Businessman accuses ex-CP of issuing dud cheque

ALagos-based businessman, Kehinde Akintoye, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over a N5.6m dud cheque allegedly issued to him by a former Commissioner of Police in Akure, Ondo State, Joseph Rugbere.

In the petition, dated March 23, 2016, and sent to the agency through his lawyer, Daniel Omakor, Akintoye also accused one Bada of conspiring with the ex-CP to defraud him of the sum.

Akintoye, the Managing Director of Kennimus Oil and Gas Limited, said he had through Bada supplied 33,000 litres of diesel worth N5.6m to the ex-CP in Akure.

He said a Guaranty Trust Bank cheque bearing the name of Rugbere Walter Joseph, dated March 26, 2013, was issued to his company upon the delivery of the fuel on March 23 at a filling station in Akure.

Akintoye explained that he complained to the middleman, Bada, when the bank said the owner of the account had not authorised it to pay the money.

The case was later reported to the police.

He said, “In March 2013, Bada told me a former CP needed a truck of 33,000 litres of diesel in Akure. I told him I didn’t supply products outside Lagos State except the person or company was ready to pay upfront or upon delivery of the product.

 “He called the ex-CP, Joseph (Rugbere), and gave me the phone to speak with him. I told Joseph that the cheque should be issued for payment upon supply. On getting to the point of discharging the product on March 23, 2013, my manager, who went with the truck, asked Bada for the payment and he went into an office inside the filling station. He came out with a GTB cheque of N5,610,000 and gave it to my manager.

 “When I could not withdraw the money, I informed Bada. He said he had travelled to Akure but did not see Joseph and had reported the matter to the police. I also reported the matter to the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit at Kam Salem House, Lagos.”

Akintoye said the police obtained a court order and froze Rugbere’s account after which the matter was brought to the attention of an AIG in Abuja, who invited all the parties.

He said, “As if the whole drama had been prearranged, the AIG asked Bada whether he knew Rugbere, but he said the ex-CP did not give him the cheque.”

Our correspondent learnt that Bada promised to refund the money in piecemeal, but failed after paying N500,000.

 Calls made to Bada’s line indicated that it was switched off.

He had also yet to respond to a text message sent to his phone since May 15, 2016.

However, a lawyer to the ex-CP, Mr. Andrew Tsekiri , in an electronic mail sent to PUNCH Metro, said Akintoye’s story was an attempt to malign his client, adding that the police had invited and interrogated Rugbere on the case and exonerated him.

He said, “The story narrated by Kehinde (Akintoye) is malicious, disparaging and false in its entirety.

“Both as a serving and indeed as a retired Commissioner of Police, our client never at any stage desired, solicited and or paid for diesel for trading purposes. He has never at any stage issued any cheque for N5m or any sum at all for that matter to be paid for the supply of diesel to either the said Bada or anybody.

“When the police authorities at the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, first drew our client’s attention to this matter sometime in 2013, his answers were not different from what was stated above. In 2014, his attention was drawn to this same complaint by the CP in the IGP Monitoring Unit.

“At a subsequent meeting with the said CP, where our client met the complainant for the first time. He admitted he never met our client in his entire life and failed miserably to substantiate his claims.”

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said  the agency would act on the petition.