The face-off between Femi Otedola, billionaire businessman, and Jim Ovia, chairman of Zenith Bank, over an alleged multibillion naira fraud has taken a turn for the worse, according to The Cable.<\/p>\n
Otedola had accused Zenith Bank of unlawfully using the account of his company, Seaforce Shipping Limited, to trade in 2011 without his knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n
Although this and other allegations are being investigated by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) of the police, moves are being made to resolve the matters amicably.<\/p>\n
The Cable has contacted Ovia and Zenith Bank for comments.<\/p>\n
UNAUTHORISED TRANSACTIONS<\/p>\n
Despite having not been operated since 2010, Seaforce Shipping\u2019s account continued to be used for trading \u2014 completely unknown to Otedola, according to his petition to the police.<\/p>\n
Although Otedola said Seaforce never applied for nor took a loan from Zenith Bank, unauthorised trading running into billions of naira continued on the account.<\/p>\n
When asked to provide documentation \u2014 including offer letters to support the grant of the said loans \u2014 Zenith Bank reportedly failed to do so.<\/p>\n
Otedola discovered the suspicious activities only recently \u2014 13 years after the transactions \u2014 when he was tipped off by a whistle-blower in Zenith Bank.<\/p>\n
When he confronted Zenith Bank\u2019s officials, TheCable learnt, they apologised.<\/p>\n
Otedola produced a letter written on March 19, 2018, by Zenith Bank to Shofolawe-Bakare & Co, Seaforce\u2019s auditors, stating a debt of only N2,278,420 on the same account, as against the N5 billion recorded in the bank statement seen by TheCable.<\/p>\n
Curiously, on the day the letter was written, the bank statement showed a debt of N2.9 billion \u2014 compared to the N2 million stated in the letter signed by Taofik Bashir (internal audit control) and Edwin Kind Olie (group head, telecom).<\/p>\n
Transactions of over N16 billion were recorded against Seaforce\u2019s account from 2011 to 2024.<\/p>\n
Otedola queried who made the payments to reduce the purported debt from N16,927,628,581.84 to N11,010,924,522.71 because he was not in the know of the transactions.