Atiku’s wife says Pastor who defrauded her of N918m was her `errand boy’

Wife of former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, Mrs Titi Atiku, on Wednesday disclosed that a pastor who alleged defrauded her of N918m, Akpan-Jacobs, was her “errand boy.”
Titi made the claim while being cross examined by the Pastor’s counsel, Amos Ibe at an Ikeja High Court sitting in Lagos.

Recall that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged Akpan-Jacobs with a 14-count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing and fraudulent conversion of property worth N918 million belonging to THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd.
The company was created in 2000 and is owned by Mrs Atiku, Akpan-Jacobs and Fred Holmes, her German business partner.
Atiku was alleged to be the major shareholder with 49 per cent shares, while Holmes and Akpan-Jacobs each had 25 per cent shares.

According to Mrs Atiku, “I paid N49 million for the land used as the premises of THA Shipping, my partner Fred Holmes never contributed to the buying of the land but he contributed to the building of the property.

“The N49 million was given to Akpan-Jacobs to purchase the land, but did not know who he bought the land from.
“He never contributed a dime, he was just like an errand boy.”

Responding to Atiku’s claim that Akpan-Jacobs was her errand boy, Ibe asked: “He was made a Managing Director (MD), how can an errand boy be made an MD?
“He was made an MD to stand in for Mr Fred Holmes because Holmes had not resigned from his job.
“When it was time for Akpan to step down as the MD, he refused because by then he had perfected his fraudulent acts.”
Mrs Atiku dismissed claims by Akpan-Jacobs that he owned and promoted THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd and only brought her on board to bring in big briefs and clients.
“Is he the one who bought the land, built the building? He was merely supervising.
“My clout gave the company a lot of prestige, a lot of people wanted to do business with us and people brought a lot of containers to us,” she said.
After listening to cross examination, the trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye adjourned the case till July 6 for continuation of trial.