Zinox Technologies Limited has given a seven-day deadline to the publishers
of Premium Times, a local online publication to retract a series of defamatory
publications against the company and its officials or face a legal action, reports ITRealms.
Head, Corporate Communications at Zinox, Gideon Ayogu, disclosed this to ITRealms quoting the Zinox Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh as saying insisting he never met with Mr. Benjamin Joseph,
the Managing Director of Citadel Oracle Concepts and that neither Ekeh or 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), 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.
Also, 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. In his view,
Zinox would rather focus on its mission of digital innovation than be
distracted by blackmail.
“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 organization 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 civilized 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 authorized 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 authorized
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 who 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.
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.”
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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