Chairman of United Bank for Africa and Heirs Holdings Ltd, Mr. Tony Elumelu, has denied involvement in the alleged N41 billion fraudulent deal involving the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Telecommunication Company (NITEL).
He has therefore issued a seven-day ultimatum to Senator Ayo Akinyelure to retract a statement credited to him linking him (Elumelu) and his bank to the alleged fraudulent deal, failing which his lawyers will commence legal actions against him.
Akinyelure, who also is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public petition told journalists last Tuesday that UBA fraudulently withdrew N41 billion that liquidators of the NITEL deposited in the bank.
The alleged fraud, which he said, occurred when Elumelu was the managing director of UBA, was based on petitions by J .U Ayogu and Co, on behalf of NITEL/MTEL. It claimed that UBA defrauded NITEL of about N41 billion from N42 billion that its liquidators deposited in the bank after being sold to MTEL.
According to the petition cited by the lawmaker, UBA made various unauthorized withdrawals of N29 billion, N11 billion, N6.8 million and N22 million between 2006 and 2015 from the accounts without relevant tickets.
Akinyelure said: “A human rights lawyer had sent a petition on behalf of the liquidators and creditors of NITEL and MTEL, that if the N685million is a subject of litigation, there is a third account meant for taxation and disasters which has N169million.
“It was also unilaterally withdrawn by the UBA. Seven years after the withdrawal, they’ve not provided the tickets, instead, they were asking the liquidators to get the tickets from the dead liquidators, which is wrong. They had yet to provide the tickets.
“In another account which had N29 billion, UBA also unilaterally withdrew the money from NITEL accounts without authorisation tickets. Most of the creditors of NITEL have sued the liquidators that they’ve collected money from the UBA without paying them. There is another MTEL account N11 billion withdrawn by the UBA and it has not been accounted for till today.
“The creditors don’t have money to go to court because they are already bankrupt. They sued UBA over the N685million and they won at the Federal High Court, Appeal Court and the Supreme Court. Up till today, they didn’t respect the court judgement by not paying the liquidators”, the petitioner alleged.
But Elumelu’s lawyers, Lawal Rabana and Kemi Balogun, described the allegations as “baseless”, saying neither Elumelu nor any of the organisations associated with him has ever been involved in or indicted for any fraud.
The lawyers noted that when the UBA appeared before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, they had drawn their attention to the fact that the circumstances leading to the disputes on the alleged financial indebtedness was pending before the Supreme Court.
“We write on behalf of Mr.Tony O.Elumelu, CON (our Client) whose attention has been drawn to several false online publications credited to Senator Ayo Akinyelure, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions alleging the involvement of UBA and indictment of Mr. Elumelu in an N41 billion fraud relating to NITEL in liquidation.
“Our Client is also alarmed and appalled by this deliberate peddling of falsehood and misinformation against an unblemished personal and business reputation, painstakingly built by our Client over several decades with great personal sacrifice and unquestionable integrity.
“Our Client rejects Senator Akinyelure’s attempt to use the platform of the respected institution of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to accomplish whatever ulterior motives he may have.
“It was resolved that given the pendency of the matter at the Supreme Court, it was sub-judice and all actions on the matter be suspended. It is shocking and sacrilegious that a matter pending at the Apex Court could be subjected to debate contrary to the Rules of the Senate and by extension, the principle of law that when a matter is sub-judice, it should not be subjected to debate before a decision is reached by the Court.
“Therefore, the publications ascribed to Senator Ayo Akinyelure are in total disregard of the Rules of the Senate and the Rule of Law.
The lawyers have given Akinyelure seven days to retract his comments linking him Elumelu to the fraud and vowed to sue him, should he fail to retract the statement and publicly apologise to the UBA Chair.