EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: I AM CARRYING OUT A VISION AND NOT BUSINESS: SO NO MEDIA TRAIL CAN SILENCE ME- GORA
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. PHILEMON GORA ON HIS CURRENT TRAVAIL WITH THE EFCC

The Chairman of Time Microfinance Bank, Cashflow ABI Network Ltd, and President of Global Funds Inc. Dr. Philemon Ibrahim. Gora is currently facing charges of fraud in the Federal High Court Abuja. He was granted bail by the trail judge in June 2018.

His determination to make a difference and to better people’s lives drove him to pursue a vision, an empowerment scheme which the Nigerian security agencies and financial regulators see as fraudulent venture.

Gora spoke to a group of journalists on fraud allegation against him by the EFCC and his so-called vision which he claimed is for empowerment rather than a business let alone being a Ponzi scheme.

Read on for more of Gora’s side of the story behind the allegation especially the scandalous trending videos labeling him a fraudster.

QUESTION: Welcome Sir. It will seem that the mere mention of your name goes with several controversies. Why is it so? Are you misjudged on several occasions?

GORA: The case concerning my business activities and all the allegations from the EFCC is in the Court of competent jurisdiction so there are certain things I will have to avoid saying in order not to bridge the sub judice rule.
However, for the benefits of my followers, may I use this opportunity to enlighten them on certain issues they are confused of. Let me start by saying that only God and myself know the real truth about the genuine nature or honest intention of all my business activities in Nigeria and abroad.
You may be right in saying that the mere mentioning of my name brings controversy. I may support your position because the government agencies and some powerful individuals generate this controversy around me s they cannot understand the secret of my business. So since they cannot understand what I do, they become confused and I their confusion stoke controversy around me and all my activities.
The controversies tied around my person and my business activities is more than misjudgment. it is total destruction to my person. My detractors want to reduce my self-worth and they are fighting by the day to achieve that. My consolation is that everyone believes in God though the, concept may be different. Let this same God who we all believe in expose me or my detractors. I am sorry I have to use God here as support though some people may take this as fallacious but I have no other support than God as the issue and fight is trying to overwhelm me.

QUESTION: It seems almost all your established organizations have been involved in one scandal or the other, why so?

GORA: It is not and cannot be so. The problem of this so-called scandal started in 2012 when my accounts both personal and business were frozen. We operated a scheme for empowerment of masses up until 2012. Threatened by the high success and level of empowerment across Nigeria, some top PDP members of the last administration conspired against me using state apparatus/institutions with obnoxious intentions to cripple the whole scheme thereby frustrating my good intentions and rendering the beneficiaries hopeless. They succeeded through a complete frozen of all my personal and company’s accounts. From that point, I have not recovered from the blow it dealt to my vison. Since then I have been trying with little success and failures because of one distraction through arrests and incarcerations. All my companies are registered. Why do I seem to experience failure in Nigeria? Why am I not failing in other countries like the USA, Dubai and Ghana? I am angry that it seems I am failing in Nigeria my country and succeeding in other countries. But let me leave it there for now.

QUESTION: What is your thought on the trending EFCC video labeling you a fraudster? Are you not ashamed considering your integrity and stand as a Christian evangelist?

GORA: I know you journalists are ready to punch me hard with is question. I will rather not commend much on this because the whole ingredient of this issue is in court. If I am to speak the real truth, some staff of the EFCC and even the CBN will lose their job. However, after the court case, I will speak again to the media on this matter.
But for the main time, consider the trending EFCC videos as media trial. The main trial is in court. We are meeting there. Kindly follow my trial in court to know the true position on the video. A lot of things will be exposed in court which I don’t need to talk about it here to avoid contempt of court. If the EFCC has any criminal evidence against me, let them bring it to court. They don’t need to get words from my mouth and label me a fraudster. It is only a court that can declare one a criminal and not EFCC. I won a case in court against EFCC in 2013. I believe in the court as the last hope of a common man. I know you expect more from me.
They unfroze my account on the 7th of December, 2017 and at gun point in Diamond Bank they wanted me to perform magic. How can you do a magic with an account that has not been on operation for years and not connected to BVN? You guys should answer me. I needed time to access my money through the dark cloud where I perform my activities. But let me tell you something that will shock you. The bank deleted all information which I needed to log in to my cloud thereby frustrating my intention, vision and goodwill. At last I was left vulnerable and there and then the EFCC labeled me a fraudster, picked me for detention.
I pray none of you should play into the hands of cabals and mafias. Sometimes you may not escape the game played on your head.
I have written letters to Mr. President requesting for a mandate to help in bringing my professional skills in tackling economic challenges, can a fraudster go to that level?
I believe all these games is to silence me. Let me ask you some questions: who owns the plaza complex where huge physical cash was discovered in Lagos? Who is the man that brought the 5 white sacks that contained abandoned money in the Kaduna Airport last year? Let me just say little for now because if I should continue, my life will be at stake.
For being ashamed of the trending EFCC videos I cannot be. Another video will be played in my life to counter these videos. As a financial prophet, you have to prepare to face some of these issues in life. How can I be ashamed when I have not done anything fraudulent? It is my followers that believe in me that I pity because they are the one to feel ashamed of following a “fraudster”.
I am carrying out a vision and not business: so no media trail can silence me. Unfortunately, you journalists cannot get what you want for now. I will still speak with you in the future on this matter after the court judgement.

QUESTION: what is the status of your company’s (cashflow ABI Network Ltd ) accounts that were frozen by the order of the EFCC, are the accounts now open for operation or they are still closed? And if the accounts have been unfrozen as claimed by the EFCC, why have you not started payment of liability to clients who have suffered untold hardships of different forms?

GORA: Yes. As I said earlier, the accounts have been unfrozen. That happened on the 7th of December 2017. After the accounts were opened, they did not even allow me to operate and work on my platform. Instead the EFCC took me to detention for 21 days. Even after my release from detention, the accounts were and are not still connected to my BVN. Post No Debit (PNB) are placed on those accounts meaning I cannot withdraw any money from there. I needed to operate the accounts to work on my dark cloud where I keep, or should I rather say, save my money but with the lack of linking the bank to my BVN I cannot work on the accounts. Let me say here that Diamond bank has refused to link my BVN to those accounts and has refused to issue cheques on those accounts. At this point I should only say that they (Diamond Bank) are afraid of dealing with Dr. Gora with reasons best known to them. So I have not operated the accounts ever since it was opened. The accounts are as good as still frozen.
On the untold hardship of my clients, I know of all their sufferings. My family members, friends, associates, staff and myself have experienced similar hardship. We pray God redeem all of us very soon.

QUESTION: With all your failed promises of payment, why do you still insist on paying clients when it all seems that you don’t have the capacity to pay so huge a liability chasing you around?

GORA: What I am doing is not a business. I am pursuing a vision. If it is a business, I should have run and hide or travel out and hide in another country with the level of liability staring at me. Even when I had the opportunity of staying permanently in the USA or Dubai I refused. I came back to face my clients and suffer with them. The main reason of coming back is to see how to pay my clients. I must fulfil this reason.
Let me also tell you guys that I should rather die instead of not fulfilling this vision. This vision has come to stay. The vision is given to me by God. The so-called huge debt is not beyond God who gave me the vision. The huge debt is a challenge which I will overcome one day through payment.
I love my clients and the vision must continue. The vision cannot stop.

QUESTION: You made an allegation that some staff of the security agencies of government demanded bribe from you at the course of your trial, can you tell us more?

GORA: This is not true. Nobody in EFCC has ever met me demanding bribe. This allegation of bribe by some staff of security agencies is not from me. No staff of Nigerian security agencies has ever demanded a bribe from me. So those peddling this rumour are just trying to clash me more with the government security agencies. Please nobody, and I repeat, nobody should associate me with this bribe allegation against any staff of EFCC or government security agency. And from today, all those holding this position on Gora;s case should desist from that.
But there were some people who claimed to be facilitators to help me soft pedal things. They were never staff of EFCC. I signed many MOUs with them on the formula of sharing clients’ investments if they can help in opening the accounts.
I was signing all these MoUs as a way out my problem. Remember, if a man is drowning, even if you show him a sharp knife, he will grab to see how to survive. So I signed many of this MoUs out of desperation.
None of the MoUs worked out as the so-called facilitators could not deliver.

QUESTION: How do you cope with your family during this trial?

GORA: By the Grace of God I have a very understandable wife with 3 lovely children. She has never queried this vision for once as I had earlier taken time to explain things to her from the beginning. She has been there as support though she has gotten a fair share of the storm because of this vision(Laugh….). I travel with her within and outside Nigeria, she has been an inspiration to me from the start.
I also enjoy good support from my siblings, parents and in-laws. So they are the source of my encouragement.

QUESTION: What are your achievements so far in this business of yours which you would rather see as a vision instead of business?

GORA: I have so many achievements financially and otherwise. I have made many millionaires; many have built luxurious houses , bought exotic cars, established businesses through my empowerment scheme and programme. I have given scholarships to thousands of school children up to university level. I have built churches, empowered market women and men. I think I don’t need to sing my praises. Let God just take the glory. Simple.

QUESTION: What is the future of your business considering the fact that you seem not to have required documents to operate the type of business you engage in Nigeria?

GORA: (Laugh….). it depends on what you mean by “required documents”. As far as I am concern, I have registered all my companies like the Time Microfinance Bank, the Cashflow ABI Network Limited, the Gadon Kaya BDC, Goras Commanding Ltd, the Cashflow Foundation, the Ibrahim Gora LLC etc, through the CAC. The Global Funds Inc, and Christian Fire and Power Ministry Inc are registered in the USA. I also have a Central Bank of Nigeria Licence to operate a bank in Nigeria, So I don’t know what you mean by lack of required documents. The only document I am yet to get is from the Security and Exchange Commission as Funds Portfolio Manager and Administrator. I have applied for this documents and it is yet to be issued to me. This is what the EFCC is banking on to drag me up and down and labeling me a fraudster.
Also the EFCC are thinking that I am running a Ponzi scheme and that is the seed they are sowing to the public and tarnishing my name.
However, I don’t completely blame the EFCC because related business like the MMM and other Ponzi schemes have ruined many Nigerians. But it is not fair for them to just classify my business as a Ponzi scheme thereby thwarting my trading activities. They should care to understand my business secret instead of just labeling me a fraudster.

QUESTION: Some of your staff are aggrieved that you don’t care about their welfare and especially salary, how do you react to that?

GORA: Apart from the staff that are working in my bank, the Time Microfinance Bank Ltd, I don’t have direct staff. Those people that claimed to be staff are just ad hoc staff which I temporarily engaged when I had one programme or the other to accomplish. Most of my main staff and even the ad hoc ad hoc ones will tell you I don’t play with staff welfare. Most times I go beyond what I negotiate with them to even take care of their personal needs. Also all my ad hoc staff work on commission of which they have been duly remunerated. It will be unfair to my person and my generosity for some people, who claimed to be my staff, to go on the media as part of the grand design to destroy me and my integrity. However, as a human being I cannot satisfy everyone to their expectation. I doubt if any man can do that except God.

QUESTION: It will appear that you always do your business in the church. Why?

GORA: Before the closure of my accounts, I operated in 13 states including the FCT with physical structures and addresses. When the EFCC froze our accounts, we could not meet the commitments with our clients who later stormed our offices and assaulted the staff, that is how we temporary operate from churches who wish to partner with us to use their environment for the time being. Before we approach a church for partnership, we always give the pastor atleast a week to pray and seek the face of God concerning this business before accepting us, and so far, no church as denied us their platform.

QUESTION: Some people are of the opinion that you always use the Bible as a tool for deception, making Christians fall to your antics. How true is this allegation?

GORA: Yes. the Bible is major tool God has given to me to confirm his purpose in my life. I cannot use any other book except the Bible. As a financial prophet I always make reference to the Bible. My faith is in the word of God.
On the issue of deceit, it depends on what you guys termed deceit. I never intend to deceive anybody. I only like to quote my Bible in anything I do because the Word of God is my food and I cherish this food. The Bible is my secret of life, so I don’t care your opinion about my relationship with God. I think it personal to me.

QUESTION: How do you react to some of your trusted staff going to Berekete Human Right Radio to expose you to the world of your alleged fraudulent and unethical practices observed as you carry out your so-called business?

GORA: There must be somebody that will take you to the palace, without the brothers of Joseph he could not have found himself in Egypt. There are not direct staff but my ad hoc staff. I forgive all of them. In life you need people like Judas to deny you, I know they are the judases in my life. And their work is to announce me to the presidency. So they have accomplished their job in the scheme of things. How I wish their announcement will even make the presidency to reply several letters I have written to them(Presidency) which they have not responded to even one.
On the flip side, the security agencies should invite the ad hoc staff that went to Berekete Human Right Radio to show proof of how they spent 1 Billion Naira or 200 Million Naira they claimed passed through their accounts. In other words, I am waiting for the security agencies to act because these staff are just telling us that they are as fraudulent as myself. If I am a fraudster, they are birds of the same feathers. They should be charge to court. They are my accomplice. The police or the EFCC should arrest all of them.

QUESTION: How do you rate the conduct of the EFCC so far on this issue as you have become a regular visitor to the agency?

GORA: I would say that they agency has passion for its job but it needs more political will to pursue their mandate without fear or favour.

QUESTION: How do you rate the economy in the President Buhari’s administration?

GORA: The masses are suffering coupled with incessant killing across the country. Many people are living below poverty level. The president needs professionals to help him fix the economy. I am ready to offer free of charge consultancy if given opportunity. That is it for now I rate the presidency below average regarding economic growth.

QUESTION: What is your advice to the current administration?

GORA: He should use the Eagle style. The president should sack under performing minsters and appoint new professionals. For security, he should replace the security chiefs.

Dr. Philemon Gora, may God grant your wishes to see more people financially empowered.

Philimon gora is a scammer, the bastard is a scammer.

He scammed people with AIDA
IT SHALL NEVER BE WELL WITH YOU