Recently, the Innoson/GTBank
story has gained so much media prominence, especially following the arrest of
the Innonson chairman a few days ago by EFCC. Though the case is pending in
court, Innoson has taken the battle to social media.
There have been numerous
sponsored social media campaigns against the Bank such as #BewareOfGTBank and
#WhatIsWrongWithGTBank. The company has also gone Television, with its owner,
Dr Innocent Chukwuma granting an interview to TVC, where he claimed he had
obtained a judgement of N8bn against the bank. He added that the bank pleaded
with him over their inability to pay, and that he graciously offered to accept
shares of the bank as payment.
GTBank on their part has chosen
to remain silent on the matter, perhaps trusting in the integrity of the legal
system as against playing to the gallery. Many attempts by us to get the bank’s
representatives to comment on the story has proven abortive. A staff of the
bank who spoke under anonymity, stated “Irrespective of the issues we are
facing with the company, Innoson remains a customer of the bank and we owe him
a duty of confidentiality and to conduct ourselves in a responsible manner
towards him”. This statement didn’t stop us from conducting our own
investigations on the matter, and below are our findings, put in bullet points
for your optimum understanding.
The obvious:
Innoson is, and still remains, a
customer of GTBank.
What we discovered:
1. GTBank (in 2009) granted
Innoson several credit facilities (i.e loans) totalling N2,400,000,000,00 (two
billion, four hundred million Naira only), to part finance working capital
requirements, import new motorcycles and motorcycle spare parts, agricultural
spare parts and plastic manufacturing equipment (“Imported Goods”).
2. Under the loan terms agreed by
Dr. Innocent Chukwuma on behalf of Innoson, proprietary interest in the
Imported Goods was consigned exclusively in favour of the Bank. This means that
the Bank was the exclusive owner of the Imported Goods. Accordingly, the
original shipping documents (i.e. the Bills of Lading) were in the custody of
the Bank, and have remained in the custody of the Bank at all times.
3. Because GTBank was the
exclusive owner of the imported goods, ownership of the goods could only be
transferred to Innoson (or any other third party) by the Bank. The condition in
the agreement between the Bank and Innoson, for the release of the Imported
Goods by the Bank to Innoson, was the payment of 25% of the value of each
Letter of Credit transaction by Innoson.
What we learnt:
1. Innocent Chukwuma approached
the Bank, on behalf of Innoson, requesting the release of the shipping
documents without payment of the agreed+ 25% equity. The Bank declined his
request as a result of Innoson’s failure to meet the agreed conditions.
2. It came to the Bank’s
knowledge sometime in June, 2011 that the Imported Goods for which the Bank
declined to release shipping documents to Innoson in view of its failure to
meet the agreed conditions, had been fraudulently procured by Innoson.
3. The Bank discovered that
Innoson, under the control of Dr. Innocent Chukwuma had forged the Bank’s
endorsement on the bills of lading to the Shipping Line and fraudulently
cleared the Imported Goods which were in the name of the Bank. The Imported
Goods, being property of the Bank should not have been cleared from the Port
without the original shipping documents being endorsed by the Bank in favour of
Innoson, or any third party.
4. The signatures of 4 (four)
staff of the Bank, to wit, Taofeek Olalere, Dan Attah, Bunmi Adeyemi and Amazu
Amalachukwu, as well as the Bank’s stamp were forged on all the shipping
documents used by Innoson to fraudulently clear goods at the port. The Bank did
not at any time endorse or transfer the shipping documents to Innoson, as the
originals of each of the relevant Bill of Lading remain in the Bank’s custody
to this very day.
5. When the Bank reported the
matter to the Nigeria Police, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma claimed the Bank released
the shipping documents to him. Consequently, the Police commenced investigation
into the Bank’s complaint, including a forensic examination of the disputed
signatures, and established that the signatures of the Bank’s staff were
forged, and the Imported Goods were fraudulently cleared from the Nigerian
Ports Authority by Dr. Innocent Chukwuma and his accomplices.
What we heard from the Police:
1. Police investigations confirmed
that Innoson and Dr. Innocent Chukwuma deliberately set out to defraud, steal
from the Bank and convert the Imported Goods belonging to the Bank by deceptive
means and through forgery and misrepresentation. The unlawful takeover of the
Imported Goods, which served as the Bank’s collateral, left an indebtedness in
excess of the sum of N1,654,481,895.04 (one billion, six hundred and fifty four
million, four hundred and eighty one thousand, eight hundred and ninety five
Naira, four Kobo) as at September 26, 2012.
2. Chief Innocent Chukwuma was
arrested and interrogated by operatives of the EFCC, following which he agreed
to make monthly payments into Innoson’s account until the full liquidation of
Innoson’s indebtedness to the Bank. However, Innoson defaulted in making the
agreed payments. Investigations by the Nigeria Police following a petition by
the Bank in September 2013 also found Innoson and Chief Innocent Chukwuma
culpable of the criminal allegations levied against them by the Bank, and Chief
Innocent Chukwuma was accordingly charged to court by the Police.
3. The Police filed Charge No.
FHC/L/565C/2015-Inspector General Of Police And Innoson Nigeria Limited;
Innocent Chukwuma;Charles Chukwuma;Maximian Chukwura; Mitsui Osk Lines;
Annajekwu Sunny for fraudulent clearance of goods, forgery, conversion,
stealing and conspiracy presently pending before Faji J, at the Federal High
Court, Ikoyi and adjourned to November 21, 2017 for arraignment/or hearing of
motion for issuance of Bench Warrant.
What Innoson did:
1. Innoson approached the Bank
for a reconciliation of his account and pleaded for a debt forgiveness. A
reconciliation was carried out on the account – which had a debit balance of
N1,654,481,895.04 as at December 31, 2011. In the spirit of amicable resolution
and EFCC intervention, the Bank said it agreed to forego the sum of
N559,374,072.09 which represented default charges that has accrued on the
account and debited in line with the loan agreement between the customer and
the Bank.
2. Based on this, the Bank
decided to accept from the customer, the sum of N1,095,107,822.95 as full and
final payment of the customer’s indebtedness to the Bank, provided that same
shall be fully paid not later than (30) days from the date of the letter
written to him.
3. Surprisingly, Innoson
commenced suit no:FHC/AWK/CS/2012 against the Bank at the Federal High Court,
Awka stating the bank had debited its account with excess charges totalling
N559,374,072.09 and obtained judgement in excess of N4.7Billion against the
Bank. Again choosing to dishonour an agreement that was amicable reached
between him and the Bank for a full and final settlement of N1,095,107,822.95
wherein the Bank graciously forgave him the sum of N559,374,072.09 which
accrued on his account during the period which he abandoned his account.
4. To further stall the criminal
proceedings against him, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and his company instituted
suits at the Federal High Court, Abuja, as well as the Federal High Court, Awka
in January 2014 against The Inspector General of Police, The Nigeria Police
Force and Investigating Officer(s), seeking declaratory and injunctive reliefs,
including orders restraining the Police from commencing criminal proceedings
against Innoson and Chief Innocent Chukwuma.
Furthermore, in a bid to stall
the Bank’s recovery steps, and distract the Bank from focusing on the criminal
action, as well as civil actions filed for recovery of the debt, Chief Innocent
Chukwuma and his company Innoson, have continued to institute various spurious
suits before various courts, claiming frivolous and outrageous sums against the
Bank.
What GTBank is not saying:
1. In responding to Innoson’s
motion for a stay of criminal proceedings at the Court of Appeal, the
Honourable Justice J.S Ikyegh on September 17,2017 dismissed the motion for
being unmeritorious and ordered that proceeding in the criminal case against
Innson should proceed.
2. On October 12, 2017, the
Police through its Charge No. FHC/L/565C/2015- filed an application for the
issuance of bench warrant against Innocent Chukwuma; Charles Chukwuma and
Annajekwu Sunny for fraudulent clearance of goods, forgery, conversion,
stealing and conspiracy presently pending before Faji J, at the Federal High
Court, Ikoyi and adjourned to Decemeber 8, 2017 for arraignment/or hearing of motion.
What we think:
Innoson should stop trying to
play the underdog and simply resolve his issues through legal means or
arbitration. On Innoson playing the Igbo tribe card, this is not in good taste
in this moment in history. We are aware of GTBank’s strong position on unpaid
debts. We know GTBank has gone often several debtors of the bank irrespective
of who they are or where they come from. So why is Innoson’s matter now tribal?
Please, this makes no sense. Innoson and GTBank, resolve your issues privately
and let us all hear word.
Merry Christmas my people
James Osaremen
Lagos
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Your piece is just a side of a story. We'll wait to hear other parts when the court speaks. Thanks for the write up.
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Thank u for tell us that, by the time we hear from Innocent and Innoson, we will know whom to believer, a bird cannot fly with one wing,
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, it serves GT bank well. I'm happy about that. I opened a business account with GT Bank since 2009 or thereabout, mine is an enterprise (small scale business).I needed the bank to support my business on many occasions sometimes with only 250K, sometimes 1M but they turned me down. There were occasions I had LPO to supply office stuffs about 100K another time 500K but my one and only GT turned me down. Now compare to their deals with Innoson to the point they were willing to bear the risk of 500million while Innoson was expected to pay the balance...Hmmm. You see they looked down on sincere, small scale business man and refused to support me while they gave the big man Innoson all the support and yet he is not sincere. See the irony of life. Any way it is good for gt bank for being wicked to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your piece of the story not minding that it is biased especially your last paragraph.
ReplyDeletebut my question is in all this where did it concern EFCC. Are they now incharge of court cases?
i believe there are more than what you just said.
we are patiently waiting are events unfold.
Baresty, if it is Fraud, EFCC is involved. If you go up a bit you'll see that EFCC was involved and had questioned him before.
ReplyDeleteAnd you say the man is innocent? Omo he is a criminal. @Reno no wonder your principal @gej said stealing is not corruption. Baba fire abeg no place for criminals in nigeria
ReplyDeleteHow will EFCC not be involved if you forge signatures to clear goods that you consigned to someone who lent money to you. That is plain and simple, a crime and speaks a lot about the character of the person involved. Rather than people addressing that issue, they are asking what is EFCC's business. That is why Nigeria is the way it is. Did he or did he not present forged documents to collect goods that were consigned to the bank?? The offence of Forgery is a serious offence and does not have tribal marks.
ReplyDeleteWhen we hear from all parties the people's court will judge
ReplyDelete