From Fred Itua, Abuja
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wednesday, picked a strong ally of James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, Mr. Albert Okumagba who is the Group Managing Director of BGL Plc. Okumagba was arrested over offences bordering on stealing and obtaining money by false pretences.
Daily Sun gathered that his arrest may have been triggered by a yet to be concluded investigation into a petition submitted to the anti-graft agency by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May, 2015.
He is alleged to have diverted over N28 billion which represents proceeds from private placements of 4.3 billion ordinary shares of 50k each at N7.00k per share in 2007.
The company, whose subsidiaries include BGL Capital, BGL Private Equity, BGL Security and BGL Asset Management, allegedly compelled 50 investors from different parts of the country into subscribing to the company’s shares, promising that options of liquidity and exit were available within two years.
The suspect was also said to have declined the investors the opportunity to liquidate their assets as earlier promised.
Part of the ongoing investigation by the EFCC also revealed that though Okumagba allegedly promised the investors that BGL would be listed on the SEC through Initial Private Offer (IPO) within 24 months after the private placements was concluded in 2008, it, however, turned out to be false.
Spokesperson of EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren could not be reached on phone to confirm the arrest of the suspect by the commission.