Ezekwesili: Omojuwa Never Sent Me Annual Returns After ‘Fraudulently’ Registering Company With My Name

A former presidential aspirant, Oby Ezekwesili, has notified the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, that a company known as Alpha Reach and owned by the social media influencer and blogger, Japheth Omojuwa, never issued her annual returns despite listing her as its director without her consent since its formation in 2012.

Ezekwesili implied that the dividends meant for her never reached her even though the company allegedly used her particulars and influence without her knowledge.

This was contained in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, signed by Abubakar Marshall ( of Falana and Falana Chambers) and floated on Ezekwesili’s Twitter handle on Friday.

The former education minister also urged the IGP to investigate and prosecute Omojuwa for allegedly forging and fraudulently using her name to establish his company without her knowledge.

The petition was captioned, ‘Petition Against Mr Japheth Omojuwa for Forgery, Fraudulent Misrepresentation and Fraudulent Use of the Name, Identity and Particulars of Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili as a Director of Alpha Reach Limited RC No: 1066507’.

THE WHISTLER reported that Omojuwa had claimed that Ezekwesili alongside the Kaduna State Governor Nasir Elrufai had fully consented to being directors of his company in 2012 before their removal in 2015.

He had accused Ezekwesili of betraying his loyalty, after using his social platform and expertise to promote her political ideologies.

The rift between the two became public on April 9 after an investigative report by Buzzfeed News had claimed that certain Nigerian social media influencers (including Omojuwa) were engaging in online campaign for an alleged money launderer, Alex Saab, whose extradition is being sought by the United States.

However, Ezekwesili, in a tweet on Friday, insisted that she did not know how her name was used to form the company, adding that Alpha Reach was yet to furnish her with the information she sought.

In the petition written by her lawyer, they described Omojuwa’s actions as criminal.

“ It is further worthy of note that post 2017, the Alpha Reach Company limited metamorphosed from being a general construction company to a Digital Media Company engaged in Online Reputation Management while, Mr Japheth Omojuwa is its founder and Chief Strategist. Furthermore, throughout the period our Client was fraudulently made a Director in the said Company, no notice of meeting (s), annual returns, accounts and Board Resolution (s) was (were) ever issued to her. Our client was purportedly removed as a Director in 2017 but no special notice of proposed removal or a notice of removal/Ordinary resolution to remove was ever issued or served on our client in lucid violation of extant provisions of the law.

“We submit that the foregoing infractions amount to forgery, fraudulent misrepresentation, and egregious breach of extant provisions of the Penal Code Law, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and the Companies and Allied Matters Act, deserving of investigation and prosecution,” the letter partly reads.