The Management of
Zinox Technologies Ltd. has given a seven-day deadline to the publishers of
Premium Times, an Abuja-based online daily, to retract what it described as a series
of defamatory publications against the company and its officials or face legal
action. The publications, Zinox said, consistently accused the company of
having cheated the Federal Government and a certain Mr. Benjamin Joseph and his
company, Citadel Oracle Concepts, with whom Zinox has never done any business.
Speaking in Lagos
on what he called the continued fabrication of lies against Zinox with
questionable intent, Gideon Ayogu, the company’s Head of Corporate
Communications, disclosed that the Zinox Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh, has never met
Mr. Benjamin Joseph, the Managing Director of Citadel Oracle Concepts, and that
neither Ekeh nor any other official of Zinox has had any form of business
transaction with the said company. According to him, “This raises questions on
the motive behind Premium Times’ continued campaign of calumny against Ekeh
which appears a cheap attempt at extortion.”
Challenging Premium
Times to publish any proof of transactions between Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd.
and Zinox or proof of any criminal charge against Ekeh, Zinox or any officials
of the company in relation to the said stories, Ayogu further disclosed that
there is no evidence of an indictment by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian Police
or any law enforcement agency against Ekeh or Zinox Technologies.
Ayogu stated that
Premium Times had enjoyed a holiday-of-sorts in their on-going smear campaign
against Ekeh chiefly because Joseph’s prosecution is pending before a competent
court of law and as a law-abiding corporate citizen, the Management of Zinox
wishes the law to have its course and does not intend to interfere with the
course of justice. He also cited “Ekeh’s well-known soft spot for the media as
a pioneer of digital publishing in West Africa with his first company, Task
Systems, which Premium Times seems to have mistaken for weakness.” Zinox, Ayogu
said, would rather focus on its mission of digital innovation than be
distracted by blackmail.
He said: “Upon
reading the first story written by Premium Times, the Management of Zinox
wanted to sue the medium and Citadel Oracle Concepts but the Chairman cautioned
that there was hunger in the land and that his checks on Mr. Joseph showed a
man desperate to make ends meet. Hence, we were advised not to waste our
time. Every other media organisation in Nigeria whom Joseph approached had
investigated his claims and found no iota of truth in them and as a result, had
refused to publish except Premium Times, a medium that is apparently in
partnership with him possibly for a destructive intent.
“I personally
called the writer, Bassey Udo, on two occasions and requested him to verify his
clams at the EFCC or Police Headquarters Abuja, or the Police Special Fraud
Unit (SFU) Ikoyi, but he was not interested and instead chose to keep putting
out one defamatory article after another based on fabricated stories handed
down to him by Mr. Joseph.
I made it clear to him that Ekeh will never part
with a kobo so he should stop wasting his time and degrading his publication.
As a civilised corporate citizen, we have taken this as a final responsible
step for Premium Times to make public any agreement, transaction or link
between Citadel Computers and Zinox Computers or any staff of Zinox computers
since Zinox was launched in 2010.
For instance, in their first publication,
Premium Times claimed that they saw bank documents which ‘showed transfers of
monies between FIRS account at CBN and the fake account as well as approvals by
top officials of Zinox Technologies for disbursements from the account to Zinox
bank account and those of the suspects.’
“We want to make it
clear that Zinox did not receive any such amount in any of its accounts, and
hereby challenge Premium Times to produce such document showing or bearing the
name of Zinox or the Zinox account.
“The on-going case
for which Joseph is currently being prosecuted is between Citadel Oracle
Concepts and another company which our Chairman has shares in. That company is
Technology Distributions (TD), the biggest ICT products distributor in
Sub-Saharan African representing major IT brands like HP, Lenovo, Dell,
Microsoft and many others. TD is a totally different company from Zinox with
different directors, shareholders, management team and a different line of
business and Zinox was not in any way involved in the transaction.
“It is important to
note that in the entire transaction leading up to this case, in all the above
investigations and reports, Zinox Technologies Ltd. was not in any way
involved. The transaction only involved Technology Distributions Ltd. and its
staff. Also, Leo Stan Ekeh was not involved in the said transaction and the
investigations.
It was only in the last petition to the EFCC that he was asked
to come because Benjamin Joseph mischievously mentioned his name in the
petition to the Vice President. But in all his subsequent sponsored
publications in the media (print and online), Benjamin Joseph targeted only
Zinox and Ekeh. Why? The answer is clear.
“Following from the
foregoing, it is clear that the purpose and objective of Joseph and Citadel
Oracle Concepts Ltd. is to attempt to persecute, harass and blackmail us into
agreeing with their unfounded claims, relying on the false information that the
Board Resolution was forged. This intention is proved by the robust publicity
they have given this case and castigating the person of our Chairman, Leo Stan
Ekeh, OFR.
“This is why in the
online publications, the photographs of Ekeh and no other person is displayed
and Zinox is used as the caption, even when the company has no bearing with the
story. This is blackmail. There is no other explanation for this other than
blackmail.
“Citadel Oracle
Concept Limited was one of the many IT resellers awarded a contract to supply
HP laptops at FIRS in 2012 but had no funds to execute it and like few others,
had approached TD who are authorised HP distributors in Nigeria with the help
of his consultant Princess Kama whose Uncle, Chief Onny Igbokwe has been a long
term reseller of TD to assist in supplying the laptops at a pre-agreed invoice
value. Our investigations showed that his representative, Princess Kama had
previously executed several other bids on his behalf. We also have a copy of
a Letter of Authority which Joseph issued to FIRS with copies of his
international passport accepting the contract and appointing Princess Kama as
his authorised representative to handle the transaction. This is verifiable at
FIRS.
“In view of
previous bad experience and in order to avoid exposing the business to bad
loans, TD had nominated its staff – Mr. Chris Eze Ozims and Mrs. Shade Oyebode
– to be signatories to an account opened for the purpose of disbursement of
funds as regards the contract, solely as security for the laptops supplied on
credit. Upon payment of the sum for the contract, TD had gone ahead to
deduct the invoiced sum of the supplied laptops and had its staff resigned as
signatories to the account.”
Continuing, Ayogu
disclosed that “after a disagreement between Joseph and his representative,
Princess Kama, over the sharing of the proceeds, Mr. Joseph reported to Chief
Afe Babalola Chambers that his company was used to defraud the FIRS by Princess
Kama and her allies and that the laptops were not supplied. When the lady
narrated the true story with documentary proof including a letter of authority
signed by him, he withdrew from Afe Babalola Chambers and petitioned the EFCC,
Lagos, which investigated and saw no merit in his complaint.
He then lodged
another complaint with Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police, Ikoyi
and told same lies, alleging that his signature on the board resolution to open
the account at Access Bank was forged.”
Narrating what
happened thereafter, Ayogu said: “The SFU launched an investigation at FIRS
offices and confirmed that the laptops were supplied with serial numbers
intact. However, since the crux of the matter was the denial by Joseph of not
signing the Board Resolution to open the account with which the FIRS remitted
payment for the supplied HP laptops, of which Mr. Ozims and Mrs. Oyebode were
signatories on behalf of TD, the Police sent the documents for forensic
analysis to determine its veracity.
The evidence proved that the documents were
not forged, and were actually signed by him. Hence, the warrants of arrest the
Police had issued against Mr. Ozims (a First Class lawyer and Company Secretary
of TD) and Mrs. Oyebode (a Chartered Accountant and Executive Director of TD)
based on Joseph’s complaints were made on misleading information and ought not
to have been issued.
“After a few
months, he wrote the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)
laying same claims against Princess Kama and TD without informing the DIG that
he had earlier reported to the EFCC and SFU, Lagos. The Police again launched a
nationwide investigation which confirmed all items supplied with serial
numbers. When the Police Headquarters discovered that Joseph has wasted their
time and limited resources on a false claim, the Inspector General of Police
arraigned him for deceit and false petitioning at an Abuja court under Charge
Number CR/216/16 at the FCT High Court.
“Upon inauguration
of the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Joseph again wrote the
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) that his company was used to defraud the
Federal Government of over N200m, and that no laptops were supplied to the
FIRS. The VP minuted to the EFCC Chairman. The Procurement Fraud Unit of the
EFCC again investigated and found every item supplied and FIRS showed all
products supplied with serial numbers nationwide.
It was at this point that he
partnered with Premium Times to launch a media blackmail against our Chairman,
Ekeh, and Zinox which had no links to the matter on ground, probably with an
intent at extortion.
“What we found
funny while this prolonged attempt at extortion was going on were several calls
by faceless numbers to our Chairman requesting him to try and resolve this
issue with huge sums of money to save his hard-earned name and that of Zinox.
These calls only ceased after he warned the callers that he will track and
unearth their identity with digital satellites and report them to the
appropriate authorities.
“In conclusion, why
is Premium Times which is headquartered in Abuja not able to walk into the
offices of the EFCC, Police Headquarters, Abuja, the FIRS and Attorney
General’s Office and confirm the claim of their partner, Joseph. We have
received several appeals from some industry practitioners to discontinue the
criminal prosecution of Joseph at an Abuja court under Charge Number CR/216/16,
we wish to inform them that we did not sue Mr. Joseph as it was the Police that
charged him for misleading them, and we would not wish to waste our resources
on a man that we do not know. It is for the court to determine if he is
innocent or not, and not for Premium Times to embark on a media trial of the
case.”
•Source: News Express.
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