The Nigerian police in Abuja are investigating Zenith Bank Plc over alleged falsification of a shareholder’s bank statements and withholding of share dividends.
The investigation was prompted by a petition from Aquitane Oil and Gas Limited which accused the Zenith Bank of falsifying the oil firm’s account statement.
Aquitane Oil also accused the bank of refusing to pay over N1.4billion dividends accrued from 10,775,299 and 17,425,300 shares units belonging to its affiliate firms – Southern Grace Investment Ltd and Globular Trading Investment Services Ltd respectively.
Aquitane Oil, which petitioned the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) in Abuja, accused the bank of falsifying its account statement in an elaborate effort to conceal the non-payment of the dividends of the shares of the two subsidiary firms.
The company said the two subsidiaries had not been paid their dividends since the purchase of the shares about 2008 and that the bank falsified its own account statements to “conceal” the failure to pay the accumlated dividends.
Premium Times learnt that the police interrogated two representatives of Zenith Bank regarding the case at the FCID Abuja on Wednesday. The Zenith Bank officials were said to be from the oil and gas and legal departments of Zenith Bank.
The police did not detain the officials because they were not direct subjects of investigation.
A source said the police would still interrogate other officials of the bank, like the chief compliance officer and the account officer handling the accounts of the bank.
When contacted for his comment over the telephone on Thursday, Zenith Bank’s spokesperson, Ayoola Kusimo, rather asked, “How did you get that information?”
When encouraged to respond to the issues and care less about the source of the information, Mr Kusimo said, “I’m not aware.”
The Investigating Police Officer, Anota Oluseye, a superintendent of police, said he “cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.”
The FCID launched the investigation after Aquitane Oil and Gas Limited to sent a petition dated 11 October 2024 to the Inspector-General of Police Olukayode Egbetokun.
In the petition, submitted through Lukman O. Fagbemi & Co, the petitioner called on the IGP to investigate Zenith Bank for attempting to “conceal the illegalities” concerning the company’s shares in the bank.
Aquitane Oil and Gas Limited stated that “dividends of 10,775,299 and 17,425,300 units of Zenith Bank shares bought by Southern Grace Investment Ltd and Globular Trading Investment Services Ltd respectively, have not been paid to the firms since 2008.”
The Zenith Bank shares were bought during the Initial Public Offer held by Zenith Bank in 2008 with Veritas Registrars Ltd as the registrar.
Aquitance Oil said in 2020, Southern Grace and Globular Trading realised that the dividends for their shares had not been paid by Zenith Bank since 2008.
