Mrs Titi Atiku, the wife of former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku, told
an Ikeja High Court that Akpan-Jacobs, the pastor who allegedly
defrauded her of N918m, was her “errand boy”.
Titi made this claim while being cross-examined on Wednesday by Mr Amos Ibe, the defence counsel to Akpan-Jacobs.
“I paid N49m for the land used as the premises of THA Shipping, my
partner Fred Holmes never contributed to the buying of the land but he
contributed to the building of the property.
“The N49m was given to Akpan-Jacobs to purchase the land, but we did not know who he bought the land from.
“He never contributed a dime, he was just like an errand boy,” Atiku said.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had charged Akpan-Jacobs
with 14 counts bordering on conspiracy, stealing and fraudulent
conversion of property worth N918m belonging to THA Shipping Maritime
Services Ltd.
THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd, a company created in 2000, is owned
by Atiku, Akpan-Jacobs and Fred Holmes, her German business partner.
Atiku was alleged to be the majority shareholder with 49 percent shares,
while Holmes and Akpan-Jacobs each had 25 percent shares.
Akpan-Jacobs, who also doubled as the company’s Managing Director and
Secretary, was alleged to have gone to the Corporate Affairs Commission
to alter the shareholding in his favour and forged the company’s board
resolutions.
He allegedly allotted 70 percent shares to himself and 15 percent shares each to Titi and Holmes.
According to the EFCC, welding a fraudulent shareholding power,
Akpan-Jacobs sold a property belonging to the company to Dana Motors
Nigeria Ltd for N918m.
The property is located at Plot C63 A, Amuwo-Odofin Commercial Layout along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Lagos.
Responding to Atiku’s claim that Akpan-Jacobs was her errand boy, Ibe
asked, “He was made a Managing Director (MD), how can an errand boy be
made an MD?
“He was made an MD to stand in for Mr Fred Holmes because Holmes had not resigned from his job.
“When it was time for Akpan to step down as the MD, he refused because by then he had perfected his fraudulent acts.”
The wife of ex-VP denied Ibe’s claims that Akpan-Jacobs owned and
promoted THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd and only brought her on
board to bring in big briefs and clients.
“Is he the one who bought the land, built the building? He was merely supervising.
“My clout gave the company a lot of prestige, a lot of people wanted to
do business with us and people brought a lot of containers to us,” she
said.
While giving evidence on May 23, Atiku had told the court that she had
used her maiden name, Florence Doregos, for business transactions
because she was serving in government at the time.
She denied Ibe’s accusations that Akpan-Jacobs never forged her
signature either as Florence Doregos and Titi Abubakar in company
documents.
Mrs Atiku also denied Akpan-Jacobs claims that she never contributed to
the construction of the building that housed the company.
“I have a breakdown of the costs used in the construction of the
building, Akpan-Jacobs gave me the breakdown in 2002 but he did not sign
it.
“I never said the property was built by Julius Berger, Mr Holmes was a
Julius Berger staff and he might have used his connections to make the
building a solid structure.
“There was a document that Akpan-Jacobs had showed me that was signed
Abubakar, I told him that that was not Titi Abubakar’s signature.
“He forged Florence Doregos signature in a number of documents,” she said.
Atiku also told the court that she and Holmes on April 6, 2009, passed a
resolution removing Akpan-Jacobs from the ownership of THA Shipping
Maritime Services Ltd.
“He had sold the property by the time we passed that resolution but we wrote to Akpan notifying him of what we wanted to do.
“My lawyer, Mr Chima went to Dana Motors Ltd made efforts to stop the
sale of the property because by then, they had not given Akpan much
money for the sale of the property.
“When Mr Chima went to Dana Motors Ltd to tell them that the property was not for sale, they confided in him that the property
was sold to Akpan for N918m.
“I only gave power of attorney to one Ms Springerbeck, a German citizen;
I, however, reverted the power of attorney to my lawyer after I noticed
that she had a lot of excesses.
“Akpan used the property as a collateral for a loan from First Bank because he needed funds to run for governor of Akwa-Ibom.
“When he could not pay the loan and settle his creditors, he sold THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd.
“I am not aware that a deed of assignment was signed by a secretary and
director of the company, Akpan did not introduce any secretary to me,”
she said.
Mr Babatunde Sonoiki, the EFCC counsel, while re-examining Atiku, asked
if she signed any the company resolutions used in the alleged fraud.
“Did you ever sign board resolutions assigning anyone as company
secretary, approving the sale of the property and to loan money from
First Bank on behalf of THA Shipping?”
Atiku replied, “I never signed any board resolution for any of those purposes.”
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye adjourned the case until July 6 for continuation of trial.