-Saharareporters, New York
TRANSCORP chairperson, Mrs Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike and Bernard Longe (MD)were last night arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), however they were immediately granted bail by the agency after a few hours at their Ikoyi office in Lagos.
Recently TRANSCORP, said to be owned by indigenous ‘business leaders’ in Nigeria including President Obasanjo, who own 200 million shares in the company had bought the Nigerian Telecommunication Company (NITEL) for a paltry sum of $750 million after a controversial bidding process.
Mrs. Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike is the chairman of TRANSCORP a role that conflicts with her position as the chief executive officer of Nigeria’s Stock Exchange (NSE). Also, she also heads a neo-political group close to President Obasanjo known as “Corporate Nigeria”. As a leader of the controversial group, she was severely criticized by the Nigerian public for sponsoring tenure elongation campaigns for President Obasanjo few months ago.
Sources told Saharareporters that TRANSCORP raised money illegally to pay for NITEL. Upon completion of the bidding process TRANSCORP won the bid to buy NITEL but could not come up with the money for it after the deadline had passed, but in an extra-ordinary manner, the deadline was later extended to allow for TRANSCORP to pay. Our sources said TRANSCORP might have raided banks in Nigeria to pay this huge sum, as foreign banks that had promised to finance the project had declined at the last minute.
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