The former Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke said
something startling yesterday at the campaign reception for Mr. Goddy
Jedy Agba in Calabar.
In an uncharacteristic bluntness, Donald Duke said there are only two
monkeys in Cross River State. He revealed these two monkeys to be two
companies. These two companies are namely SERMATECH and LILLEKER.
These two companies are the companies that the Government of the
Cross River State has been awarding all important contracts to since
Governor Liyel Imoke became Governor of the State since 2007.
SERMATECH is a company belonging to the Brother of Mrs. Obioma Imoke,
the wife of Governor Liyel Imoke. Here is a case of likelihood of
nepotism and conflict of interest.
On the other hand, LILLEKER belongs to Gershom Bassey. All the
billion naira contracts of the Cross River State Water Board Limited are
awarded to Lilliker. There is therefore likelihood of conflict of
interest.
The Chairman of the Cross River State Water Board is Gershom Bassey.
He was appointed Chairman of Cross River State Water Board Limited in
1999. He has remained Chairman of Cross River State Water Board for 15
years.
This is despite the fact that the appointment of Gershom Bassey as
Chairman of Cross River State Water Board is patently illegal.
The Cross River State Water Board is a company incorporated under the
Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990. See Section 37 of the Companies
and Allied Matters Act (supra).
By virtue of its incorporation as a limited liability Company the
Cross River State Water Board Limited possess a corporate personality
which is distinct from its members and therefore can sue and be sued.
It is trite that the fundamental attribute of a corporate personality
is that the moment a company is incorporated it becomes a legal entity
distinct from its members or any other entity. This has been well
illustrated in the celebrated case of SOLOMON V. SOLOMON & CO. LTD
(1897) AC 22 where Lord McNaghten stated inter alia:
“A company is at law a different person altogether from its
shareholders. Although it may be that after the incorporation the
business is precisely the same as it was before and the same person are
managers; and the same hands receive the profit, the company is not in
law the agent of the subscribers or trustees for them……….”
This position was also upheld in the Nigerian case of MARINA NOMINEES
V. FBIR Ltd. (1986) 2 NWLR 48. This legal personality principle of a
company has actually been codified in Nigeria.
Section 37 Companies and Allied Matters Act (supra) provide thus: “As
from the date of incorporation mentioned in the certificate of
incorporation, the subscriber of the memorandum together with such other
persons as may, from time to time, become members of the company, shall
be a body corporate by the name contained in the memorandum, capable
forthwith of exercising all the powers and functions of an incorporated
company including the power to hold land, and having perpetual
succession and a common seal, but with such liability on the part of the
company in the event of its being wound up as is mentioned in this
Act”.
The fact that the Cross River State Water Board Limited is supposedly
a company belonging to Government of Cross River State does not mean it
is a department or appendage of the Government of Cross River State.
The Chairman of the Cross River State Water Board Limited by law is
required to be appointed by the annual General Meeting of the Cross
River State Water Board Limited but no such Annual General Meeting had
held since 1999 to the best of my knowledge.
It is a notorious fact by the provisions of the Companies and Allied
Matters Act (supra) the Chairman and other directors of the Cross River
State Water Board Limited can only be appointed or re-appointed at the
Annual General Meeting of the Company.
It goes without saying that the purported appointment of the
Chairman, Managing Director and Board of Directors of the Cross River
State Water Board Limited as appointed by the Government of Cross River
State is contrary to the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters
Act (supra) that regulates the affairs of the Company.
It is well settled that by virtue of Section 248 (1) of Companies and
Allied Matters Act (supra) the Chairman and indeed the Board of
Directors of the Cross River State Water Board Limited can only be
elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Company.
Section 248 (1) of Companies and Allied Matters Act (supra) provide
thus: “The members at the annual general meeting shall have power to
re-elect or reject directors and appoint new ones”.
It follows that Gershom Bassey has been illegally drawing salary,
entitlements and benefits as Chairman of Cross River State Water Board
since 1999.
I therefore urge Gershom Bassey to return to the coffers of the Cross
River State Water Board Limited all the salary, entitlements and
benefits he has collected from the Company since 1999 because he ought
not to have been appointed Chairman of the Company.
Last week the Supreme Court of Nigeria in a land mark judgment
nullified the membership of the Delta State House of Assembly
representing Ugheli North Constituency II, Mr. Edoja Akpodiete and
ordered him to within 90 days refund to the state coffers all the
salaries and allowances he had collected since he had been occupying the
seat since 2011.
The Supreme Court, through Honorable Justice Walter Samuel Nkanbu
Onnoghen, ordered, Edoja Rufus Akpodiete (2nd Respondent) thus: “The 1st
respondent is hereby ordered to issue the said appellant with a
certificate of return in respect of the said House of Assembly election
held on April 26, 2011.
“The 2nd respondent, Edoja Rufus Akpodiete, is hereby ordered to
vacate the seat of Ugelli North Constituency II in the Delta State House
of Assembly forthwith.
“It is further ordered that the said 2nd respondent, Edoja Rufus
Akpodiete, refunds to the coffers of the Delta State House of Assembly
all monies/sums of money he collected by way of salary, allowances
whatsoever and however described since he took his seat in the said
House of Assembly under the pretext of being the duly elected candidate
of the 4th respondent representing Ugheli North Constituency II, within
90 days of this order.”
It was the first time the Supreme Court would be ordering any person
to refund the money earned from office that he or she illegally
occupied. So based on this precedent set by the Supreme Court in
Akpodiete’s case, Gershom Bassey should do the same otherwise some
patriotic Cross Riverians will go to Court to compel him to return all
the salary, entitlements and benefits he has collected from the Company
since 1999.
Author: Posted by Admin Sahara
Saharareporters,
Extensive investigations by a team of Saharareporters’ correspondents
have revealed the shady role played by Mrs. Miriam Uwais as well as
Justice Emmanuel Ayoola to scuttle the money laundering and corruption
case against former Governor Donald Duke of Cross River State and his
wife, Onari. Mrs. Uwais, the wife of former Chief Justice of the
Federation, Mohammed Uwais, is fast emerging as “Abuja’s power lawyer,”
according to one of our sources, an agent with the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). She and her
husband were prominent players in the regime of former President of
Nigeria, Mr. Umaru Yar’adua. Former Chief Justice Uwais was Yar’adua’s
main man entrusted with the controversial task of “electoral reforms.”
ICPC agents interrogated Duke and his wife over what one agent
described as “their massive corrupt enrichment” during Duke’s tenure as a
two-term state governor.
Mrs. Uwais represented Donald Duke and his wife before the ICPC. One
agent familiar with the interrogation told Saharareporters that “Mrs.
Uwais used her powerful influence to ensure that Duke was never properly
interrogated even though the petitions against him are elaborate.” The
agent stated that “There’s avalanche of evidence indicting Duke for
corrupt enrichment.”
One of the petitions, published last October by Saharareporters,
detailed a variety of financial scams and money laundering activities by
the former flute playing “boyish governor”.
Duke’s ostensible “clearance” has further exposed the direction of
Yar’adua government’s so-called anti-corruption crusade and also the
underlying reason why the ICPC was never an effective anti-corruption
agency under Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, a retired Supreme Court judge who
has headed the ICPC for several years.
When Duke was first invited to appear before investigators at the
ICPC, he declined the invitation on the advice of his lawyer, Mrs.
Uwais. Our sources said she told the former governor to tarry a while
she worked on Justice Ayoola, the ICPC chairman and an old acquaintance
of the Uwais family.
She succeeded. When Duke and his wife eventually showed up before
ICPC agents, they had obtained unusually favorable terms of
interrogation brokered by the ICPC chairman. Our sources within the
commission disclosed that Justice Ayoola had specifically instructed
ICPC investigators “to treat Duke nicely.” Ayoola also ordered that Duke
and his wife be interrogated at an ICPC “safe house” in Abuja instead
of the interrogation rooms normally used for the interrogation of
suspected money launderers.
An agent told our correspondent that when Duke and his wife, Onari,
were driven to the safe house, Mrs. Uwais stood firmly between the Dukes
and agents, insisting that she witnesses the entire interrogation
session. After a prolonged argument, Mrs. Uwais grudgingly agreed to let
the agents do their job.
During several hours of questioning,
a flustered Duke admitted to stealing and money laundering, according
to one agent familiar with the session. “He pleaded with the agents to
let things die down since he had already left office and didn’t get
caught up in EFCC’s gale of indictments of former governors. He even
offered agents millions of naira if they would help kill the case
against him,” said one of our sources for this report.
We have learned that, while Duke was undergoing interrogation,
Justice Ayoola, who was traveling outside Nigeria, made several calls to
the investigation team. In one of his calls, he asked the agents to let
Duke and his wife go home that day, promising to “work with the agents
when he returned from the trip.”
Saharareporters has since discovered that former Chief Justice
Mohammed Uwais had been on the phone pressuring Justice Ayoola to “call
your boys to order.” Duke had Mrs. Uwais a lavish retainership in the
expectation that her husband would help clear the corruption mess at the
ICPC. Justice Ayoola and Justice Uwais had a long-standing
relationship. Several sources at the Supreme Court told Saharareporters
that Justice Uwais had helped Ayoola when the latter returned from the
Gambia where he served as a chief judge. Ayoola worked for Uwais as a
speechwriter and also helped the then CJN to pen Supreme Court
judgments. Our sources also said that Uwais championed Ayoola’s
elevation to the Supreme Court.
ICPC sources told Saharareporters that, as soon as Duke’s
interrogation ended, Justice Ayoola ordered the investigators to stay
action on the final report. “This was an attempt to find ways to help
Duke who had indicted himself before investigators,” one ICPC source
told us. “Mrs. Uwais also moved in on the team of investigators and
offered some of them substantial bribes to sway their final report. They
did not disappoint.”
Saharareporters found out that, as soon the team completed
investigations on Duke, they sent a copy of their draft findings to Mrs.
Uwais. She in turn doctored the findings to reflect the conclusion that
Duke was not guilty.
However, some team members who were not privy to the bribe – or had
refused to accept – sent a different report to the chairman indicting
Duke and his wife. But the two-page findings, which were made in bullet
points by the leader of the team and sent to the commission’s chairman,
are now gathering dust on Justice Ayoola’s desk.
However, the report that “exonerated” Duke and his wife was massively
circulated to the media. The next day, screaming headlines in local
newspapers reported that Duke had been cleared of all corruption and
money laundering accusations.
Former Governor Duke was so elated by the ICPC “clearance” and the
newspaper reports that he offered unsolicited advice to Senator Iyabo
Obasanjo, who was hiding from EFCC operators, to come out and face the
agency the same way he faced ICPC investigators.
Several members of the ICPC investigation panel, speaking anonymously to Saharareporters, said Duke could not have been exonerated because “he was caught red handed.”
They also stated that Duke and his wife admitted to investigators that they were involved in money laundering and corruption.
The investigators particularly pointed to the underhanded way in which the
Cross River State-owned Metropolitan Hotel was sold.
The six storey building is in a prime location, precisely opposite the
Governor’s office and adjacent to the Calabar stadium and International
Conference Centre as well as the Millennium Park. It is also easily
accessible to the Calabar airport and located near several banks.
The
hotel was valued at over N2 billion naira, but Duke approved its sale
for a paltry N200 million to interests connected with Duke.
Duke’s wife also admitted to misappropriating four hundred
and eighty million naira (N480 million) through her Enterprise Nigeria
Foundation, an NGO owned and managed by her. The monies were deducted
from local government accounts without recourse to due process. The
funds were never accounted for.
Duke’s corruption and massive financial shenanigans are now
blossoming in other parts of the country, especially in Lagos. The
ex-governor has built
three sets of high-rise luxury flats on
No. 9A Gerard Road, Ikoyi, in Lagos. The flats, known as ADMIRALTY
TOWERS, are rented out to multinational oil companies at $5,000 per
month.
One of Duke’s corruption-oiled luxury investments is currently
playing out in Ikoyi, Lagos where the former governor is locked in a
battle with the Federal High Court establishment over
his questionable purchase of the Lagos residence of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court at 1 Temple Road in Ikoyi Lagos.
The recently retired Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice
(Mrs.) Roseline Ukeje, facilitated Duke’s acquisition of the property.
One judicial source told Saharareporters that “Mrs. Ukeje’s legendary
corruption remains unrivaled in the history of the Federal High Court
system.”
Our sources said Justice Ukeje connived with Duke to bid for the
house after she convinced former President Olusegun Obasanjo – through
Andy Uba, the former president’s senior domestic aide – to waive the
residence of the Chief Judge for sale to buyers. Though Obasanjo
cancelled the sale of Federal Government houses in 2005, Justice Ukeje
retained her right to bid for her residence.
Duke, who had already purchased No 3 Temple Road, where he is
currently building a massive five-star hotel, also bought the Chief
Judge’s house for N555 million. He then decided to occupy the residence
as soon as Justice Ukeje indicated to him that she was about to move out
of the building to a house she purchased for 400 million naira on
Glover Road in Ikoyi.
On March 27, 2008, Duke addressed a letter to the Chief Judge of the
Federal High Court stating that the right of ownership to the Chief
Judge’s house was conferred on him by virtue of a Certificate of
Occupancy for a duration of 99 years.
The letter reads in part: “The right to the property was granted me
via C of O in August 2006 and because of the exigency of my public
office, I was unable to take possession of the said property earlier.
“Consequently, upon the above, I respectfully wish to inform you of
my intention to take up the possession of the said property before the
end of April 2008.”
The C of O was perfected on May 25, 2007, four days before the ex-governor handed over power to Senator Liyel Imoke.
Mrs. Helen U. Esuene signed the document on behalf of the Federal Minister of Environment, Housing and Urban Development.
To prevent Duke’s occupation of the property, the Chief Registrar of
the Federal High Court, Mr. Ayo Emmanuel, filed a suit against the
Minister of Housing, the Attorney General of the Federation and the
Implementation Committee of the White Paper on the Commission of Enquiry
into the Alienation of Federal Government Landed Property.
Meanwhile, Duke had already effected a take-over of the property with the help of soldiers provided by the Chief of Army staff.
A source knowledgeable about Duke’s deal with former Justice Ukeje
told Saharareporters that the former chief judge had notified Duke of
her date of relocation from the property. “Armed with that information,
Duke had the opportunity to seize the property before the new chief
judge could move in.”
Our sources said the guards at the property had initially disallowed
Duke’s soldiers from taking over the property. “For several weeks, the
guards refused to let the soldiers into the compound, thereby creating a
hostage-like situation on the property. Court officials provided the
guards with food, medicine and change of clothing until the aging guards
could no longer bear it. That’s when Duke and his soldiers took over
the property.”
On April 8, 2008, Justice Tijani Abubakar of the Federal High Court
granted an injunction restraining Federal Government agents from selling
the disputed property. “That ruling has put a wrench into Duke’s plans
to convert the chief judge’s residence to a five star hotel,” said one
of our sources. The judge also restrained the Minister of Environment,
Housing and Urban Development and his agents from interfering with the
property, pending the determination of the motion.
The ruling was informed by item 16 (iii) of the Federal Government’s
approved guidelines on the sale of its properties in Lagos, which
exempted the sale of houses occupied by federal judges that are based in
Lagos.
The item stipulates: “For special, diplomatic or statutory reasons,
the following properties shall be exempted from sale: State House Dodan
Barracks; Vice-President’s Guest House; Houses occupied by Federal
Judges that are based in Lagos; Properties excluded from sale by
Government directives; Properties approved for redeployment; Properties
allocated to the African Union and currently in use; and Properties
allocated to United Nations Agencies and currently in use.”
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court intends to join Duke in the
lawsuit as it progresses. An agent at ICPC told Saharareporters: “It
will be interesting to see how, Duke, who so far has been playing hooky
with anti-corruption police, will be able to explain how he came about
the sudden wealth that turned him into an estate mogul overnight – less
than a year after he left office as governor.”
A source close to Governor Imoke told Saharareporters that
Duke’s
massive investment in hotels is ironic “with his TINAPA white elephant
project falling apart and unoccupied by the bogus international
businesses for which it was purportedly built.”
Meanwhile, the stakes are getting higher for Mrs. Uwais who is the
Federal Government’s lawyer in the multi-million dollar Pfizer case.
More importantly, she is following in the footsteps of her husband
whose Supreme Court ruling in 2003 has provided the precedent for
several bizarre rulings by electoral petition tribunals. Justice Uwais
is Yar’adua’s “magic man” to fix and reform Nigeria’s electoral
troubles, but his wife’s legal work in Kebbi State has proved that the
expected electoral reform “is nothing but a ruse and an organized
illusion,” according to an official of an NGO that monitors democratic
practices.
Mrs. Uwais was a prominent member of the legal team that packaged the
controversial election appeals ruling in Kaduna that reversed the
nullification of Usman Dakingari’s election as governor of Kebbi.
Dakingari is Yar’dua’s son-in-law.
Several judicial sources told us that Mrs. Turai Yar’adua financed
the ruling which an Abuja-based lawyer described as “shameful and
weird,” while President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi,
collaborated on the case.
The case further solidified Mrs. Uwais’ reputation as Abuja’s
preeminent power-lawyer who is sought after by corrupt public officials.
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