BOARD POLITICS, FRAUD FORCED NAHCO MD TO RESIGN APPOINTMENT

Less than a month after SaharaReporters exclusively reported attempted fraud by the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, the agency’s Managing Director, Norbert Bielderman, has tendered his resignation.

Mr. Bieldermam, a German who was appointed the Managing Director of the company in December 2013, is scheduled to exit the company on August 31, 2017.

SaharaReporters had in April reported a plan by the board to re-introduce the suspended Management Support Agreement (MSA) where three percent of the company’s gross earnings was shared among members of NAHCO’s Board of Directors.

In addition, SaharaReporters had disclosed that the Board of Directors of the ground handling company was seeking to spend a whopping sum of N155 million on an ostensible overseas training for members. Mr. Bielderman had kicked against the wasteful and fraudulent moves, and threatened to tender his resignation if the board insisted on pressing forward with the questionable agenda.

Our investigations further found that the Board of Directors, led by Chairman Usman Bello, planned to share the sum of N700 million as MSA among the 11 board members.

Our investigation disclosed that the N700 million to be shared among board members was a backlog of the money that would have been shared in the past one year if the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) had not ordered the shady practice stopped.

MSA, which was secretly introduced in NAHCO some few years ago by the former Chairman of the company, Mallam Suleiman Yahyah, was stopped by SEC, after a thorough investigation concluded that the scheme was fraudulent.

A statement issued on Thursday by NAHCO’s spokesman, Tayo Ajakaye, said Mr. Bielderman had already tendered his resignation letter to the Board of Directors.

Mr. Ajakaye revealed that Mr. Bielderman joined NAHCO in May, 2010, and was appointed Executive Director in charge of Operations on December 6, 2013. The German national was named Acting Managing Director in October 2014 and was confirmed in April, 2015.

Mr. Ajakaye also announced other changes approved for the company after the board met yesterday. The changes include the retirement of Faruk Umar from the Board and his replacement by Sunny Nwosu. Mr. Umar, who was the director representing minority shareholders on the Board, was appointed to the Board on June 22, 2011.

NAHCO’s spokesman added, “The resignation notice given by Mr. Bielderman has activated the company’s well laid-down succession planning process. The regulators, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), have been duly notified of the new development.”