Contract Fraud: Zinox, Citadel Oracle CEOs Make Counter Allegations In Court Documents

An Oyo-based businessman and CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, Benjamin Joseph, has insisted that he is not blackmailing the Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, regarding an alleged N170m Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) contract fraud.

This follows a pending case of fraud against the Zinox boss and others before the Federal Capital Territory High Court.

The case filed in 2022 borders on a contract scam to the tune of N170million which allegedly took place around 2013.

Court documents obtained by our correspondents showed that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is the complainant against Ekeh and 10 others.

In the 17-count charge, the defendants are partly accused of dishonestly taking and/or stealing money, property of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd “(proceeds of a contract awarded to the company by the Federal Inland Revenue Service) without the consent of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited and in so doing committed an offense contrary to Section 286(1) of the penal code Cap 532 LFN Abuja (1990) and punishable under Section 287 thereof.”

The Falana & Falana Chambers is prosecuting the case on behalf of the AGF while Joseph is one of the witnesses listed to provide proof of evidence.

On Tuesday, our correspondent was told by Marshall Abubakar of the Falana Falana Chambers that a date is yet to be fixed for trial.

Speaking to the press earlier, Joseph maintained that the Zinox boss is laboring to “hoodwink the public through the media into believing that my case against them is false.”

According to him, fraud was allegedly committed on his company’s bank accounts by agents of Zinox.

“In July 2013, my Auditor Mr A B Agbaje was in the FIRS office in Ibadan to file my company’s annual audited account when he was confronted with information about possible under declaration of the company filed turnover to evade payment of return tax from a contract they claimed FIRS awarded our company.

“On investigation, we discovered that it was indeed a fraud committed by a syndicate against our company, which involved the transfer of money through a fictitious account No 0059202675 opened in December 2012 by the syndicate in Access Bank Plc Awolowo Ikoyi Lagos using our company’s confidential information with the bank which we had used in opening account with the bank in 2008. We sent out letters to members of the syndicate and they responded in writing denying any knowledge of the contract from FIRS executed in our name,” he said.

He added that “Findings showed that, apart from the syndicate hijacking the contract previously awarded to our company and executing using our company name without our consent and knowledge, they connived with Access Bank officials to remove our corporate information, including a Board of Directors resolution. “

Joseph accused the Zinox boss of relying on his financial power to block the truth from coming out.

But Ekeh’s lawyer, Matthew Burkaa SAN, filed a motion on notice challenging the jurisdiction of the FCT court to entertain the case.

“An order of this honorable court dismissing this charge no. FCT/HC/CR/469/ 2022 for being a gross abuse of the judicial process, in the light of the pendency of charge no: FCT/HC/CR/216/2016: FRN v. Benjamin Joseph and the judgment of this court, Per Senchi J. (as he then was),”Burkaa prayed the court, adding that Joseph is standing trial in charge no: FCT/HC/CR/216/16 for providing false information against his clients.

In their motion on notice before the FCT High court, Ekeh’s legal team told the court not to try his client because another court division had indicted the nominal complainant for providing false information while awarding a cost of 20 million against him.