Following over a hundred petitions from across the country on the
operations of an alleged Wonder bank and its nefarious activities, the
EFCC on Thursday October 6, arrested the Managing Director of
“Lets Partner With You Ltd”, Chief. Patrick Shanchi Nwokike at his
residence in Enugu, Enugu state.
Petitions from a cross section of Nigerians and cutting across religious, gender,
ethnic, economic and social class indicate that the company had over
the past five years solicited and obtained deposits of more than
N4,000,000,000 ( Four Billion Naira Only) from the general public with
promise of mouth watering interest in return.
According to investigations conducted by the Commission, the company
has no license to solicit and manage funds for the public nor was it
registered with Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, or the Nigeria
Deposit Insurance Company, NDIC.
Further investigations revealed
that a 10% (Ten percent) interest was for some time paid on invested
capital which for no justifiable reason, was suddenly stopped and all
efforts by depositors to have at least the capital of their investments
returned nor terminate their investments proved abortive.
Many
of the complainants alleged that the operators of the scheme especially,
Chief Nwokike not only live very flamboyant lifestyles but acquired
several personal assets as well as using their deposits for
philanthropic enterprise. The company was also found to have over
six accounts in about four banks with the CEO of “Lets Partner With You
Ltd” and his wife being the only signatories to the accounts.
In his statement, Nwokike who acknowledged that depositor’s funds with
his company was about N4,000,000,000( Four Billion Naira Only) , denied
operating both money lending and investment business as alleged by the
petitioners.
He stated that his company is into partnership
business which receives money from interested partners who desires
interest from their money after it might have been infused into
businesses especially that of small scale traders.
Nwokike argued
that the present problem facing his company is as a result of the
general economic downturn in the country; an argument punctured by his
depositors who said his company started defaulting even before the
present economic woes.
Investigation is still on-going to
ascertain the extent of the company’s operations, its culpability,
likely recovery of funds and possible prosecution
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