FORMER Minister of Education Obiageli Ezekwesili has asked the Inspector General of Police Usman Baba to investigate and prosecute a social media influencer Japhet Omojuwa over allegations of forgery and misrepresentation.
This was contained in a petition seen by The ICIR titled, “Petition Against Mr Japheth Omojuwa for Forgery, Fraudulent Misrepresentation and Fraudulent Use of the Name, Identity and Particulars of Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili as a Director of Alpha Reach Limited RC No: 1066507” and dated April 14, 2021. It was submitted and acknowledged by the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Friday.
In the petition signed by Marshal Abubakar of the Falana and Falana Chambers on behalf of Ezekwesili, Omojuwa was accused of listing the name of the former minister as a director of a company, Alpha Reach Limited, without her consent in 2012.
The petition claimed that Ezekwesili was not aware that her name was listed until March 30, 2021, when she was contacted by someone from Buzzfeed informing her that she was listed as one of the directors of Alpha Reach Limited alongside Nasir El-Rufai and Japhet Omojuwa.
Ezekwesili noted that she contacted Omojuwa to confirm whether he forged her signature and other incorporation documents, but he informed her that the Alpha Reach Company Limited was his company and she was not involved in it.
Ezekwesili also claimed that her name was later delisted in 2017 as a director and replaced with the name of one Indimi Ahmed Mohammed in 2017.
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Noting that she had never at a time signed documents as a director of the company, the petition further read that throughout the time Ezekwesili was ‘fraudulently’ made a director of the said company, no notice of meeting, annual returns, accounts and board resolution was ever issued to her.
The petition read that the alleged actions of Omojuwa amounted to “forgery, fraudulent misrepresentation, and egregious breach of extant provisions of the Penal Code Law, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and the Companies and Allied Matters Act, deserving of investigation and prosecution.”
Omojuwa had earlier claimed that he sought and obtained the consent of Ezekwesili before he listed her name as a director in Alpha Reach Limited in 2012.
Controversies concerning the name of directors came into public after Alpha Reach was accused of receiving money to launder the image of Alex Saab, a detained diplomat indicted by the United States government of money laundering.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94