Billionaire Aliko Dangote may not be a very happy man at the moment as it appears workers in Dangote Sugar, one of his companies may have been involved in misappropriation of funds.
Here is a summary of the case:
- The Nigerian Police Force has arrested 8 former workers of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Lagos for stealing and fraud offences.
- The said offences, alleged to have been carried out between 2012 and 2016, amount to 8 counts of stealing, forgery of cheque, requisition form and uttering of false documents, amounting to a loss of N451 million to Dangote Sugar Refinery
- The suspected crimes were found out in a routine audit check that was conducted and still ongoing into the accounts of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Apapa, Lagos during which it was discovered that the defendants had carefully organized a network to siphon the company’s money to a total sum yet to be ascertained to El-Habib Property Nigeria Limited, a company with no business ties with Dangote Sugar Refineries
- The suspects names are Musa Sule, Joseph Ukpah, Babatunde Ajao, Onyekwere Chinedu, Alayande Rahaman, Omoro Ezekiel, Zainab Adebanjo, Abugba Odion and Minnie Mohammed
- The suspects have been charged to court but arraignment was postponed to August 7 due to the absence of one of the suspects.
The company many need to improve on its internal control systems, as this is very likely not the first time fraud would be occurring . Dangote Sugar refinery commenced operations in 2001 at the Apapa port and is up 96% year to date on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The stock is currently trading at N13.04 as at 10.21am in today’s trading session.
