Innocent
Chukwuma, the founder and CEO of Innoson Motors, on Tuesday accused the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and GTBank of conspiring with
some unnamed foreign entities to drive Nigeria’s only indigenous auto
manufacturing company out of business.
“We have it now on good authority that there is
a grand conspiracy by some international competitors of Innoson Vehicles who
have conspired with a financial institution to pull down Innoson Vehicles at
all cost,” Mr. Chukwuma said in a statement to Premium Times signed by Cornel
Osigwe, head of corporate communications at Innoson.
The company linked the alleged conspiracy to
“the latest increase of patronage of Innoson Vehicles by the Federal
Government.”
Mr. Osigwe attributed the improved sales to a
recent upsurge in orders placed by the Nigerian military, the Federal Road
Safety Corps, the Nigerian Immigration Service, amongst other federal
authorities.
The allegation could further complicate the
worsening tension between Innoson and GTBank.
Mr. Chukwuma was arrested by the EFCC in the
morning of December 19 at his residence in Enugu, accusing him of attempted
fraud, theft and forgery.
The allegations were reported by GTBank, which
said Mr. Chukwuma forged bank and shipping documents to clear some goods a few
years ago.
Innoson denied all allegations of wrongdoing,
filing a counter-claim that the bank charged some arbitrary deductions to his
company accounts.
Although the initial claim that was allegedly
deducted from Innoson Group’s accounts was about N500 million, the amount has
since shot up to more than N8 billion naira today, the automaker said.
- Premium Times
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