Dr. Femi Oyetunji, Group Managing Director of Continental Reinsurance Plc prefers a South African company (Dimension Data) to implement all ICT projects from his first day in office in Continental Reinsurance Plc. Dimension Data usually sent quotes that are multiples of (sometimes as high as 40 times) that of other competitors. Also their solutions are usually not best fit and futuristic. But Dr. Femi Oyetunji characteristically would try to compel the head of ICT to recommended Dimension Data for those projects. To achieve this Dr. Femi Oyetunji aborlished the ICT Steering Committee he met on ground. The advice on Corporate Governance by the ICT Manager led to his victimisation, vilification and deprivation for six and half years in the company. These actions culminated in his framing and removal from the company, using the same Dimension Data as ICT auditors! The aggrieved ICT manager through his lawyers (a senior Advocate of Nigeria) wrote the Board of Continental Reinsurance Plc, indicating his intention to approach the courts for redress. But Dr. Femi Oyetunji quickly rushed to the industrial Courts to obtain an injunction restraining the ICT manager from suing, reporting to EFCC, SEC, etc. The lawyers of the ICT Manager are presently battling to vacate the injunction to enable the victim approach the courts for justice.
Dr. Femi Oyetunji, Group Managing Director of Continental Reinsurance Plc prefers a South African company (Dimension Data) to implement all ICT projects from his (Dr. Oyetunji's) first day in office in Continental Reinsurance Plc. To achieve this, Dr. Femi Oyetunji aborlished the ICT Steering Committee he met on ground when he joined the company in january 2010.
Ordinarily noone has any issues against Dimension Data handling all the projects. But the company (Dimension Data) usually sent quotes that were multiples (sometimes as high as 40 times) of that of other competitors. Also their solutions were usually not best-fit and futuristic. But Dr. Femi Oyetunji characteristically would try to compel the head of ICT to recommended Dimension Data for all those projects. The continue advice on Corporate Governance by the ICT Manager led to his victimisation, vilification and deprivation for six and half years in the company. These actions culminated in his framing and removal from the company, using the same Dimension Data as ICT auditors!
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The aggrieved ICT manager rejected his exit benefits, and against the wish of the perpetrators approached a lawyer, refusing all advice that legal fees would bankrupt him. He then, through his lawyers (a senior Advocate of Nigeria) wrote the Board of Continental Reinsurance Plc, indicating his intention to approach the courts, the EFCC and SEC for redress.
But Dr. Femi Oyetunji quickly rushed to The Industrial Courts to obtain an injunction restraining the ICT manager from suing, reporting to EFCC or SEC, etc. The lawyers of the ICT Manager are presently battling to vacate the injunction to enable the victim approach the courts for justice.
There are loads of documents that have been generated in the course of this on-going case. The documents are being concessioned for proper documentaiton, and would be uploaded here if requested. Below are mails written to the Board by the ICT Manager:
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(This mail was earlier sent to the Board members of Continental Reinsurance Plc.)
My name is Kanma Okafor, of ICT department, Continental Reinsurance Plc.
Let me first state that I really am constrained to write directly to your esteemed office, as a Board member. Contacting any Board member, directly, is something I have restrained myself from doing, despite the most inhuman working conditions that the GMD subjected me to since the past six and half years that he joined the company (please find time to glance at the attached documents).
Well I feel freer to contact you now, because on Wednesday (August 3,2016), I was summoned (by the Head, HR) to the office of the GMD, from where the ICT team was training colleagues on the latest features in the processes of our beloved company, in a hotel at Victoria Island. The training was a refresher on our cloud environments; automated reinsurance and accounting; process integration; workflows, etc).
In the GMD's office, in presence of the Company Secretary, I was handed a disengagement letter, and was told that the Board said that my appointment should be terminated forthwith. I told them that I thought that it would have been fair for, at least one or two, Board members to have listened to my viewpoints, before reaching such a decision. I was offered no further explanations and was told to sign the acknowledgement copy. But I requested to be permitted not to sign the acknowledgement copy of the disengagement letter yet, pending due consultations with my Lawyers.
(May I please say here that at no point did I accuse the GMD of plotting to kill me. Even his query to me does not suggest that. I merely reported some of the unprofessional languages Wesley (the Dimension Data auditor) was using, which no one has bothered to investigate till now. Wesley did not deny it in front of both of us, but rather said that he was referring to key-man risk. The GMD's query also clearly states that I told Wesley instantly that I thought he was wrong. I am therefore surprised that the GMD later repackaged what I reported, against someone else, as an accusation against me. But that is a mere smoke screen, as the issue is only about expenditure in the ICT department, as contained in the evidences in my documents. As I speak now three substantial extra-budgetary bills have been thrown into the department, with the plan that I would not be around, anymore, to reject them. And non of these bills is of any tangible service to the company).
Please permit me to note here that I have worked under four bosses in Continental Reinsurance Plc, for over twenty-two years. And in those years I have been privileged to develop, from scratch, the main business application software the company has been using till date. We also automated nearly all aspects of the group's processes. We put Continental Re on the world ICT maps by being the first company to implement DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) in the whole EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa); the first company to implement Microsoft Office365 in the entire African continent (see attached attestation by Microsoft); and the first company to implement private cloud in West-Africa. And when it was time for the company to recapitalize (or die) about 9 years ago, I sold more shares than the rest of my colleagues, put together. When approached by ICT companies to collaborate with them in developing insurance related processes, I involved Continental Re and returned all the proceeds to her. As it stands I have two letters from Ghana Re and WAICA Re seeking to collaborate with Continental Re on our software solutions. Also the Inpoint (subsidiary of AON), the American company that audited the ICT department about three and half years ago expressed intentions to work with us in projecting our solutions around the world. Such has been my consistent and verifiable dedication to the company.
And so in these twenty-two years of service to this company, I have always been guided by the larger interest of the company, always pursuing the right and futuristic technologies, and also guided by my personal practice of abstinence from financial corruption. And the result is that we have always kept the ICT spend at about 0.7% of GPI as against industry average of 3%.
The GMD and I have had a few issues starting from the second day he joined the company about six and half years ago, and all those issues have been centered on my recommendation of corporate governance and proper biding for ICT projects. He, on the other hand, often favors Dimension Data (for every ICT solution), a company we find their quotes unbelievably high and their solutions non-futuristic. He has, perhaps as a result, consistently applied the full might of his office against me, culminating in event event of August 3, 2016. He actually constantly bullied me for doing the right things for the company, which still creates so much timidity, sycophancy and nepotism around our working environment. The result is that many of my colleagues in the other departments are often forced to do some things wrongly, just to please the GMD. But I have somehow managed to remained straightforward, though with the obvious attendant repercussions. But there are also good sides to it, as I have been sustained by so much moral support from colleagues since Wednesday's incidence, and genuine blessings from God.
The GMD also constantly brandished the name of the Board at me, like a weapon, even during the period the company was still re-constituting a new Board. And for this, I have suffered untold agony and heartache. Yet I had always refrained from checking these claims, hoping that the bad winds would blow away, since I trusted that I was completely innocent, and held the best interest of the company highest in my guiding principles.
As it stands now, so much resources of the company have been wasted in the bid to discredit me, and force me out of the company; and so much more are presently being spent to keep me out of the company's network, even though I have a well-known character of being non-destructive. And all these resources have gone the way of the same company, Dimension Data, even though the consultants they send to us do not understand the platforms we have built in Continental Re.
I am therefore constrained to write you in order to plead that we try and exhaust all avenues of corporate (family) settlement of this issue. I am attaching herewith only a few documents; the query that the GMD issued me (for having the guts to report a Dimension Data auditor's abnormal conducts to him); my better-researched response to the query (the copy with the GMD has less information, as I was forced to submit it before COB on the day I was issued the query, which was given to me in the afternoon). Also attached is a write-up on Continental Re by Microsoft; a PowerPoint document of our computing platforms and our Cloud-journey; 2013 ICT Audit Report by Inpoint Inc, a subsidiary of AON. There are many more documents if they are requested for.
I look forward to your favorable disposition towards this plea.
Thank you.
kind regards
Kanma Okafor
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