Is Tony Elumelu a fraudster or a continentally respected philanthropist spreading the gospel of Afro-capitalism?
This is one of the questions currently agitating the minds of many following allegationss of fraud trailing the respected banker who has built a global banking business with footprints across the world.
The Delta state born banker’s traducer is a Serving Senator of the Federal Republic. Senator Ayo Akinyelure, Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions is reported to have alleged that Tony Elumelu perpetrated a N41bn fraud againt the defunct national carrier, NITEL.
The senator alleges that “the said sum was withdrawn systematically from NITEL for nine years under Tony Elumelu’s watch and two other former Managing Directors of United Bank for Africa.”
UBA, the banking behemoth Tony Elumelu acquired and engineered a spectacular turn-around has come out in defence of their founder with a rebuttal by Bili Odum, UBA’s Company Secretary, who described the allegation as “untrue, misleading, malicious, libellous and should be disregarded in its entirety”
The bank’s rebuttal has not stopped the Senate from asking Kennedy Uzoka, UBA’s current Group Managing Director/CEO to appear before the committee on Wednesday August 5, 2020.