The
Management of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, has
read the newspaper report in the Saturday August 22nd, 2015, edition of
Thisday Newspapers in which the founding Managing Director of Chams Plc,
Mr. Demola Aladekomo claimed that Chams City Project, spread across
Abuja, Portharcourt, Benin City and Lagos are folding up, having gone
bankrupt as a result of its intellectual property and technical partners
allegedly been stolen by the NIMC.
The
National Identity Management Commission categorically denies all the
allegations in the report and reject in its entirety the provocative and
disrespectful attempt by the Mr. Aladekomo led Management of Chams Plc
to blame NIMC for its poor performance which has resulted in the
reported shut down of Chams City Project operations, perhaps including
the suspension of the Chams Plc shares from trading on the Nigerian
Stock Exchange sometime ago.
Management has
noted the unfortunate and unsuccessful attempt to twist facts and the
sequence of events to suit their claims and mislead the general public,
including the misrepresentation on the FEC approved 30.66bn three year
funding for the NIMS project, in spite of the fact that Management had
published audited accounts of how the amount released so far had been
spent. The Management of NIMC considers this development as most
embarrassing and unbecoming of a publicly quoted company in Nigeria. It
is indeed preposterous to accuse a Federal Government Agency of
'stealing Intellectual Property and Technical Partners' from a private
sector operator that claims to be the number one in the industry.
The
reporter who authored the newspaper report stated that he contacted the
Director General of the NIMC, Mr Chris 'E Onyemenam, to respond to the
allegations but he 'declined'. Unfortunately the reporter did not
report, in the interest of the public and fairness, the reason Mr.
Onyemenam, who is himself a member of the Nigerian Bar, declined
comments. For the records, Management reiterates that the DG declined
comments as the substance of the news report is the subject of an
arbitration proceeding that is still pending. It would therefore be most
inappropriate for NIMC to join issues with Chams Plc on the pages of
newspapers on a pending arbitration. Prior to this, the matter had been
dealt with in three different cases at the Federal High Courts Abuja
where Chams Plc and Chams Consortium Limited had filed different suits.
Management
had and would continue to resist every attempt to lure it to join
issues with Chams Plc and or Chams Consortium Limited, its erstwhile
Concessionaire, or any other company, institution, associate or person,
sponsored or not, to make a media discourse of the question of the
Concession it granted, following due process, in 2007 to Chams
Consortium Limited.
It would however suffice
to state that Management, following repeated inquires from several well
respected media persons including the reporter who authored the Saturday
report, is aware of a renewed effort by Mr. Aladekomo at waging a
campaign of calumny, (for whatever reasons) with misleading information
and stories like the one published in the Thisday Saturday, August
22nd.
Before then, in 2014, Mr. Aladekomo had
published a Lecture he gave at the Chartered Institute of Bankers,
Nigeria, with very serious allegations against the Management of NIMC
and the person of the Director General. There were so many other similar
efforts which Management considered on the whole as distracting. It
would therefore not be surprising to Management if in the coming days
and weeks leading to the final hearing of the Arbitration such articles,
opinions and news report will flood the Nigeria media.
Management
is conscious of the fact that since this is the subject of an
arbitration proceeding it cannot respond to these allegations and
misinformation beyond this. Not that it cannot and or does not have
enough facts to expose the underlying shenanigans being perpetrated by
Chams Plc. The appropriate thing to do, we feel, and have taken
appropriate steps, is to report the matter to the Arbitration Panel.
Furthermore we advise the general public, the Securities and Exchange
Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange to take note, check the
documents filed by the Company and more importantly to await the outcome
of the Arbitral proceedings. It will not only help set the records
straight, in law and equity, it would also help prove the character and
intent of the personages involved beyond reasonable doubt, including
especially the allegations of theft of intellectual property and
technical partners, utilization of funds raised from the capital market,
etc.
Just so that the public is aware,
Management can confirm that a Concession was granted to Chams Consortium
Limited in July 2010 and this was terminated in line with the
Concession Agreement in February 2015 for non performance. Chams Plc had
filed three suits in Court and these were promptly heard and Chams Plc
agreed with the Court ruling to revert to the Arbitration process which
is currently ongoing. Therefore the allegation that NIMC had used
'federal might' to frustrate its effort and deny it justice at the
Courts is malicious, provocative and intended to give a bad impression
and mislead the public about the operations and conduct of the
Management of the NIMC.
Signed
Management
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