Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, has dismissed as a smear campaign, the petition by members of Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC), accusing him of fraudulent diversion of N20 billion club’s asset.
CP Adeoye was reacting to a petition by 33 members of the Club to the Inspector General of Police, alleging fraudulent diversion and misappropriation of the club’s assets and finances.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ATIC was founded by Adeoye as a cooperative club to pool funds for investment and sharing of profits among its members.
The petitioners had alleged that their investments were shrouded in secrecy and opacity, with no clarity in sums invested, contracts entered with third parties and decision-making processes.
According to them, the idea was that the club would pull funds together to invest in various products and platforms and profits will be shared based on the investments made by each member.
They claimed that membership of the club stood at no less than 1,400 in 2023.
But the police chief dismissed the petition, saying that the club’s asset, amounting to about N20 billion, was intact and still growing contrary to the petitioners’ claim.
He described the petition as “a smear campaign”, aimed at tarnishing his hard earned reputation.
He attributed the action of the petitioners to greed and avarice.
He said that he founded the club in 2018 and also constituted an executive management team and Board of Trustees (BoT) with the approval of the members.
Adeoye also said that he chaired both the executive management team and the BoT.
He said that the club had internal land and stock exchange systems where members could sell to each other and pay commission to the club from where they generated money for payment of dividend which they paid every year since inception.
He recalled that the agitation started when the “breakaway group”, which had been expelled from the club learnt that the asset of the club was worth about N20 billion.
“That was when greed took over them and the desire to sit on the humongous wealth, which they did not create, got a better part of them
“The arrowhead of the agitation joined two years after the club was formed, he is one of the smallest shareholders with 60,000 shares, which is the minimum anyone could have.
“In his quest to manage the wealth he never earned, he started attacking officials and poisoning the minds of members.
“Our members know that we are solid and that we don’t have any problem.
“They know that we are prosperous, stable and always faithful,” he said.
Adeoye said that members were clear that they joined because of him based on his integrity and gave him free hand to select those he could work with.
“I hand-picked those who had shown commitment with whom I constituted an executive management team and a BoT,” he said.
Adeoye further said the club had an Annual General Meeting in August 2023, “where the account was laid bare and everybody was satisfied and the board was commended.
“But in the middle of the financial year, they said they want the account audited but we said there was no problem with the account and the process must be duly filled but they said it must be now.
“When we discovered that they had become criminals was when they threatened to hunt down a member in Australia, allegedly to recover their money.
“Out of ignorance, they do not know that the person they were talking about, who is the highest shareholder with 11 million shares, is not the treasurer.
“It was at this point that we expelled them and they started causing trouble, they have nothing more than nuisance value,” Adeoye said.
On the activities of the club, he said: “we create wealth by investing in real estate, stocks, forex and crypto with which we generate liquid cash for dividend payment.
“At Sujimoto in Banana Island, we bought the entire fifth floor with five apartments for N1.79 billion, so far we have paid approximately N1 billion and the apartments are to be sold for N4.9 billion. It’s still being constructed.
“We established a loan scheme, which loans a maximum of N1 million to members at one per cent.”
Adeoye further said that the club had set up an exit lounge, where those who want to exit the club, either voluntarily or expelled could process and get a settlement for their claims.
“Those who refused to honour an invitation to that lounge are the ones creating the impression that they are being scammed,” he said.
He dismissed the petitioners’ claim that he was moving out of the country with his family as baseless.
He said that his wife was the Chairperson of the Police Officers Wife Association and that his son was carrying out mandatory service year in the country.
“I have told members that when I am out of service, the work of the club will become full time for me.
“We are volunteers, nobody is paying anybody,” the police commissioner said. (NAN)
