Fugitive businessman behind 2014 immigration recruitment fiasco shuts three UK firms

FUGITIVE businessman Mahmood Ahmadu on the run over the 2014 immigration recruitment fiasco in Nigeria has shut down three of his UK companies sparking fears that he may take off for an unknown location.

 

Mr Ahmadu and his firm Drexel Tech Global, which coordinated the tragic recruitment exercise in March 2014, have been charged to court in Abuja by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the alleged misappropriation of N676m (£2.41m) collected from 676,675 applicants under false pretence. About 19 job applicants died during the job recruitment fiasco and probe has been launched into the incident.

 

Drexel Tech Global was registered in June 2011 with a share capital of £1 and dissolved in August 2014. Last week, Mr Ahmadu resigned as a director of one of his firms and brought in new directors for another one based in Jersey in the UK.

 

Currently at large, Mr Ahmadu has been charged along with former minister of interior Abba Moro and a former permanent secretary in the ministry Anastatsia Daniel-Nwobia. Last month, however,  Mr Ahmadu filed for the strike-off despite the commencement of a probe by the Senate Committee on Internal Affairs to which he refused to show up.

 

Registered directors of  Drexel Tech Global include Mr Ahmadu, 49 and American Ms Theresa Mahoney, 51 of 6 Hitchcock Circle, Simbury, Connecticut. Drexel Tech Global Company’s account was filed as dormant in the 2012 and 2013 financial years and the firm was then dissolved through a voluntary strike off in August 2014 without paying any tax to the UK government.

 

Two other of Mr Ahmadu’s companies, Socket Works and Socket Works Global registered in the UK in March and April 2013, were also shut down soon after. Mr Ahmadu then replaced himself and Mrs Maryam Mahmood, 37, believed to be his wife, as directors at Online Integrated Solutions UK with two other people. 

 

He resigned from Online Integrated Solutions last week when the EFCC hunt became public, while Mrs Mahmood left last November. Mr Ahmadu, has, however, kept alive his interest in Gau, which he registered in the UK in January 2015 and in A2A International, which was registered in Jersey in 2012.

 

One EFCC official said: “Moro, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, F O Alayebami, Mahmood Ahmadu and Drexel Tech Nigeria allegedly defrauded a total of 676,675 Nigerian applicants to the tune of N676,675,000, representing N1,000 per applicant through e-payment for their online recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service on 17th March 2013. The accused are alleged to have contravened the Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 in the contract awards by not following the necessary procedure laid down by the government."

 

He added that the award of the contract to Drexel Tech Nigeria had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement plan was not carried out before the award of the contract. So far, the matter has not been assigned to a judge.