The chairman of Access Bank PLC, one of Nigeria’s biggest
lenders, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, has been accused of fraudulently taking over
the share certificates of a major shareholder of the bank.
According to a document made available to Secret Reporters,
Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya’s late father was a foundation shareholder, Director and
Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Access Bank as well as the
Chairman/Chief Executive of Wemy Industries Limited.
The document revealed how Access Bank PLC allegedly obtained the share certificates of the late father of one Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya in respect of his Shareholding in the Bank in 2002 based on a purported directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, thereby making him to suffer losses in terms of dividends, bonuses and profit, to the tune of four hundred and ninety-four million, nine hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight naira, thirty-five kobo (N494,913,658.35). According to the document, Odunaiya’s late father was a foundation shareholder, and Director and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Access Bank as well as the Chairman/Chief Executive of Wemy Industries Limited.
The document stated that sometime in 2002, at a Board meeting
of the bank, the bank’s Managing Director at that time, Mr. Aigboje
Aig-Imokhuede, verbally informed Odunaiya’s late father and all the sitting
Directors of the bank that there was a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive
requesting all sitting directors, who had loan exposures to the banks of which
they were directors, to deposit their share certificates in respect of their
shares in the said banks. It was stated that at the said meeting, the then
Managing Director, Aig-Imokhuede, did not provide any of the directors, with
either a hard or soft copy of the purported CBN directive requesting them (the
directors) to deposit their share certificates with the bank. Records have it
that at the time, Wemy Industries Ltd, which had majority shareholding, was
exposed to the bank in respect of a term loan which had been taken years
earlier. In his reaction to the development, Odunaiya’s late father was puzzled
about this purported directive of the CBN because in his own case, his
company’s exposure to the bank was fully over-secured with his company’s
factory mortgage pledged to the bank and duly perfected with a market value of
over N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) and there was also, in
addition, a fixed and floating debenture on the company’s assets estimated at
over N230,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Thirty Million Naira) as at 2005 when the
loan exposure to the bank was just N60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira), and by
August,2005, the said exposure of N6 0,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira) had even
been fully liquidated. He, however, in line with the directive, deposited his
share certificates covering 4.7 million units of shares in the bank (Access
Bank), to the bank through the said Managing Director and this figure was
consolidated to become 100million units vis-a-vis an increase of 52.5 million
units by the 6th of September, 2002. In November 2003, Odunaiya’s late father
voluntarily resigned as a member of the Board of Access Bank in order to free
himself from the purported CBN directive so as to be able to retrieve his
shares.
Two years after his exit from the bank, he wrote a letter to
the bank dated August 11, 2005, demanding, for the release of his shares since
he was no longer a director of the bank and was therefore no longer bound by
the purported CBN directive and in any event, the outstanding, loan granted to
his company in the sum of N60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira) had by then been
fully liquidated. It was gathered that between 2005 and 2008, the bank
unlawfully held on to his shares and coerced him into allowing them to retain
the shares as further collateral security for other various loan facilities
that were subsequently taken by his company, even when it was no longer necessary
to hold on to the shares as collateral security because, not only was he no
longer a Director of the Bank, the said loan facilities taken by his company
from time to time between that period, were fully covered by the said perfected
mortgage of the factory, to the tune of over N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred
Million Naira) in addition to the fixed and floating debenture on the company’s
assets estimated at over N230,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Thirty Million Naira)
which was duly and legally perfected. The said Stockbrokers, Messrs Surport
Services Limited, in a letter dated 7th October, 2005 told him that carrying
out his mandate was not possible since he could not succeed in obtaining his
Share Certificates from the bank and divesting from same.
In a lettered message on 27th May, 2015, he notified the bank
that his company had since fully repaid the loan and that his share
certificates should be released. The bank was said to have acknowledged the
full repayment of the said loan by its letter dated 23June, 2015 but the bank
still failed and/or refused to release the said shares.
Remarkably, reacting to his enquiry, the CBN in a letter dated
8th June, 2018 stated that it did not have any record of having issued any such
directive requesting directors whose companies or themselves were exposed to
the Bank in which they were directors or shareholders to deposit their shares
with the bank. He also uncovered how the bank fraudulently dealt with his
shares over the years in proportions that are so unbelievably large and has in
the process deprived him of legitimate earnings by those shares. It was
gathered that the bank, at different times, had under this guise subsequently
dealt in and transacted with the Odunaiya’s father shares in the Bank. “Some of
the documents show that some of his father’s shares were sold to companies
belonging to, or in which, the bank’s former Managing Director’s proxy was or/
and is a shareholder such as Marina Securities and Coronation Securities
Limited”. In the document which was authorized by Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya, he
contended that had the bank released his father’s Share Certificates in its
custody when he demanded for same in 2005, and he had sold same for investment
in Treasury Bills as intended, the net proceeds he would have made from the
sale of the 169,312,169 units of shares at the price of N2.99 per share as at
September 12, 2005 would have been in the sum of N494,913,658.35 (four hundred
and ninety-four million, nine hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight
naira, thirty-five kobo). Odunaiya stated that as at March 31, 2019, his
father’s shareholding in Access Bank Plc was in the total volume of 112,644,061
(one hundred and twelve, six hundred and forty-four thousand and sixty-one)
units of shares. He, however, admitted to have received the sum of Eighteen
Million, Six Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, One Hundred (N18,623,155.53).
Effort by NATIONAL WAVES to make Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede
react to the allegations was unsuccessful as his media consultant, Ayo Aminu,
who was contacted via phone call was on a flight that was about to take off and
promised to call back after alighting from the aircraft. As at the time of
filing this report, he was yet to get back to NATIONAL WAVES over our
inquiries.
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