Moreno Group In N22.1m Scandal

.How Campany Allegedly Collected 9,600 Bags Of Cement Without Payment

.Registrar, Sheriff Failed To Enforce Court Order

A failed contract transaction between Moreno Group of Companies and a Lagos-based company, Anney Trade Link for the supply of 9,600 bags of Dangote cements has become a subject of controversy since 2012.

While Anney Trade Link fulfilled its own part of the agreement by supplying the cements after collecting the LPO, Moreno Group had allegedly failed to pay the money for the goods supplied. A total sum of N22, 1760, 000 has not been paid to Anneey Trade Link since the supplies were made. As the whole the deal turned sour, Anney Trade Link took the matter to the an Abuja court who ruled in its favoured, effecting the judgement has turned to another crisis sincve 2013.

Bosun Anifowoshe,who facilitated the funding of the LPO narrated how the whole botched deal started. He said: “I was introduced to the Moreno Group by Mr. Gbenga Rufai, who is a friend to the Chairman of Moreno Group, Mr. Adesina Oke. Both of them went to the Lagos State University, Ojo.

“Mr. Gbenga Rufai is a contractor, and had been on Mr. Adesina Oke to help him secure contract from his company. Mr. Oke eventually obliged him when he asked him if he could supply Dangote brand of cement to some of their sites in Lagos, to which Mr. Rufai said yes. This was in April 2012, then I was still in the banking industry. Mr. Rufai in turn brought the deal to me to finance. I told him the only way I can get involved was if the LPO was issued in the name of a company I had control over, and he agreed. He subsequently submitted my company name – Anney Trade Link to Moreno Group.

“As part of the due dilligence I carried out before executing the LPO, I requested to meet Mr. Rufai’s contact in Moreno Group, who happened to be their Chairman, Mr. Adesina Oke. An appointment was booked for me to meet him in Abuja late April 2012. We met at Chrystal Lounge, Wuse II in the evening of the day I travelled to Abuja. He re-assured me that payment would be made promptly upon delivery and submission of proof. He said that was the least he could do to assist his friend, our mutual friend Mr. Gbenga Rufai.

“The following morning I visited the Moreno office then at the Central Business District where I met with their Procurement and Suppliers Relations Manager, Mr. Ephraim Itodo. He was a crucial personnel in the transaction chain, hence the importance of meeting him. We exchanged business cards and he promised to notify me when the LPOs were ready. Eventually the LPOs were issued, but in the name of two other companies – CGO Limited and Trinacria Star. When we raised eyebrow about this, we were told that those companies were sister companies to Moreno and they have the same management. Moreso these LPOs were signed by the Procurement Manager and the Financial Controller for Moreno group, so our fear was allayed.

“The supply of 9,600 bags of Dangote Cement was to three of their construction sites in Lagos viz – Ajibulu Bridge in Mafolu, a Secondary School rehabilitation at Eric Moore and the Arbitration Centre at Lekki. All were Lagos State Government projects. The delivery was done in three days, I personally got the Project Managers for each site sign the waybill. Payment term on the LPO was three weeks after delivery, and this was due late May 2012.

“They of course did not pay, and they had done everything to evade payment, which in retrospect showed that it was abinitio a pre-meditated fraud. They never intended to pay. When we took them to court, they denied that there was any relationship between Moreno and the companies in whose names they issued the LPOs. Luck ran against them when aside that their senior management employees were signatories to the LPO, I was also able to establish their relationship with one of the names – Trinacria Star. The Mnaging Director of Moreno, Mr. Nicola Busacca is an “A” signatory and could sign alone in all the accounts of Trinacria Star with Skye Bank, so also is Mr. Adesina Oke, the Chairman a signatory in all these accounts, yet they wanted to avoid payment on that technicality.”

Anney Trade Link went to court as claimed by Mr Anifowoshe. a Federal High Court in Abuja held the case and decalred that Moreno Group erred in law not to pay for the execution of the LPO. Judgement was given by the court in 2013, but all effort to enforece the judgement has been proved abortive since then till now.

Frustrated by its inability of the enforcement unit of the Federal Capital High Court (FCT) to auction two immovable properties belonging to a building and civil engineering company in Abuja, Anny Trade Link sought the intervention of the chief judge, Federal Capital Territory.

Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT had in a ruling dated November 28, 2013 ordered the auction of two semi-detached bungalow situated at 21/ 23 A. Y. Ahmed Street, Trade Moore Estate, off Airport Road, Abuja and Plot 673 COO Institutional District, Airport Road Abuja to Moreno Group of Companies Limited for its inability to pay the sum of N22,176,000 being the total contract sum for the supply of 9,600 bags of cement to the defendant’s site in Lagos State.

The judge has while delivering judgment in Suit No: FCT /HC/CV/2524/13 on May 13, 2013 ordered Moreno Group of Companies Limited to pay Anny Trade Link the sum of N22,176,000.00 and 10 percent interest on the judgment sum from the date of judgment until its final liquidation.

He further granted the judgment creditor leave to levy execution on the immovable property of the judgment debtor ( Moreno Group of Companies) after the company failed to pay and upon dismissal of its motion for stay for the execution of the judgment and attachment of the property

However, several years after waiting to reap the fruits of their legal victory, the judgment creditor has through its Counsel, P.I. Oyewole in a letter to the Chief Registrar dated May 2016, lamented that enforcement unit of the court is subjecting the order of Justice Kekemeke to administrative review.

According to him, a superior court of record gave judgment and order in the open court, while the enforcement unit is frustrating the judgment as well as the order in its own registry.

The counsel in the letter noted that the judgment creditor has complied with all the requirement laid down by the High Court (Civil Procedure ) Rule, sheriff and Civil Processes Act as well as the Judgment Enforcement Rules in the realization of its rights and yet has been unable to enjoy the fruit of its judgment because of alleges whims and caprices of the enforcement unit.

He added that the provisions of the Sheriff and civil Processes Act as well as the judgment enforcement rules are replete with protections for both the Deputy Sheriff, the purchaser of an auctioned property including the victim of any auction sale, and so the enforcement unit has no reason for constitution itself into an overzealous officer.

He therefore urged the Chief Judge and the chief registrar to intervene by ordering an immediate compliance with the order of Justice Kekemeke on the disposal of the attached property.

Integrity Reporters made frantic effort to get the story on the part of Moreno Group. One of the telephone numbers of the chairman of the Group, Mr. Adesina Oke was called. Adeshina picked the call but declined comments. He said he was just the chairman as the Group has an operational Managing Director, Nicola Bosacca. He sent the phone number of Bosacca, who refused to pick his call or reply to the text messages sent to him.