Businessman and managing director of Ceecon Energy Oil and Gas Limited, Dr. Chima Anyaso who is also the People’s Democratic Party’s, PDP, house or representative’s candidate for the forth coming general election has said that the allegations of fraud against him by GTBank are merely orchestrated to tarnish his image as his company did not defraud the bank rather the said amount is an accumulation of unverified bank charges by the bank.
Based on deposition contained in a preliminary objection filed by the oil and gas tycoon, that the original sum in dispute was only 186 million Naira since 2011.
“The imposition of unacceptable and unwarranted charges on the accounts of the Ceecon Energy Oil & Gas Limited led to a serious dispute between the parties as to the exact state of the accounts, and what sum, if any, is outstanding”.
Consequent upon the dispute, the bank contrary to the terms of the Import Finance Facility, unilaterally blocked the credit line granted to the company Ceecon Energy oil and gas Limited despite that the tenure of the said term loan was not due to expire.”
That the allegation is purely a fallout of a debt dispute of N186Million. There could not have been any diversion of N2billion anywhere.
There are over four lawsuits over this matter and at no time was there a claim of diversion. All the sworn affidavit by the bank since 2012 are there in the record of the various courts and there was never a reference to diversion of funds, fraud or forgery.
At the time GTBANK went to court in 2012 through their lawyers Kemi Balogun & Co. their claim that the sum of N567, 796, 90. (COMPRISING THE SAID N186 MILLION DISPUTE SUM AND ACCUMULATED DEFAULT CHARGES) was what Ceecon owed, when they filed a winding-up proceedings in suit No.FHC/L/CS/787/2012; GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC V. CEECON ENERGY OIL & GAS LIMITED at the Federal High Court before Hon. Justice Buba and another suit filed by the same GTB at the Federal High Court at Abuja in suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/64/14; GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC V. CEECON ENERGY OIL & GAS LIMITED & ANOR over the same subject matter.
Read Also:EFCC arrests 6 suspected internet fraudsters
While an appeal filed by Ceecon Energy Oil & Gas Limited was still pending, on the 23rd of February, 2017, an invitation was received from the IGP’s office to come to Abuja, on the 2nd of March, 2017 based on a petition that the Company had diverted N1.1Billion. The Police were shocked to find during interrogation of GTB staff that the claimed sum was an accumulation of interest on the principal sum of N186Million.
It is very clear that there is an orchestration to tarnish the image of Chima Anyaso and to malign his character. That this is happening on the eve of elections raises a lot of questions and raises many suspicion. It is interesting that only a few weeks ago the Chima Anyaso Campaign organization had warned of a plot by his opponent and detractors to attack his person.
The statement called on the media to always verify it stories before publishing, it stated that “while we are committed to seeing the court process continue, we call on the Nigerian media, journalists, editors and publishers of both mainstream and online media to always verify stories before going public”.
“It is important to seek the views and comment of all affected parties in any matter before publishing, so that there will be balance. It is against all known journalism ethics in any free world to resort to name calling and undue sensational reports without a proper investigation” the statement reads.
