court of Appeal and in 2018, the supreme court upheld that Eco Bank was wrong and granted full access of the assets to Honeywell” SocietyNow.Ng learned.

Added information revealed that the legal condemnation of the move by Eco Bank was such that its counsel was sanctioned for the step.

Interestingly while trying to convince the court to grant the nullified ex-parte orders, Eco Bank reportedly added a sweetener, the bank ” submitted an undertaking to compensate Honeywell Flour Mills for any harm or losses suffered as a result of the ex-parte order, if it is determined that the application was without merit.” SocietyNow.Ng learned.

It was gathered that is what has come back to haunt the Bank with Lawal as Chief Executive Officer, according to SocietyNow.Ng.

Honeywell took Eco Bank and its legal team to their words in the undertaking and approached the court in 2018, after the supreme court win, with a comprehensive compilation of the loss suffered during the period the ex-parte orders were applied on its assets.

“The result is the N72.2 Billion damages awarded on Tuesday (July 18, 2023), though Honeywell sought more than that” SocietyNow.Ng gathered.

Added checks revealed that though Eco Bank has announced the intention to appeal the decision, it has been an unsettling development for the Chief Executive Officer and his team.

It was also gathered that this is especially because, before the supreme court win that gave Eco Bank confidence of getting ₦13.5 billion from Honeywell Flour Mills in the original dispute, the Bankers’ Committee, Sub-committee on Ethics & Professionalism in a decision ratified by the Bankers’ Committee ruled in 2015 that HFMP was not indebted to the Bank.

But the Eco Bank refused to abide by the decision and insisted otherwise until the matter went to open court and entered into the latest chapter.

“And now the new Chief Executive Officer’s job just got tougher with such an addition to all that is already on his plate,” the source disclosed.

Source: SocietyNowNg

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday adjourned till June 15 a suit seeking the winding up of an oil firm, Eroton Exploration & Production Company Limited for its alleged inability to pay Brightwaters Energy Limited a judgment debt of $20 million.

Justice Akintayo Aluko fixed the date following an application by the petitioner, Brightwaters Energy Limited, through its counsel Mr. Olu Aju .

Mr. Aju told the judge that the motion for the winding up application was ripe for hearing.

But the respondent’s counsel Ugochukwu Okocha sought an adjournment on the ground that his principal, Mr Wale Akoni (SAN), was keen to argue the case personally.

Granting Okocha’s application, Justice Aluko adjourned for hearing of the motion to advertise the winding up of Eroton Exploration & Production Company Ltd

The petitioner, in its motion on notice of March 21, 2023 in suit FHC/L/C8/491/2022, is seeking a single relief.

“An order granting leave to the Petitioner, BRIGHTWATERS ENERGY LIMITED, to advertise the winding up Petition herein in the Federal Goverment Official Gazette, one national daily newspaper and other newspaper circulating in Lagos State, where the registered office and principal place of business of the respondent is situated or in such other newspaper as the court may direct.”

The grounds upon which Brightwaters made the application are that “the respondent is insolvent, has insufficient assets to meet its liabilities and has failed to liquidate indebtedness to the petitioner.

“The 21 days statutory demand notice within the meaning of Section 572 (1) of Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 has since been issued to the respondent and same has elapsed.

“Notwithstanding the statutory demand notice within the meaning of Section 572 (1) of Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, the respondent has refused, failed and/or neglected to defray the debts owed to the Petitioner.

“It is in the public interest that the advertisement of the winding up petition be made.”

But the respondent opposed the winding up petition via a preliminary objection dated May 3.

It prayed for “an order dismissing/striking out the instant petition for lack of jurisdiction.”

Saturday, 29 October 2022

$20m Fraud: US Court sentences Allen Onyema’s alleged conspirator to three years probation

A United States court on Friday sentenced a self-confessed conspirator in the alleged $20 million fraud allegedly organised by Air Peace CEO, Allen Onyema, to three years probation.

The court also awarded $4,000 as a fine against Ebony Mayfiled, who, in June, pleaded guilty to the charge of signing and submitting fake documents to facilitate the alleged fraud.

The US government accused her of signing and submitting the fabricated documents between 2016 and 2018, to help Mr Onyema, owner of Air Peace, a major Nigerian commercial airline, to move $20 million from Nigeria to the US in an alleged money laundering scheme.

She was charged in 2019, and she initially pleaded “not guilty” to all eight charges at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.

But she changed her plea to plead guilty to one of the charges in June, after entering into a plea agreement that saw the US government drop the seven remaining charges against her.

READ ALSO $20m Fraud: Air Peace founder Allen Onyema’s co-conspirator to be sentenced October 28 – US Court

The law under which she was charged provided for maximum five years jail term for the offence she pleaded guilty to.

Following her guilty plea, her lawyer filed for a variance of sentence on 13 October, begging to be sentenced to a probated sentence or what is called supervised release, instead of imprisonment.

The US government, reportedly earlier, in its response agreed to a lower limit of sentence range, which includes house detention for six months.

At the sentencing on Friday, the judge, Eleanor Ross, after discussing the pre-sentence report with lawyers to the parties, and listening to Ms Mayfield briefly, imposed “a total of THREE (3) YEARS of probation” on her.

Source Premium Times

Friday, 21 October 2022

$20m Fraud: Air Peace founder Allen Onyema’s co-conspirator to be sentenced October 28 – US Court

The fraud allegedly spearheaded by Mr Onyema was allegedly perpetrated under the guise of obtaining credit to buy aircraft for Air Peace, a frontline Nigerian airline, in the U.S.

AUnited States court has set 28 October for the sentencing of Ebony Mayfield, a co-conspirator in an alleged $20 million fraud involving the founder of Air Peace, Allen Onyema.

Ms Mayfield, accused of helping Mr Onyema to sign fake documents to facilitate a fraudulent $20 million loan, had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge on 29 June.

The trial judge, Eleanor Ross, of the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, has now fixed 28 October for her sentencing, a court notice, according to Premium Times.

The fraud allegedly spearheaded by Mr Onyema was allegedly perpetrated under the guise of obtaining credit to buy aircraft for Air Peace, a frontline Nigerian airline, in the U.S.

Ms Mayfield was accused of helping Mr Onyema to facilitate the $20 million bank fraud between May 2016 and February 2018 when she worked as the manager for Springfield Aviation Company LLC, owned by the Air Peace founder.

U.S. prosecutors accused her of signing and submitting false documents used by Mr Onyema to perpetrate the bank fraud in the U.S.

Mr Onyema and Air Peace Limited’s Head of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, also face 36 charges at the U.S. court in connection with the alleged fraudulent scheme.

But they have yet to show up or send a lawyer to represent them in court.

Trial

Ms Mayfield, who was arrested on 7 June 2019, for her alleged roles in the alleged scheme, had previously pleaded not guilty to all eight charges filed against her in December 2019.

Her trial was, in March this year, rescheduled to start on August 8.

But weeks before the trial date, she changed her plea from not guilty to guilty when she appeared before the trial judge on 29 June to plead guilty.

Ms Mayfield pleaded guilty to one of the eight counts filed against her by the U.S. government.

A copy of the plea agreement she and her lawyer signed with U.S. prosecutors shows she specifically pleaded guilty to Count 5, which is a conspiracy to commit credit application fraud.

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5-year jail term and other penalties

She risks up to five years of jail term based on the plea agreement.

Five years imprisonment is the maximum jail term provided for in Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, under which she was charged with the offence in Count 5.

Aside from the risk of a maximum five years jail term she faces, the plea agreement also recommends she be fined $250,000, or twice the gain or twice the loss whichever is greatest. The fine is due and payable immediately.

She will also make full restitution due and payable immediately to all victims of the offence(s) and relevant conduct.

The plea agreement also recommends the forfeiture of any and all proceeds from the commission of the offence and any and all property used or intended to be used to facilitate the offence.

She will be subjected to a mandatory special assessment of $100, due and payable immediately.

She also, by pleading guilty, gave up the right to plead not guilty, the right to be tried by a jury, and the right to appeal against her conviction.

If she is not a U.S. citizen, she stands the risk of being expelled from the country after completing her jail term.

Alleged fraud

Between November 2016 and October 2017, prosecutors said, Mr Onyema applied for export letters of credit to causing the transfer of funds from a Nigerian bank account for Air Peace to Springfield Aviation’s bank account, “purportedly to fund the purchase of aircraft by Air Peace from Springfield Aviation”.

Both the Air Peace purportedly seeking to buy the aircraft and the Springfield Aviation, the purported seller, belong to Mr Onyema.

Springfield Aviation, according to court documents, was established by Mr Onyema in the U.S. State of Georgia in April 2016 purportedly to specialise in “the wholesaling, trading/ and sale of commercial aircraft and parts”.

The US government says Ms Mayfield was recruited as a manager of Springfield Aviation with the role of entering into aviation-related contracts on behalf of the firm, despite her lack of education, training, or licensing in the review and valuation of aircraft, including aircraft components.

The charge against the defendants says the aircraft that was referenced in each of the export letters of credit provided to obtain the $ 20 million credit from a Nigerian bank, was never owned or sold by Springfield Aviation.

Source: PREMIUM TIMES

Monday, 10 October 2022

Drug lord bags seven-year-imprisonment as NDLEA seizes N1b worth of tramadol

Anotorious drug dealer in Alaba Rago area of Ojo, Lagos, Alhaji Surajo Mohammed, has been convicted and sentenced to seven-year imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice Yellin Dogoro.

Spokesman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Femi Babafemi, who made this known in a statement on Sunday said the conviction came 10 months months after his arrest.

Babafemi said Mohammed was arrested by operatives of the agency with 941.15kgs cannabis on Monday 20th December 2021 and arraigned in court in charge number FHC/L/370c/2021.

However, in judgment delivered last Thursday, the Judge however gave the convict an option of N7m fine, Babafemi revealed.

He also said desperate attempts by the Tramadol drug cartel to smuggle in over 2, 465, 000 tablets of the pharmaceutical opioid through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos have been foiled by operatives of the NDLEA.

He said the drugs which were in 225mg and 250mg weighed 2,356kg and had an estimated street value of N1, 040, 000, 000.

Babafemi said the seizure of the drug on Friday 7th October came barely a week after about 13.5million pills of the same opioid worth over N8.8billion were recovered by NDLEA operatives from one of the mansions of a billionaire drug baron in the highbrow residential estate, Victoria Garden City, VGC, Lekki Lagos.

The statement reads: “Following credible intelligence, the Agency had shown interest in the consignment of 52 cartons that came into Nigeria from Karachi, Pakistan with six different airway bills via Ethiopian Airline flight, comprising seven cartons of 250mg of a brand called tamral and 45 cartons of 225mg, branded as tramaking. Soon after its arrival at the Lagos airport, the NDLEA called for a joint examination of the consignment with other stakeholders and after its information was confirmed by all, the 52 cartons of the seized substance which are above the recommended threshold for medical use and banned in the country, were moved to the Agency’s facility.

“In the same vein, another bid to export through the airport 15 parcels of cannabis and 600grams of tramadol 225mg concealed in a sack of crayfish to Dubai, UAE was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and subsequently arrested a freight agent, Osahor Alex Ekwueme, who presented it for export.

“Weeks after NDLEA operatives intercepted 5.20kgs of cannabis concealed in kegs of palm oil going to Dubai at the NAHCO export shed of the airport, the brain behind the consignment, Ifeanyi Egbuwaohia, has been arrested in Igando area of Lagos. Though Ifeanyi works as a technician at Computer Village, Ikeja but beneath his known business he also works with a drug network in Dubai, where he sends illicit drugs for distribution. Few hours after his arrest, another consignment of 2.60kgs of the same substance sent by him for export to Dubai was also intercepted by operatives at the airport.

“Another consignment of 1.30kgs of cannabis concealed in reconstructed engine blocks going to Dubai have also been seized at the SAHCO export shed while two persons: Olatunji Kehinde Temiola and Osemojoye Femi Sunday have been arrested in connection to the bid.

“Meanwhile, In Kaduna state, a female drug dealer, Peace Ayuba, was on Friday 7th October arrested at Kakau Gonin Gora with seventy eight (78) bags of cannabis sativa weighing 849.5kgs, while operatives in Sokoto state arrested Onyeka Owo, 28, with 443 bottles of codeine based syrup.

“While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Kaduna, Sokoto and Lagos commands for the feats, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) urged them and their compatriots across the country to remain steadfast, resolute and unrelenting until the last gram of illicit drugs is taken away from the streets of Nigeria.”

Saturday, 8 October 2022

KWAM1’s MON National Honours Excites Wife, Emmanuella Marshal

“Still in the spirit of celebrating your 50years on stage and God added this again to your feathers “ – Mrs Marshal

Emmanuella Marshal, the beautiful wife of Fuji music maestro, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, on Saturday expressed happiness over the conferment of the MON national award on his husband.

The eversmiling Mrs Marshal congratulated her husband in a Facebook post saying it’s “A well-deserved honour to the Doyen of Music”

KWAM1, as the musician is popularly known, was listed alongside other 437 prominent Nigerians nominated for the nation’s National Honours Awards 2022.

President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the conferment of the MON award on the music legend in a NATIONAL AWARD LETTER with Ref. FMDIGA/NHA/001/T/98, dated 7th October 2022 and signed by the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Government Affairs, Sen. George Akume.

The letter also stated that the investiture ceremony of the award is scheduled to take place at the International Conference Center, ICC, Abuja on Tuesday, 11th October 2022.

Mrs Marshal, in her reaction to the honour, congratulated her husband on her Facebook page.

She wrote, “A well-deserved honour to the Doyen of Music my darling husband @kingwasiuayindemarshal

“CONGRATULATIONS Olasunkanmi mi.

“Still in the spirit of celebrating your 50years on stage and God added this again to your feathers “

Fuji Music Icon, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal Bags MON National Honours Award

By Lukman Omikunle

On July 7, 2022, Ayinde Marshal commenced an all-year-round celebration of his 50 years on stage

Fuji music icon, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, popularly known as K1 has been honoured with the award of Member of the order of the Niger (MON).

President Muhammadu Buhari approved the conferment of the MON national honours award on the fuji music legend.

This is made known in a letter conveying the award with Ref. FMDIGA/NHA/001/T/98, dated 7th October 2022 and signed by the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Government Affairs, Sen. George Akume.

In the letter titled 2022 NATIONAL HONOURS AWARD LETTER, Akume stated that the investiture ceremony of the award is scheduled to take place at the International Conference Center, ICC, Abuja on Tuesday, 11th October 2022.

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About Wasiu Ayinde Marshal

Wasiu Ayinde Olasunkanmi Marshal with the stage name K1 De Ultimate or KWAM1 was born in Agarawu, Lagos, Nigeria on March 3, 1957. He discovered his passion for music at the tender age of 8 and began pursuing it with determination despite his parents’ initial rejection of his choice career.

By the time he was 15, he had won various musical competitions and became an instrument packer for the legendary Fuji creator and his mentor, the late Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.

In 1979, K1 De Ultimate known as Wasiu Ayinde Barrister then released his first album ‘Abode Mecca’. The album shot K1 to prominence in the entertainment industry and instantly became a force to reckon with. The success of his first album attracted him to several recording companies but K1 opted to sign, on Baba Laje Records then.

He has been on top of the ladder since his breakthrough winning countless laurels home and abroad. It is not too much to put it that the global fuji music icon has undoubtedly carved a niche for himself in the music world and has, as well, etched his name and indelible mark on the sands of time.

On July 7, 2022, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal commenced an all-year-round celebration of his 50 years on stage to mark five decades of unblemished chains of feats recorded as a musician.

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