The Anambra State commissioner for Special Duties, Barr Vincent Ezenwajiaku has resigned from his position.
This followed the news that he has been declared wanted by the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, of the police over alleged fraud running into N10 million.
Ezenwajiaku, who addressed journalists in Awka on Thursday said that the action of the SFU was calculated to smear his image and also cause the governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi to relieve him of his job.
He disclosed that the matter which led to his being declared wanted was a business transaction between him and his ‘friend and brother’, Mr Chuks Mgbemena, who saw the prospect of his company, BIO Manufacturing Limited and begged him to acquire 34 percent share in it.
According to Ezenwajiaku, the matter was still in the Awka High Court, and he had continually been in contact with the SFU, Mgbemena and the Anambra Police Command on the matter.
He stated that for the police to go ahead and declare him wanted when they knew how to reach him was a height of the plot to smear his person.
For this reason, he said he would amend the charges in court to include kidnap, as men of the unit had last Monday visited his office and whisked away a permanent secretary in his ministry, Engr Damian Obi, who they dumped in Lagos while he(Ezenwajiaku) was in State Executive Council meeting with the governor.
He also disclosed that he would amend the suit to demand the sum of N250 million from the SFU, the police force and Mr Chuks Mgbemena.
“I am a lawyer, a pharmacist and a businessman. All my life, I have never been involved in fraud, and have never been invited by the police for anything that has to do with crime.
“What I want to tell you gentlemen is that the reason for which the Special Fraud Unit declared me wanted is a civil debt arising from a business transaction between two friends and brothers from the same village which went sour.
“Mr Chuks Peter Mgbemena in 1998 begged me to invest in my company, BIO Manufacturing Company which is the manufacturing arm of my company.
“We manufacture plastics used in bottling pharmaceutical products. This is a man who paid me N8.1million over a period of three years to acquire 34 percent share of my company which I floated in 1992 with my capital, without any bank loan. In 2000, he willingly opted out of the business.
“In 2004, the company folded and a valuation firm came in and after evaluating the company, recommended I pay him the sum of N7.5million, so that he will bear part of the cost of our loss. He accepted and we shook hands, but shortly I fell sick and was unable to pay, I told him to exercise patience that I will pay him, and later when I was appointed commissioner, he got aggrieved and promised to deal with me”.
Ezenwajiaku berated the SFU for turning the unit into a debt collection agency, while also dabbling unto what he said was purely a civil matter and turning it into fraud.
He disclosed that he had earlier made a part payment of N1.5 million to Mgbemena, and was planning to pay in another installment when he heard news of his being a wanted man.
Although he said he would prove to Mgbemena that he was not a fraudulent person by ensuring that he paid the debt in full, he insisted that Mgbemena and the SFU must pay for the smear campaign they had mounted against him.
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