….cedes ownership of Estate owned by cooperative to his private company
For many members of the Mines and Steel Development Ministry Cooperative, it has been a story of regret upon regret over the choice of Isaac Agbanwu as the Chairman of their Cooperative. If they can set back the hands of time, definitely they would not have even allowed him to hold an executive post talk less of smelling such a sensitive position.
That is the extent to which the man who was innocently given the mandate to lead them and granted access to millions of NAIRA of their hard-earned money betrayed their trust.
It all started in 2008/2009 when the then Ministry of Mines and Steel Development formed a Cooperative with Mr Isaac Agbanwu as Chairman. In 2009, the Executive of the Cooperative under his leadership sourced for land for housing for members and non-staff of the Ministry. Parcels of land were sold to members of the Cooperative at 185,000 NAIRA. The price has since gone up to between 4-5million Naira. Meanwhile Agbanwu and his Executive Committee members sold over 400plots out of the 500acquirer on behalf of the Cooperative. Infrastructure fees were also collected from residents through different bank accounts without the Cooperative members being carried along.
As a result of the way the project was handled many suits were instituted against the Cooperative. In the middle of all these Isaac Agbanwu resigned his appointment from the civil service, a move that disqualified him from Chairmanship of the Cooperative but he refused to hand over till 2018. He also surreptitiously transferred the ownership of the Estate through a deed of Assignment and power of Attorney to a company Zomitec Engineering believed to be owned by him.
After ICPC waded in, he eventually released the Cooperative records with him with a demand of 120million NAIRA for consultancy work done on behalf of the Cooperative.
What our investigations found out is much more. Obviously, he collected money running into hundreds of millions of Naira from others and pocketed same without even bothering to give them land. He has since been in hiding after leaving the services of the Federal Government to enjoy his stolen wealth and only shows up in court.
Meanwhile, he wickedly instituted various cases in court to ensure that the resources collected and meant for the development of the Estate is expended on court cases. This has virtually crippled development in the estate as they pay millions as legal fees to prevent a man who was elected and placed in position of trust from taking over a property that belongs to the group that ab initio elected him.
Already the ICPC has dragged him before an Abuja court where he is presently facing trial over his atrocities against the Cooperative
