Popular socialite and businessman, Emeka Okonkwo, widely known as E-Money, is under investigation at the Nigeria Police Force Criminal Investigation Department Annex, Alagbon, Lagos State.
The investigation is alleged to be with respect to an alleged ₦1.21 billion dispute with a Vehicle dealing company, Autocorp Limited.
Okonkwo, the Chief Executive Officer of Emy Cargo and Shipping Services Limited, and the owner of the vehicle company was invited for questioning over the issue.
In a petition to the FCID, the lawyer representing the vehicle dealing company, Raymond Olaiya, described the monetary dispute involving the company and Okonkwo as that of “stealing, fraudulent conversion and criminal sale.”
Speaking with The Punch, the Sales Manager for the vehicle dealing company, Patricia Iduwre, stated that the company contracted Okonkwo to clear eight vehicles in 2020/2021.
Iduwre said the vehicles comprised six TXL Prado and two Lexus jeeps valued at N1, 209,200,000, adding that despite Okonkwo clearing the vehicles, the company had yet to take delivery of them to date.
She said, “When we gave him the vehicles to clear, they were valued at N1.2bn. All along, we thought the vehicles were at his warehouse but recently, he said he had sold the vehicles. He said he sold the vehicles because we owed him, whereas we did not owe him.
“In this business, it is after an agent supplies that you pay and he has not even supplied any of the vehicles. We involved our lawyer and reported the case to the police and it was during dialogue with him (Okonkwo) that we got to know he had sold the vehicles. When the police intervened, the reason he gave for selling the vehicles was that we owed him.
“He also said our chairman asked him to sell the vehicles but when the police engaged our chairman, he said he never gave him (Okonkwo) such a directive. Our chairman also told the police to tell Okonkwo to provide evidence that he said he should sell it.
“The police asked if he (Okonkwo) claimed to have sold the vehicles at the instance of the chairman, did he give us the money? He then said he used the money to offset debts.
“When he was asked which debt, he said my chairman asked him to use the vehicles to borrow money from the bank. But my chairman debunked that claim.
“My chairman said he is eligible to borrow money from the bank himself, so why would he ask Okonkwo to borrow money from the bank? What we want are the vehicles we asked him to clear; we don’t want any money.”
Iduwre, while demanding the vehicles, urged the police to investigate the case.