Ooni of Ife sends lawyers to EFCC to answer forgery petition levelled against his company

NEW Ooni of Ife Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi is to send lawyers to represent him before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations that his company Metropole Interproject was involved in a N40m (£139,867) forgery case.

 

As part of the government's ongoing clampdown on corruption, the EFCC is looking into a case against the monarch's company filed by human rights activist, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman, the executive chairman of the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ). Comrade Sulaiman has been invited by the anti-graft agency to come and defend his petition and the Ooni has been asked to respond to the allegation.

 

Dated Monday, November 2, 2015, the petition titled Request for Prosecution of Prince Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi and his company named Metropole Interproject Limited for the offence of forgery, fraudulent conversion and obtaining the sum of N400m by false pretence, was forwarded to the EFCC chairman and received on Friday, November 6, 2015. Copies were also sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, Transparency International and the British and Canadian high commission, as well as the US embassy.

 

It was supported with a petition letter dated September 7, 2015 which authored by a senior advocate of Nigeria Rotimi Jacobs of Rotimi Jacobs & Co Chambers. Comrade Sulaiman said in a signed statement issued yesterday in Lagos that he received a phone call from an EFCC official advising his group to report at the commission’s economic and governance crime department in Lagos this week.

 

Comrade Sulaiman urged EFCC to also invite Mr Jacobs, who authored the first petition and as Professor Gabriel Olawoyin, the head of Olawoyin & Olawoyin Chambers, to come and state their position on the mind-boggling allegations. One source at Oba Ogunwusi's palace in Ile-Ife said that the Ooni respects the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but the company's lawyers are competent enough to answer all enquiries from EFCC‘s officials.

 

He added: “The EFCC has invited us and we are going to appear before it this week to substantiate our position on the subject matter. Our belief is that to every logical mind, the gold is gold, regardless of whether a Prince or beggar, is holding it in his hand.

 

Comrade Sulaiman added: "We don’t have any personal grudge against Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi because we believe that God makes a leader but we want justice to be done on any issue of this nature as it has been part of our stand. Anybody alleged of any wrong doing needs to clear his or her name first before occupying any exalted position."