BILLIONAIRES AT WAR: OTEDOLA’S BATTLE WITH JIM OVIA OVER MULTI-BILLION NAIRA ‘FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS’ ON HIS ACCOUNT AT ZENITH BANK

The corporate feud between billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, and Jim Ovia, the chairman of Zenith Bank, over an alleged multibillion naira fraud is getting worse -with more messy allegations unfolding. 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.

Over the weekend, a report emanated that Otedola, the Chairman of FBN Holdings and majority owner of Geregu Power, was up in arms against Zenith Bank over a controversial debt involving his former company, Zenon Petroleum & Gas and some other firms in which he has interests. Otedola accused Zenith Bank of perpetrating banking fraud against him and his companies. He claimed that Zenith controversially disposed of his shares in the bank, manipulated the company’s bank accounts, and forged documents to cover up the alleged crimes. These and other allegations are being investigated by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) of the police, while moves are reportedly being made to resolve the matters amicably.

According to Otedola in the latest report, “despite having not been operated since 2010, his company, Seaforce Shipping’s account continued to be used for trading — completely unknown to him”. Although Otedola said Seaforce never applied for nor took a loan from Zenith Bank, he said unauthorised trading running into billions of naira continued on the account.

When asked to provide documentation — including offer letters to support the grant of the said loans — Zenith Bank reportedly failed to do so. Otedola discovered the suspicious activities only recently — 13 years after the transactions — when he was tipped off by a whistle-blower in Zenith Bank. When he confronted Zenith Bank’s officials, they apologised – a report by The Cable said.

Otedola produced a letter written on March 19, 2018, by Zenith Bank to Shofolawe-Bakare & Co, Seaforce’s 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.

Curiously, on the day the letter was written, the bank statement showed a debt of N2.9 billion — compared to the N2 million stated in the letter signed by Taofik Bashir (internal audit control) and Edwin Kind Olie (group head, telecom). Transactions of over N16 billion were recorded against Seaforce’s account from 2011 to 2024.

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. Seaforce now has a debt of N5,916,704,059.13 as a result, a chunk of it being interest charges on the transactions. A senior official of the bank has already been questioned by the police.

Meanwhile, Zenon, Seaforce, Luzon Oil and Gas, Garment Care Limited, and  Otedola have secured a federal high court injunction against Zenith Bank, Quantum Zenith Securities and Investment, Veritas Registrar, and Central Securities Clearing System, restraining them from trading with shares or paying dividends.

This injunction subsists until the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.

-additional reports from Premium Times & The Cable.