Shareholders Battle Acorn Petroleum over $80m Loan
- By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
- Published May 24th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
FOUR directors of Acorn Petroleum Plc, Lt General Mohammed Wushishi (rtd), Omo-Oba A.O. Odimayo, Mr Olufemi Odebunmi and Mr Tunji Ladoja have dragged the management of the company to court for allegedly manipulating the accounts of the company and lack of transparency in the financial affairs of the company. The directors also alleged that the management obtained a loan of $80 million for the importation of petroleum products from Afribank Nigeria Plc without the approval of the board.
The petitioners said they expressed shock when they learnt that a board resolution was passed authorizing the acceptance of the loan from the bank, insisting that the loan in question was neither referred to the board nor its committee and was never approved by the board. Another issue raised by the petitioners is an alleged shortfall of N2.89 billion in the company’s transactions with Afribank which could not be accounted for by the management.
The petitioners noted that contrary to the impression they had previously from the first draft of the management account delivered to the board on August 21, 2009 which showed a profit of about N770 million for the previous year, the company had indeed made a loss. They further alleged that the account books of the company are not properly kept, positing that the annual report being filed on behalf of the company has been manipulated by its chairman/managing director.
In a counter affidavit, the management denied most of the allegations of the petitioners, stressing that no fraud whatsoever was committed on the company’s account with Afribank Plc. It therefore contended that the petition is baseless, malicious and filed in bad faith and should be dismissed.
The petitioners said they expressed shock when they learnt that a board resolution was passed authorizing the acceptance of the loan from the bank, insisting that the loan in question was neither referred to the board nor its committee and was never approved by the board. Another issue raised by the petitioners is an alleged shortfall of N2.89 billion in the company’s transactions with Afribank which could not be accounted for by the management.
The petitioners noted that contrary to the impression they had previously from the first draft of the management account delivered to the board on August 21, 2009 which showed a profit of about N770 million for the previous year, the company had indeed made a loss. They further alleged that the account books of the company are not properly kept, positing that the annual report being filed on behalf of the company has been manipulated by its chairman/managing director.
In a counter affidavit, the management denied most of the allegations of the petitioners, stressing that no fraud whatsoever was committed on the company’s account with Afribank Plc. It therefore contended that the petition is baseless, malicious and filed in bad faith and should be dismissed.
