ALLEGATION OF ILLEGAL BANK OPERATION OF DR. GORA PHILEMON: THE DRAMA IN COURT

On Wednesday, 10 October, 2018, there was a continuation of the case brought against Dr. Philemon Gora, the Managing Director of Cashflow ABI Network Limited, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Maitama, on a two-count charge for illegally operating a financial institution.
Gora has always pleaded not guilty to the charges stressing, “I am not guilty because I have a valid bank license’’
The day came with a drama of sort with the testimony of a key witness of the EFCC, Mr. Philip Eze, hitting at the consciousness of the epic case that will determine whether Dr. Gora is guilty or not of the offence of which he is being tried .
On that day, beyond Mr. Philip Eze appearing as a star witness of the EFCC, scores of other people had also converged in the court room very early in the morning, with lots of them getting set to be presented as witnesses against Dr. Gora by the EFCC. Other set of people were engrossed in stimulating discourse on what will be the outcome of the case.
Worthy of note is the fact that Dr. Philemon Gora also had people sympathetic to his ordeal in this whole saga.
That was the setting of the day as Philip Eze mounted the witness box to testify against Dr. Philemon Gora. Mr. Philip claimed to be a former staff of Cashflow ABI Network Ltd working then as business developer from 18th September, 2010 when it was then Cashflow Enterprise . He told the court that his role was primarily to bring in clients to the organization and he covered the following states: Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Osun, Ondo, Kaduna, Enugu, Delta and Imo.
He claimed to have sold different financial products of Cashflow to the clients with a return on investments ranging between 20%-100% depending on the prevailing policy at the different investment periods.
He mentioned some specific products like the International Robot where clients invested in US Dollar with a promise of 60% and were charged N102,000 as consultancy fee with an Memorandum of Understanding signed between each clients and Cashflow.
Each client subscribing to this particular product was mandated to open a Domiciliary account in Diamond, collect a cheque booklet on the account, signed all the cheque leaves and handover the signed cheques to Dr. Gora who was to withdraw their investments for trading. According to Mr. Eze, no client had received their capital investments and promised capitals on this particular product.
Another product, Royalty 7 , was also promoted and sold where subscribers invested in not less than N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) with a Return on Investment of 80% in 30 days. Most people paid through his (Mr. Eze’s) account of which he would move all the money to Dr. Gora through a POS machine provided by Dr. Gora for this purpose. Mr. Eze also claimed to have also used ATM channel in other occasions to withdraw money deposited through his account to Dr. Gora.
He said his GTB account statement can prove all his points. Eze said all original deposit slips relating to his claims were taken to Jos, the then headquarters of Cashflow at the request of Dr. Gora.
He also mentioned Recharge Card products of which each client paid various amount of not less than N5,000 (Five Thousand Naira) with a return of investment of 80% in 45 days . He said there was an option of reinvestment of both capital and interest at the end of 45 days if the clients did not want to cash out their investment.
At a point, the EFCC counsel requested a document being a bank deposit slip for International Robot investment to be adopted as evidence. There was objections by counsel to Dr. Gora as to the relevance of the document to the trial. At the end of arguments and counter argument between the defense and persecution counsels, the court adopted the document as evidence.
Mr. Eze said, prior to 2012, Dr. Gora was paying investors promptly who invested in different products until the accounts of Cashflow were frozen by the EFCC as was claimed by Dr. Gora. It was after the claim of account freezing that Dr. Gora came up with the International Robot investment scheme.
He also claimed to have invested $3,150 with a consultancy fee of N102,000 in the International Robot investment just like other clients with his money trapped in the scheme without getting anything in return.
The court adjourned to 1st November 2018 for continuation of the case.
However, a mild drama ensued as expectations of witnesses who did not have opportunity to testify against Dr. Gora and aggrieved who besieged the court premises were misplaced or not met as the court adjourned sitting to 1st November. This led to both verbal and near physical abuse, on Dr. Gora. Another set of aggrieved clients brought a police officer illegally from Minna Police Command to arrest Dr. Gora in a case already being tried in court.
However, the situation did not go down well with supporters of Dr. Gora who resisted the move by the rogue police officer. The situation could have generated to violence if not for quick intervention of the security operatives and the arrest and detention of the rogue officer by Maitama Division of the Nigeria Police.
The situation of 10th October is reminiscent of 2nd October, 2018 where the EFCC came with 4 armed policemen to arrest Dr. Gora in the court premises on the same case already in court. But on this occasion, the judge gave a strict warning that no arrest should be carried out until the court determines the case pending before it.
The defense counsel and all supporters of Dr. Gora have so expressed total disgust with the brand of persecution in the name of prosecution being carried out by the EFCC. Dr. Gora is ready to accept the judgement of the competent court of law on this case as he has advised all his aggrieved clients to be patient and ready to respect and accept the judgement of the court.
He is also making personal efforts to see that all his clients will be duly compensated in due course despite all distractions by the EFCC. He opined that violence, incessant arrests and threats to life and freedom are not solutions to this problem. He, however, appeals to all his clients all over to be patient as he is fixing up the system for a more financial rewards to all in future business ventures.