A Federal High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja
has adjourned the case involving Benjamin Joseph, an Enugu indigene and
self-acclaimed Managing Director of an Ibadan-based company, Citadel Oracle
Concepts Ltd., who is alleged to have resorted to blackm
Justice U.P. Kekemeke of Court 14 FCT before
whom the case was brought adjourned it to April 27th 2017.
Joseph is currently standing trial before
the court on a one-count charge of “false petitioning” with intention of
misleading the Police over a case of identity theft, impersonation and criminal
conversion of contract after accusing Technology Distributions of conspiring
with the other officials to hijack a contract for the supply of HP laptops awarded
by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and defrauding the Federal
Government.
Interestingly, detailed investigations by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which conducted searches at
the FIRS office, and the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police confirmed
that the laptops were indeed supplied and receipted by the FIRS and their
serial numbers and actual users noted.
Joseph had subsequently embarked on a solo
media campaign on sensational online platform, Premium Times, after several
credible print and online media who investigated his claims and found them to
be unfounded refused to publish.
At the resumed hearing, Joseph’s defence
team led by K.S. Olutekumi had opposed the appearance of the Prosecution
counsel Simon Lough on the ground that the Attorney General’s office had taken
over the prosecution at the last adjourned date of December 7th 2016.
The Prosecution Counsel, citing the
Supreme Court decision in Marcel Nnakwe Vs. The State (2013) 18 NWLR, argued
that a party has the absolute right to choose the counsel to represent it and that,
since the case was instituted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the IGP
can choose its counsel.
The prosecutor further informed the court that he was
in possession of a letter by the Attorney General to the IGP informing the
police to continue with the prosecution of the accused person, Mr. Joseph.
In a brief ruling, the Judge, U.P.
Kekemeke of Court 14 FCT, upheld the submissions of the Police Prosecutor,
especially on the strength of the letter of the Attorney-General and Minister
of Justice of the Federation to the Inspector-General
of Police to continue with the prosecution. The honourable judge stated that
the accused person cannot choose his prosecutor. He finally ordered a
continuation of trial.
Mr. Joseph’s prosecution had risen from a
business transaction between Citadel Oracle Concept Limited and their appointed
representatives, Princess Kama and Chief Onny Igbokwe, when they won a contract
like several companies for the supply of HP laptops to the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS).
Having no funds to execute the contract,
his representatives had approached TD, an authorized HP distributor and the
biggest ICT distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa, to supply them the laptops on
credit pending payment by 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 resign as signatories to the account.
After a disagreement between Joseph and
his representatives over the sharing of the proceeds and having allegedly failed
with threats and blackmail attempts against the officials of Zinox and TD, with
a view to extortion, Mr. Joseph had petitioned the Police authorities that his
signature was forged to execute the contract.
Since the crux of the matter was the
denial by Mr. 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.
Based on the discovery that the said
documents were not forged and the computers were duly delivered to FIRS, the
Police charged Mr. Joseph to court with Charge Number CR/216/16 before the FCT
High Court, Abuja.
Under cross examination at the resumed
hearing, the Prosecution Witness 1, Princess Kama, reaffirmed that the
defendant accompanied her to submit the account opening package including the board
resolution at the Garki II branch of Access Bank Plc.
She stated that the
defendant was to have the benefit of one lot which is N5.7m but later insisted
on the profits and capital of the entire contract award as against their
earlier agreement. She informed the court that she is not a director or
shareholder of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd but had an authority letter to act
for the company in respect of the award with FIRS.
In an earlier hearing of the case before
the Court, Princess who said she refused to marry Joseph over 12 years ago when
he proposed to her when they were worshipping in same church, also confirmed
that she has been helping Joseph bid for contracts because of her expertise.
She had, therefore, expressed her pain and disappointment about Joseph’s
continued blackmail of the officers of Technology Distributions, knowing very
well that without the support of TD, they wouldn’t have executed the contract. More
bewildering is his continued media campaign against Zinox Technologies Limited
and its Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh, neither of whom was in any way connected with
the transaction leading to the proceedings.
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