Exclusive: Boardroom Maradonna: How Access Bank Chairman Aig-Imokhuede Lied On CBN And Deceived Banks Major Shareholders To Relinquish Their Shares

Secrets Reporters

A document exclusively obtained by SecretsReporters has unearthed how Access Bank PLC fraudulently obtained the Share Certificates of the late father of one Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya in respect of his Shareholding in the Bank in 2002 on the basis of a purported directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, thereby making him to suffer losses in terms of dividends, bonuses and profit, to the tune of four hundred and ninety-four million, nine hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight naira, thirty-five kobo (N494,913,658.35).

According to the document, Odunaiya’s late father was a foundation shareholder, and Director and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Access Bank as well as the Chairman/Chief Executive of Wemy Industries Limited.

The document stated that sometime in 2002, at a Board meeting of the bank, the bank’s Managing Director at that time, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, verbally informed Odunaiya’s late father and all the sitting Directors of the bank that there was a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive requesting all sitting directors, who had loan exposures to the banks of which they were directors, to deposit their share certificates in respect of their shares in the said banks.

It was stated that at the said meeting, the said Managing Director, Aig-Imokhuede did not avail any of the directors, with either a hard or soft copy of the purported CBN directive requesting them (the directors) to deposit their share certificates with the bank.

Records have it that at the time, Wemy Industries Ltd which had majority share-holding, was exposed to the bank in respect of a term loan which had been taken years earlier.

In his reaction to the development, Odunaiya’s late father was puzzled about this purported directive of the CBN because in his own case, his company’s exposure to the bank was fully over-secured with his company’s factory mortgage pledged to the bank and duly perfected with a market value of over N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) and there was also, in addition, a fixed and floating debenture on the company’s assets estimated at over N230,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Thirty Million Naira) as at 2005 when the loan exposure to the bank was just N60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira), and by August,2005,the said exposure of N6 0,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira) had even been fully liquidated.

He, however, in line with the directive, deposited his share certificates covering 4.7 million units of shares in the bank (Access bank), to the bank through the said Managing Director and this figure was consolidated to become 100million units vis-a-vis an increase of 52.5 million units by 6th of September, 2002.

In November 2003, Odunaiya’s late father voluntarily resigned as a member of the Board of Access bank in order to free himself from the purported CBN directive so as to be able to retrieve his shares. Two years after his exodus from the bank, he wrote a letter to the bank dated August 11, 2005, demanding, for the release of his shares since he was no longer a director of the bank and was therefore no longer bound by the purported CBN directive and in any event, the outstanding, loan granted to his company in the sum of N60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira) had by then been fully liquidated.

It was gathered that between 2005 and 2008, the bank unlawfully held on to his shares and coerced him into allowing them to retain the shares as further collateral security for other various loan facilities that were subsequently taken by his company, even when it was no longer necessary to hold on to the shares as collateral security because, not only was he no longer a Director of the Bank, the said loan facilities taken by his company from time to time between that period, were fully covered by the said perfected mortgage of the factory, to the tune of over N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) in addition to the fixed and floating debenture on the company’s assets estimated at over N230,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Thirty Million Naira)which was duly and legally perfected.

The said Stockbrokers, Messrs Surport Services Limited, in a letter dated 7th October, 2005 told him that carrying out his mandate was not possible since he could not succeed in obtaining his Share Certificates from the bank and divesting from same.

In a lettered message on 27th May, 2015, he notified the bank that his company had since fully repaid the loan and that his share certificates should be released. The bank was said to have acknowledged the full repayment of the said loan by its letter dated 23June, 2015 but the bank still failed and/or refused to release the said shares.

Remarkably, reacting to his enquiry, the CBN in a letter dated 8th June, 2018 stated that it did not have any record of having issued any such directive requesting directors whose companies or themselves were exposed to the Bank in which they were directors or shareholders to deposit their shares with the bank. He also uncovered how the bank fraudulently dealt with his shares over the years in proportions that are so unbelievably large and has in the process deprived him of legitimate earnings by those shares.

It was gathered that the bank, at different times, had under this guise subsequently dealt in and transacted with the Odunaiya’s father shares in the Bank. “Some of the documents show that some of his father’s shares were sold to companies belonging to, or in which, the bank’s former Managing Director’s proxy was or/ and is a shareholder such as Marina securities and Coronation Securities Limited”.

In the document which was authorized by Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya, he contended that had the bank released his father’s Share Certificates in its custody when he demanded for same in 2005, and he had sold same for investment in Treasury Bills as intended, the net proceeds he would have made from the sale of the 169,312,169 units of shares at the price of N2.99 per share as at September 12,2005 would have been in the sum of N494,913,658.35 (four hundred and ninety-four million, nine hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight naira, thirty-five kobo).

Odunaiya stated that as at March 31, 2019, his father’s shareholding in Access Bank Plc was in the total volume of 112,644,061 (one hundred and twelve, six hundred and forty-four thousand and sixty-one) units of shares.

He, however, admitted to have received the sum of Eighteen Million, Six Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, One Hundred (N18,623,155.53).