...says NICON Group sold its shares in airline since 2012
- Asks FIRS to go after John Nnorom over expatriate quota papers
The Group Managing Director of Energy Group of Companies, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (OFR) has described the online report of Sahara Reporters alleging his arrest as wicked, concocted and sheer imagination of the writer. Ibrahim, who issued a statement yesterday shortly after Sahara Reporters went public, said the report, which was evidently planted to scandalise him, was of no issue to him. He said he would have ignored the report but that there was need to put the records straight.
According to Ibrahim, "Our company, NICON Group, purchased 48 per cent shares of Air Nigeria sometimes in 2010 and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, came with alleged tax liabilities for the period of 2006 to 2010. "They claimed that he who buys assets buys the liabilities of the company. That was in 2012.
"We requested for reconciliation of the taxes, which was however not conclusive. "We closed down the airline and sold our shares to a commercial bank in Nigeria," he said. "Rather than pursuing the new owner for the taxes, FIRS instituted a civil suit against me at the Federal High Court, Abuja. "Whereas, the same law of who buys the assets buys the liabilities should apply which is why FIRS should pursue the liability of Air Nigeria with the new owners," Ibrahim added.
Commenting further, he said: "Yesterday, the FIRS enforcement unit solicited my assistance about the new buyer; I opted to give them the full details and documents. "Before I finished doing that, I read in Sahara Reporters that I had been arrested and detained for N6.8bn fraud, which is not true."
Commenting further on the issue, Ibrahim explained that before he gave them the details of the new owners of Air Nigeria, he said the FIRS had alleged that Air Nigeria procured tax papers in 2010 for expatriates, "But I asked them how that concerned a Board Chairman.
I asked them to ask the Executive Director (Finance), one John Nnorom, whose responsibility falls under that," According to him, "We are genuine business people and we need a proper environment to operate our business.
"If I have committed any offence in becoming a nonexecutive chairman of a company like Air Nigeria where I do not have personal share, charge me to court and wait for the judgement of the court," he added.
Ibrahim added that "if an officer of a corporation committed an offence such as forgery of tax papers and it is true, look for the officer and charge him to court not the Board Chairman of the corporation," he stressed.