By Kelechi Mgboji
Assistant Business Editor
This is not the best of times for First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL) Chairman, Chidi Duru.
With trumped up charges levelled against him, Duru has been eased out of the company he founded in 2004 and nurtured to become one of the leading Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) in the country.
A cocktail of allegations lodged with the Pension Commission (PenCom), the industry regulator, by a stakeholder gave rise to a series of litigations in the courts in Abuja and Lagos.
In all the cases, Duru was discharged and acquitted of any financial misdeeds and the courts directed PenCom and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to relinquish the company to the former member of the House of Representatives.
But rather than execute the court judgments, officials of the EFCC have turned the matter into a game of sorts, with incessant arrests of Duru or his family members or sureties.
In some cases they have slammed fresh litigations against him despite subsisting court judgments begging for implementation.
Duru told TheNiche that the latest arrests by the EFCC saw his surety, Chinyere Christie Ekweonu, being detained since May 11.
He said Ekweonu was arrested in Abuja while he (Duru) was away to Lagos attending court summons at the instance of the same EFCC which arrested her.
He narrated that the senior civil servant with one of the ministries in Abuja had called him on telephone that day to alert him of her arrest.
Duru was just coming out of the court proceedings in Lagos which were adjourned until June 8.
He said it is curious for the EFCC which instituted a court action against him in Lagos to turn around and arrest his surety on allegation that she (Ekweonu) failed to produce him.
Statement issued by the Duru family
A statement issued by the matriarch of Duru family tells more of the heart rending story the family has come to regard as unlawful persecution of their son and family members.
The statement appealed to the EFCC to release Ekweonu immediately
It recounted that “over the last five years, beginning from August 2011 to date, we have refrained from commenting on the affairs surrounding First Guarantee Pension Ltd (FGPL) which our son, Chidi Duru, founded and promoted in order to protect the sanctity of the business of First Guarantee Pension Ltd (FGPL).
“However, the continuing threat to the personal liberty and life of members of my family, in particular the detention of Mrs Ekweonu, has left us with no other alternative than to issue this statement.
“On May 11, 2016, about the hours of 10.15am our elder sister, mother and wife of Mike Ekweonu, was arrested by the EFCC at her office at the Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
“Mrs Ekweonu, a lawyer, is the mother of four children (three sons and a daughter) and she is the director of law reporting at the Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
“She has since been detained and in the custody of the EFCC, without lawful cause, in disregard of relevant laws of Nigeria.
“Section 7 of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act states that ‘a person shall not be arrested in place of a suspect.’
“On Monday, October 3, 2011, a public holiday, at the hours of 8:45am and at the prompting of two individuals, the EFCC, without any invitation nor call to our son Chidi Duru, invaded his residence in Maitama, Abuja, arrested him and detained him overnight.
“He was presented with a petition signed by Kashim Ibrahim Imam arising from the ‘Draft First Guarantee Pension Examination Report’ and ‘First Guarantee Pension Target Report’ authored by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
“October 4, 2011, our daughter, Mrs Chinyere Christie Ekweonu, and Mr. K N. Nwanze, stood as surety for our son, Chidi Duru.
“On June 18, 2012 Justice D.U. Okorowo in a well-considered judgment, quashed the aforementioned draft Examination and Target reports of First Guarantee Pension produced by … PenCom.
“Justice D. U. Okorowo had before this judgment issued an ex-parte order on August 11, 2011 restraining PenCom from implementing the draft reports.
“In January 2013, the two individuals aforementioned, visited the then inspector general of police, and the then minister of police affairs respectively. The intention of both visits was to ensure the non-enforcement of the judgment of Justice D. U. Okorowo.
“Shortly after this visit our son, Chidi Duru, was declared wanted by the police and a spurious and made-up charge was preferred against him at the Magistrate Court in Abuja – which was quashed by the magistrate on grounds of abuse of court process and a mockery of, and contrary to, the judgment of Justice D. U. Okorowo.
“Notwithstanding the above, and three years later, on January 12, 2016 we became aware of another spurious charge preferred against our son, Chidi Duru, at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja October 5, 2015 by the EFCC – again at the instance of one of the two individuals aforenamed.
“Our son immediately entered appearance in the case by way of preliminary objection challenging the charge as another abuse of court process, ‘forum shopping’ and contrary to the judgment of Justice D. U. Okorowo.
“Arguments for the preliminary objection were heard on April 11, 2016 with ruling fixed for May 11, 2016.
“In March 2016, we advised our son to once more petition the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Mallami, and bring to his attention this continuing and never-ending malicious persecution and threat to his life.
“[Mallami] April 6, 2016 wrote the EFCC inter-alia ‘… to forward the case file to this office to enable the attorney general of the federation review the case file and take an informed decision.’
“When EFCC failed, refused, and neglected to respond to [Mallami’s] letter … [he] caused a reminder letter to be written to the EFCC on April 22, 2016.
“It is to be noted that this will be the fourth letter from the office of the attorney general on this subject matter to the EFCC.
“Two prior letters dated January 10 and 29, 2013 respectively had been written by [former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice], Mohammed Bello Adoke, requesting for the case file without response from EFCC.
“On April 27, 2016, the Maydan Legal Consult – solicitors to our son, wrote the EFCC requesting it to confirm if, in the light of the two recent letters from … Mallami, it still required the attendance of our son to any invitation.
“To this day, there has been no response to this letter.
“On May 10, 2016 our son, Chidi Duru, a lawyer and notary public, flew to Lagos in order to be in the court the next day, May 11, 2016, the date scheduled for the ruling on his preliminary objection.
“However, the court did not sit and the matter was adjourned to June 8, 2016 for ruling on the preliminary objection.”
Appeal to EFCC
“1. The continued detention of our daughter … Christie Chinyere Ekweonu is not in keeping with the laws of the land which specifically prohibit the arrest of another person in place of a suspect.
“Our son is not on-the-run and has always availed himself of every legal step provided under our laws.
“Even if the EFCC considers that he is on the run, which he is not, the EFCC can simply apply to the Ikeja High Court to request the judge to issue a bench warrant for his arrest.
“Or does this arrest have anything to do with a certain visit to the EFCC two weeks ago?
“2. We are sure that the EFCC is aware that you cannot arrest or detain a surety – see Section 178, and 179 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJ).
“3. Despite the provision of the law, does the arrest and detention of our daughter, wife and mother not confirm our suspicion of malicious persecution and threat to the life of our son?
“4. We most strongly appeal to the chairman of EFCC on all moral and judicial grounds to respond to the latest letters of … Mallami and order the immediate release of … Chinyere Christie Ekweonu, a director in the Ministry of Justice, who has been detained since May 11, 2016.”
The allegation
Duru said Imam, who could have been the fourth largest shareholder of (FGPL), along with eight other shareholders alleged that he forged Imam’s signature, to the effect that the key shareholders approved that Novare, a South African firm, should be admitted as an investor and shareholder in the company.
Out of about 37 shareholders, nine jointly petitioned PenCom which removed the management and board of directors, and imposed an interim management team and board.
However, seven of the nine later withdrew from the case, leaving Imam and one other shareholder to pursue an allegation Duru described as malicious and vindictive.
Duru and other core shareholders no longer have any say in the firm they founded and nurtured.
He insisted that he had no hand in the alleged forgery of Imam’s signature as he was neither the managing director nor executive director.
On June 18, 2012, Justice D.U. Okorowo, in a judgment 132 pages long, quashed the draft Examination and Target reports of FGPL produced by PenCom.
The court mandated PenCom to reverse the interim management imposed on FGPL and hand back the business to the original shareholders, of which the Chairman of the board is Mr. Ojo and Vice Chairman is Duru.
Confusing board of directors
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) recognises Imam as the chairman of FGPL but PenCom deals with Issa Iremu as chairman after they removed the original board members.
Asked whether the CAC has the power to impose a chairman on a firm it registered, Duru said it was based on the document PenCom filed to the commission.
The same PenCom also deals with Johnny Ojeghara as chairman and Chima Akaleze as a member of the board.
It is curious that PenCom refuses to obey court judgment which directed the industry regulator to hand over the firm to the shareholders.
Efforts to reach the commission for comments failed as its spokesman, Emeka Onuorah, did not answer calls to his telephone number or respond to text messages.
Duru appealed to the office of the federal attorney general and other relevant authorities to prevail on the EFCC and PenCom to obey court judgments.