Wife of former Vice president Abubakar
Atiku, Titi, yesterday told an Ikeja High Court
that the pastor whom she has accused of
defrauding her of N918 million was her
“errand boy”.
Mrs Atiku last year dragged the accused,
Nsikak Akpan-Jacobs, before the court with
claims that he defrauded her of the said
amount of money.
She petitioned the EFCC who filed a 14-
count charge against Akpan-Jacobs
bordering on conspiracy, stealing and
fraudulent conversion of property worth
N918 million belonging to THA Shipping
Maritime Services Ltd.
According to investigations by EFCC, THA
Shipping Maritime Services Ltd, a company
created in 2000, is owned by Mrs Atiku,
Akpan-Jacobs and Fred Holmes, her German
business partner with Mrs Atiku being the
major shareholder with 49 per cent shares,
while Holmes and Akpan-Jacobs each had
25 per cent shares. It is alleged that Akpan-
Jacobs, who doubled as the company’s
Managing Director and Secretary, went to
the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to
alter the company’s share holding formula
in his favour and forged the company’s
board resolutions. He allegedly allotted 70
per cent shares to himself and 15 per cent
shares each to Titi and Holmes. With the
new shares formula, he secretly sold a
property belonging to the company to Dana
Motors ltd for N918 million and used the
money to allegedly fund his gubernatorial
campaign in Akwa Ibom in the last
election.
The case was called for hearing yesterday
and while being examined by Mr Amos Ibe,
the defence counsel to Akpan-Jacobs, Mrs
Atiku said Akpan-Jacobs was just her
errand boy whom she trusted and made
the managing director of her company
because he was a pastor. She told the court
that she formed the company with her
maiden name, Florence Doregos, because
back then she was in public office and that
with her influence, a lot of people wanted
to do business with them. She alleged that
Akpan-Jacobs used her company building
as collateral to collect a huge loan from a
bank and that when the banks were
coming after him, he started to sell off
some of their properties.
“I did not know that it would turn
out like this. I would have
documented all our transactions. I
admit I didn’t have any documents to
prove that I invested money into the
company, Jacobs cannot deny that I
that I did not invest money. He is
guilty from head to toe. Jacobs did
everything on my behalf as I was still
in the civil service as at that time. I
could not leave my post then. He gave
me a breakdown of expenses to be
incurred and I still have the
breakdown, but he never signed it.
Being the one with the largest share,
I contributed N49 million to buy the
land situated at No. 63A,Amuwo
Odofin Lagos, while my German
partner, Holmes, brought two cranes
from Germany. He even, at one point,
forged my signature. We put a Caveat
Emptor on the property warning
prospective buyers, but Dana Motors
went ahead and bought the property
claiming that they had an agreement
with the managing director to collect
their money, should any litigation
arose. My lawyer later got to know
that the property was sold for N918
million, which Jacobs claimed was
used to offset the loan he collected
from the bank and also pay off other
loans. All this, he did, without my
knowledge.”
When asked by counsel to the accused why
he was made a managing director when he
was just an errand boy according to her,
Mrs Atiku replied
“He was made an MD to stand in for
Mr Fred Holmes because Holmes had
not resigned from his job. When it
was time for Akpan to step down as
the MD, he refused because by then
he had perfected his fraudulent acts.”
Responding to claims by Akpan-Jacobs
counsel that THA Shipping Maritime
Services Ltd was owned by the accused and
that he only brought her on board to bring
in big briefs and clients, Mrs Atiku said
“Is he the one who bought the land,
built the building? He was merely
supervising. My clout gave the
company a lot of prestige, a lot of
people wanted to do business with
us and people brought a lot of
containers to us,” she said
The presiding judge, Justice Oluwatoyin
Ipaye, adjourned the case until July 6th for
continuation of trial.
