The dispute between billionaire businessman Femi Otedola and Jim Ovia, chairman of Zenith Bank, over an alleged multibillion naira fraud, has intensified.
Otedola has accused Ovia of unlawfully using the Zenith Bank account of his company, Seaforce Shipping Limited, for unauthorized trading in 2011, without his knowledge or consent.
Despite these allegations being under investigation by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) of the police, there are ongoing efforts to resolve the matter amicably. TheCable has reached out to Ovia and Zenith Bank for comments, but has yet to receive a response.
According to Otedola, Seaforce Shipping’s account, which had not been operated since 2010, continued to be used for trading without his authorization. He claims that Seaforce never applied for or took a loan from Zenith Bank, yet unauthorized trading running into billions of naira persisted on the account. When asked for documentation to support these loans, Zenith Bank allegedly failed to provide any.
Otedola only recently discovered these suspicious activities, 13 years after the transactions, thanks to a whistleblower within Zenith Bank.
When he confronted the bank officials, they reportedly apologized. Otedola presented a letter from March 19, 2018, from Zenith Bank to Seaforce’s auditors, stating a debt of only N2,278,420, which contradicted the N5 billion recorded in the bank statement reviewed by TheCable.
Curiously, the bank statement on the day the letter was written showed a debt of N2.9 billion, a significant discrepancy from the N2 million stated in the letter. The letter was signed by Taofik Bashir (internal audit control) and Edwin Kind Olie (group head, telecom). Transactions totaling over N16 billion were recorded against Seaforce’s account from 2011 to 2024.
Otedola questioned who made payments to reduce the purported debt from N16,927,628,581.84 to N11,010,924,522.71, as he was unaware of these transactions. Significant credits were recorded on various dates in 2011, further complicating the account’s financial history. As a result, Seaforce now has a debt of N5,916,704,059.13, much of which comprises interest charges.
A senior official of Zenith Bank has already been questioned by the police in connection with the case.
In response to these events, Otedola and his associated companies, including Zenon, Seaforce, Luzon Oil and Gas, and Garment Care Limited, have secured a federal high court injunction against Zenith Bank, Quantum Zenith Securities and Investment, Veritas Registrar, and Central Securities Clearing System. This injunction restrains these entities from trading with shares or paying dividends until the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
