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Business

SEC withdraws from Stanbic IBTC’s N20.4b Rights Issue

Published

9 years ago

September 10, 2015

Sahara Weekly

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Tuesday, withdrew its earlier approval for the proposed N20.4 billion rights issue of Stanbic IBTC Holding Company Plc in view of the notice of an investigation into allegations of financial impropriety by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) on the group’s financial statements. The SEC stated categorically that the rights issue exercise had been suspended until proper resolution of issues raised. Proceeds of the offer, the bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Arthur Oginga, had told investors recently, is to help Stanbic IBTC to “maintain adequate capital.” However, the SEC informed the investing public, particularly the shareholders of Stanbic IBTC, to beware of the proposed rights, in view of letters received from the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as the FRC. Reacting to the suspension in a two-paragraph statement, also on Tuesday, the management of Stanbic IBTC noted the suspension, promising that it would “continue to engage with the relevant regulatory bodies to ensure that these enquiries are addressed. Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, the banking subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, remains well capitalised and has sufficient liquidity.” Specifically, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive (FRC), Jim Obazee, who spoke after a meeting with the Director-General (NOTAP), Dan-Azumi Ibrahim, in Abuja, said the move was in response to a petition written by shareholders of the bank, which drew the attention of regulatory authorities to some unapproved transactions allegedly conducted by the bank with its foreign technical partners. In the petition, members of Trusted Shareholders Association alleged that tens of billions of naira were yet to be returned to the profit and loss account of Stanbic IBTC Bank. Based on preliminary discussions with both parties, Obazee said that the council realised that the petitioners had a valid case. Obazee said: “The petition from the stakeholders of Stanbic IBTC is on issues relating to Stanbic IBTC and the way they have been accruing some monies in their account. “And if you accrue money in your account… well there is nothing wrong with accrued monies…, but it must be disclosed properly. “Now they said the accruals were requiring the NOTAP approvals before they can make those payments. Now the person petitioning is saying that there is no need making those accruals, because Stanbic IBTC has not been able to secure NOTAP approval. “The petitions kept coming and then we invited Stanbic IBC to hear their side in the matter. And listening to their side of the story, we believe that the petitioners have a good case. “So, our next step is to look at the agencies that were duly involved. The NOTAP itself which will give the approval; this applies to the Central Bank of Nigeria as regulator and Securities and Exchange Commission, because they were asking for general mandate for the treatment of third-party transactions, which we were against because that will not be in line with related party transactions accounting standards. “We are here to also find out if the NOTAP approved any of these payments such as historical fees. We are looking at transactions from 2011 to date. “If they didn’t get approval for 2011 fees, didn’t get for 2012, 2013 and 2014, so why are they keeping these monies?” He said the FRC would also be visiting the top management of the SEC as part of its investigation on the matter, noting that after all the visitations, officials of the bank would again be invited for questioning. He also said that apart from the protection of the rights of shareholders, the agency was interested in the case because the Federal Government might have lost huge revenue from taxes if the bank was actually making the deductions from profit before tax without necessary approvals from the NOTAP. He said: “The other party that is part of this entanglement is the SEC. We intend to immediately put a call to them to stand down on whatever rights issue request that Stanbic IBTC is making in a hurry until this matter is resolved properly; this is because our jobs as government agencies is to protect investors and other stakeholders’ interest. “Government is also involved in this matter because if you are taking out some money out of profit before tax, and you are warehousing it for a number of years, you are actually defrauding the Federal Government because the government is supposed to have taxes from the profit. But if you are keeping money from profits before tax, it means that that money was taken off and government was denied its share. “So, government is losing out on it, and we want to straighten it out. We want to know if it wasn’t reported correctly in the financial statement. Otherwise, they will be subjected to the FRC disciplinary procedure. We can even ask them to withdraw the financial statement and reissue it.” Also commenting on the issue, Ibrahim said that no approval was granted by the agency to the bank for the transaction, following which it would be wrong of the bank to make any payment to its foreign partners for franchise. In his words: “We regulate the inflow of foreign technology into the country and at the same time develop local technology. “Well, the NOTAP is expected to register Stanbic IBTC with its foreign partner and we have a guideline on how we do our registration. We are guided by the forex manual of the CBN. “So whatever is not covered by the manual, we don’t approve. So, Stanbic IBTC applied for a franchising agreement, management fee agreement and we still did not render them that approval because management service agreement is not required in Nigeria. We have local firms that have this.”

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Business

Dangote crashes Diesel price to N1,000 per litre

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Dangote reacts to EFCC’s visit to its Headquarters

Dangote crashes Diesel price to N1,000 per litre

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In an unprecedented move, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced a further reduction of the price of diesel from 1200 to 1,000 naira per litre.

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While rolling out the products, the refinery supplied at a substantially reduced price of N1,200 per litre three weeks ago, representing over 30 per cent reduction from the previous market price of about N1,600 per litre.

This significant reduction in the price of diesel, at Dangote Petroleum Refinery, is expected to positively affect all the spheres of the economy and ultimately reduce the high inflation rate in the country.

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brands/telecom

Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, Others Are Purveyors of falsehood Says AAS Legal Team As Jesam Micheal Exposes Their Sponsors (Video)

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, Others Are Purveyors of falsehood Says AAS Legal Team As Jesam Micheal Exposes Their Sponsors (Video)

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The lawyers of Afriq Arbitrage System, Barr. Obeten and Barr. Henry have called out the Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance led by Comrade Okpanachi Jacob as Purveyors of falsehood.

This is not unconnected to their ungodly collaboration with individuals like Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh, Okoi Daniels, Engineer Awajioma who have been slammed with a ten million dollar Lawsuit for nefarious activities to injure the longstanding reputation the organisation has maintained on charges bothering on cyber bullying, attempt to life and property, lies and unlawful incitement and instigation against the CEO of the company , Jesam Micheal, his family and organisation.

In a global conference on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024, the legal representatives described their actions as inappropriate, unfounded and a campaign of calumny to malign the integrity of the organisation and management.

According to Barr. Obeten the matter is in court and the security agencies have picked Abayomi Olusesan who has admitted to committing the heinous crime of stealing investors funds to the tune of $87m. So why accuse the CEO, Jesam Micheal of defrauding the company of the said amount?

Speaking further, Barr Henry reiterated their stand to take legal actions against the group for being biassed despite knowing the truth and for misleading the general public by allowing themselves to be used by agents of falsehood.

In conclusion, the CEO of Afriq Arbitrage System, Jesam Micheal wondered why a reputable group like CCSGG could be used by Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh and others. He showcased the official court documents which confirmed that Abayomi admitted stealing the investors fund to the tune of $87m which he said was also captured in video evidence. He revealed that some of the properties he bought with part of the money has been collected, remaining the main money which he promised to return to the company. However, after being granted bail, he reneged on his promises and was picked up again by the relevant authorities.

Sadly, his cohorts, Prince Humble who is not even an investors connived with MICHEAL OKOH, PRINCE HUMBLE ETENG,OKOI DENOCK, TOCHUKWU NWOYE, DINGCHI YARLING, Engineer Awajioma and Others to fabricate all sorts of lies against Jesam and AAS.

” We will not take the laws into our hands but they should be ready to face the wrath of the law of the land. These are the same people who dragged us to the security agencies and when we got there with facts they ran away and became fugitives, Out of frustrations, they devised a kangaroo world press conference to disseminate all manners of fabricated lies and deceits”

Watch

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Business

Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Jesam Micheal, the Rise of the Moon Among Stars, A Game Changer By Femi Oyewale

Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)

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The board of directors of Afriq Arbitrage Systems after an emergency meeting condemned in strong terms the attitudes of Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh, Okoi Daniels, Engineer Awajioma and others about their nefarious activities to injure the longstanding reputation the organisation has maintained and in a final resolution, resolved that the above parties be sued for defamation and has slammed a ten million dollar lawsuit with a suit number w/2011/2024 against them at the High court of the Federal capital territory in the Abuja judicial division on Monday, April 15th, 2024 on charges bothering on cyber bullying, attempt to life and property, lies and unlawful incitement and instigation against the CEO of the company , Jesam Micheal, his family and organisation.

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In the lawsuit through the legal representation of Jesam Michael and AAS by Barrister Ovat the service required the defendants to appear In court within 14 days, else judgement will be issued against them in absentia.

It would be recalled that few days after series of cyber bullying against the CEO of Afriq Arbitrage System, Jesam Micheal and his Family by MICHEAL OKOH, PRINCE HUMBLE ETENG,OKOI DENOCK in collaboration with one TOCHUKWU NWOYE, DINGCHI YARLING, Godwin, Benjamin Uwanga and Findins, Jesam escaped assassination attempt as gunmen numbering over ten, armed with sophisticated weapons invaded his lounge in Lagos seeking for him.

Information available to us revealed that when the hardened criminals invaded the lounge on Friday, April 5th, 2024 where Jesam was billed to address his workers, they were demanding for him and when they learnt he couldn’t make the meeting as expected, they descended on the staff and customers threatening to kill them in his stead. They also went away with the company’s properties such as laptops, equipment and gadgets of staffers and customers.

Micheal Okoh who has been ranting on Social media against the CEO of Afriq Arbiritage System has been exposed along with Prince Humble Eteng, Okoi Denock as partners in crime with Abayomi oluwasesan who is in prison for defrauding the financial platform to the tune of $87 million dollars

According to reports, Micheal Okoh is an investor in AAS who has benefited from the scheme and has withdrawn over three thousand dollars which he never disclosed to his gullible followers until the evidence was uncovered and exposed to the community.

Aside from that, information revealed that Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble And Okoi Denock have been working in tandem with Abayomi in plotting the loot from AAS and threatening the life of Jesam Michael and his family. In a series of life threatening messages the plotters swear to eliminate him and his family for standing on the path of truth, justice and for arresting Abayomi in recovering the loot. Also, these revelations are not unconnected to the fact that these people engineered Abayomi not to return investors money back to the community.

However, the long arm of the law will soon reach them as Abayomi who has willingly confessed to the heinous crime he committed to the company is arrested and taken to court where he is Remanded and Micheal Okoh and his cohorts we learnt are also on the radar of the security operatives for collaboration and cyber bullying.

Sadly, the threat to life of the CEO and his family by these people should not be taken lightly as just as Mr Micheal Okoh said in his video that he will bring him down, same day, gunmen were sent to invade AAS lounge on the same day he was to address his workers for the year.

According to the security officer of the company, the ugly incident has never happened before on any of their investments until this brazen threats from Mr Okoh and others.

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