A witness in the ongoing trial of Mohammed Gobir today told the Lagos State High Court sitting in Igbosere how the defendant defrauded Afromedia Plc to the tune of over one billion Naira.
The witness, Akinola Onifade, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Afromedia Plc was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, A.B.C. Ozioku.
Mohammed Gobir was arraigned on March 17, 2016, before Justice R.I.B Adebiyi by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a 17 - count charge bordering on stealing, forgery, and obtaining under false pretenses. Upon his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and he was remanded in prison custody pending hearing of his bail application. He was granted bail in the sum N20,000,000 and two
sureties in like sum on March 22, 2016.
In his testimony today, Akinola identified the defendant as the same person that was introduced to his company sometime in 2008 by their Placement Consultants, Synergy Capital, as a person of means with a multi-billion Naira investment in an Oil and Gas Institute.
Upon his introduction, Gobir made his way to becoming a Non-executive Director on the Board of the Company. Gobir having satisfied himself with operations of Afromedia, offered to fulfill his end of the
bargain by investing the sum of $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars) into the company.
Before Gobir fulfilled his promise, the witness said that there was a meltdown in the Stock Market between 2008 and 2009 and thus, Gobir offered to assist the company by way of introducing foreign companies to
invest in Afromedia.
When the company agreed to Gobir’s offer, he requested for the sum of $1,000,000 as facilitation fee and business expenses. The money was eventually released to him but after his trip to UK which the company also paid for, Gobir did not bring any investment. Akinola said the company even sponsored his trip to UK for holiday with his family.
The witness said at the time Gobir offered to invest the $10,000,000 he warned the company not to tell Synergy Capital as he does not want the transaction exposed. Gobir offered to give the money directly to the witness, but Akinola declined and asked him to transfer the money into Afromedia's GT Bank account in UK since he had much money abroad as he claimed.
Akinola said after they concluded verbal arrangements, himself and Gobir took a trip to UK in order to finalise the transaction. On their arrival to the United Kingdom, Akinola said he heard Gobir saying over the phone “you mean all my money”, and when he asked him what the call was all about, Gobir told him that there was a problem moving his money from UPS to Natwest Bank in the UK, but that the matter would be resolved in few days.
Akinola said they were in UK for about one month and all Gobir offered him was an email that purportedly emanated from a company called Royal Dutch Exchange confirming the issue Gobir told him earlier about the money.
Akinola, narrating how Gobir serially defrauded Afromedia, told the court that “after a while, Gobir approached me personally and said he wanted to confide in me, that he had $250,000,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars), GBP250,000,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Pounds), and 250,000,000 Euros (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Euros) stashed in Natwest Bank United Kingdom and that the monies were being held by the British Authorities over issues concerning the source of the funds. He said that Royal Dutch Exchange said there was a way to clear the money by way of obtaining a European Union Waiver Certificate which would cost him a total sum of $3,800,000 (Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) out of which Royal Dutch was willing to pay $2,000,000 and that he himself could come up with $800,000.
"He was asking us (Afromedia) to give him $1,000,000. Afromedia eventually released the $1,000,000 to him after which Gobir forwarded to me, a receipt and a copy of an EU Waiver Certificate. At that point, Gobir promised that within one week, the monies would be out,” the witness said.
He further disclosed that they were in UK for few more weeks and nothing came up, so they came back to Nigeria.
Gobir requested for another $500,000 which the company transferred to him through an account of Calibre Bureau de Change.
After this transaction, Gobir came back to Afromedia and told the CEO that Natwest Bank had rejected the EU Waiver Certificate and that they would only accept a Waiver Certificate from Bank of England. Afromedia
gave Gobir the sum of N245,000,000 (Two Hundred and Forty Five Million Naira) only and another GBP280,000 (Two Hundred and Eighty Thousand Pounds) in order to secure the Bank of England Waiver certificate.
“After Gobir collected all these monies, he disappeared. I had to track him down at his residence where he told me another story that he had a contract with the Oyo State government, that when they pay him, he would pay back what he owes Afromedia,” Akinola lamented.
When matters got tough, the witness said that they had to petition Gobir to EFCC.
After Gobir was arrested by the EFCC, an agreement was extracted from him to pay back 50 percent of the money collected from the witness within 30 days while the investigation into the transaction between Gobir and Afromedia was still ongoing. Instead of coming up with the money, Gobir started sponsoring newspaper publication publications, claiming he was not owing Afromedia any penny.
The matter had been adjourned till 10, 11 and 12 May, 2012 for continuation of trial.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
9th May, 2016