EFCC Press Release
A witness in the ongoing trial of Mohammed Gobir today told the Lagos State
High Court sitting in Igbosere how the defendant defrauded
Afromedia Plc to the tune of over One billion Naira.
The witness, Akinola Onifade, the Group Chief Executive Officer of
Afromedia Plc was led in evidence by the prosecution
counsel, A.B.C. Ozioku.
Mohammed Gobir was arraigned on March 17, 2016, before Justice R.I.B
Adebiyi
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a 17 - count charge
bordering on stealing, forgery, and obtaining under false pretenses.
Upon his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and he was remanded in
prison custody pending hearing of his bail application. He was granted
bail in the sum N20,000,000 and two
sureties in like sum on March 22, 2016.
In his testimony today, Akinola identified the defendant as the same person
that was introduced to his company sometime in 2008 by their Placement
Consultants, Synergy Capital, as a person of means with a multi-billion Naira
investment in an Oil and Gas Institute.
Upon his introduction, Gobir made his way to becoming a Non-executive
Director on the Board of the Company. Gobir having satisfied himself
with operations of Afromedia, offered to fulfill his end of the
bargain by investing the sum of $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars)
into the company.
Before Gobir fulfilled his promise, the witness said that there was a
meltdown in the Stock Market between 2008 and 2009 and thus, Gobir
offered to assist the company by way of introducing foreign companies to
invest in Afromedia. When the company agreed to Gobir’s offer, he
requested for the sum of $1,000,000 as facilitation fee and business
expenses. The money was eventually released to him but after his trip
to UK which the company also paid for, Gobir did not bring any
investment. Akinola said the company even sponsored his trip to UK for holiday with his family.
The witness said at the time Gobir offered to invest the
$10,000,000 he warned the company not to tell Synergy Capital as
he does not want the transaction exposed. Gobir offered to give the
money directly to the witness, but Akinola declined and asked him
to transfer the money into Afromedia's GT Bank account in UK since he had much money abroad as he claimed.
Akinola said after they concluded verbal arrangements, himself and
Gobir took a trip to UK in order to finalise the transaction. On their
arrival
to the United Kingdom, Akinola said he heard Gobir saying over the
phone “you mean all my money”, and when he asked him what the call was
all about,
Gobir told him that there was a problem moving his money from UPS to
Natwest Bank in the UK, but that the matter would be resolved in few days.
Akinola said they were in UK for about one month and all Gobir
offered him was an email that purportedly emanated from a
company called Royal Dutch Exchange confirming the issue Gobir told
him earlier about the money.
Akinola,
narrating how Gobir serially defrauded Afromedia, told the court that
“after a while, Gobir approached me personally and said he wanted to
confide in me, that he had $250,000,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million
Dollars), GBP250,000,000
(Two Hundred and Fifty Million Pounds, and 250,000,000 Euros (Two Hundred
and
Fifty Million Euros) stashed in Natwest Bank United Kingdom and that
the monies were being held by the British Authorities over issues
concerning the source of the funds. He said that Royal Dutch Exchange
said there was a way to clear the money by way of obtaining a European
Union Waiver Certificate which would cost him a total sum of $3,800,000
(Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) out
of which Royal Dutch was willing to pay $2,000,000 and that he himself
could come up with $800,000. "He was asking us (Afromedia) to give him
$1,000,000. Afromedia eventually released the $1,000,000 to him after
which Gobir forwarded to me, a receipt and a copy of an EU
Waiver Certificate. At that point, Gobir promised that within one
week, the monies would be out”, the witness said.
He further disclosed that they were in UK for few more weeks and
nothing came up, so they came back to Nigeria.
Gobir requested for another $500,000 which the company transferred to
him through an account of Calibre Bureau de Change.
After this transaction, Gobir came back to Afromedia and told the CEO
that Natwest Bank had rejected the EU Waiver Certificate and that they
would only accept a Waiver Certificate from Bank of England. Afromedia
gave Gobir the sum of N245,000,000 (Two Hundred and Forty Five Million
Naira) only and another GBP280,000 (Two Hundred and Eighty Thousand
Pounds) in order to secure the Bank of England Waiver certificate.
“After Gobir collected all these monies, he disappeared. I had to
track him down at his residence where he told me another
story that he had a contract with the Oyo State government, that when
they pay him, he would pay back what he owes Afromedia”, Akinola lamented .
When matters got tough, the witness said that they had to petition
Gobir to EFCC.
After
Gobir was arrested by the EFCC, an agreement was extracted from him to
pay back 50 percent of the money collected from the witness within 30
days while the investigation into the transaction between Gobir and
Afromedia was still ongoing. Instead of coming up with the money, Gobir
started sponsoring newspaper publication publications, claiming he was
not owing Afromedia any penny.
The matter had been adjourned till 10, 11 and 12 May, 2012 for continuation of trial.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
9th May, 2016
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