The reported storming
and subsequent arrest of the directors of Transnational Corporation (Transcorp)
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would have
otherwise been a welcomed development but for the circumstances and
timing of the arrest.
More so, the arrest is
coming when it is being widely alleged that the corporate profile of
Transcorp and its documentation at the corporate affairs commission had
been tampered with, perhaps in a bid to ensure that President Obasanjo
is no longer directly linked to the ownership of 220 million equity
shares of the company.
The issues here are:
Did the EFCC wait for the owners of Transcorp to finish changing the
registration documents of the organization before swooping in to
investigate the plethora of allegations against the entire Transcorp
concept?
For whatever reasons,
whoever might have delayed the EFCC officials until now from looking
into the activities of Transcorp, should not toy with the intelligence
of Nigerians because Mr Lucky Egede, the Group Managing Director of
Obasanjo Holdings in August 2006 admitted in a Newswatch interview that
the OHL bought 220 million Transcorp equity shares.
Still on issues
emanating from the EFCC’s visit to Transcorp headquarters; what caused
the sudden sense of urgency to investigate the activities of the
organization when the federal government has just collected the over
$500 million raised by the group without asking questions on how they
raised the money? Are now asking questions on how they raised the money?
Time will obviously answer all the nagging questions.
From all indications
the alleged interrogation of Transcorp directors looks like a decoy
trying to divert attention from the current public examination of the
shabbily done EFCC report on Vice President Atiku, which prompted
President Obasanjo to set up a kangaroo panel whose sole objective
Nigerians clearly know, was to stop Atiku from contesting the 2007
Presidential Elections
Interestingly,
ownership of Transcorp which was launched in July 21, 2005 had raised
serious allegations of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s involvement and the
EFCC has up until now looked the other way. The President’s interests in
corporation was alleged to be the reason why the organization had been
receiving the federal government’s backing in all its activities
particularly in buying lucrative federal government- owned businesses in
the ongoing privatization programme of the Bureau for Public Enterprise
(BPE).
It would be
interesting to know if the EFCC is going to quiz all the directors of
the Transcorp or just Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke. Almost all the directors of
the corporation are high profile businessmen and women in almost al the
sectors of the economy and will be interesting to see how the EFCC
investigation into the ownership of the corporation and how they were
able to raise over $500 million loan for the organization. That is if
the actual motive of the EFCC is to unravel the mystery behind Transcorp.
But if it is a ploy to
divert attention and pressure away from the ongoing scrutiny of the
report on the vice president, the EFCC may have more questions to answer
at the end of the deceit at Transcorp. Obviously, the tactic of
diverting attention will not work, as Vice President Atiku seems to be
resolutely focused not only on his objective of putting himself forward
for the election, but also ensuring that all attempts to smear his name
and stop him are robustly challenged and shown for what it is. #
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