LIARS!
Company accuses missing staff’s relations of duplicity
By NWADIBIA ONYINYECHI
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Living index

Andy Investment (WA) Limited has put a lie to the story of the mysterious disappearance of one of its staff members, Miss Cecilia Okafor, who was reported to be missing by her family.

Rather than that, Miss Okafor’s employers are claiming that young woman bolted away with over one million naira belonging to the company and that the ‘missing’ story is part of a grand plot to cover up the fraud by her accomplices who also want to divert attention and shift responsibility of finding the allegedly missing girl on the company.

Family of the missing girl, led by her elder sister, Juliet Okafor, had, through their lawyers, written a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, alleging that rather than help in the search for the missing girl, her employers were busy harassing her relations, detaining the elder sister and insisting that the money in question must be refunded in full.
According to them, even without thorough investigation, Andy Investment had concluded that the young woman absconded with their money and have shut their mind to the possibility of the fact that she is indeed missing

In a reaction to the story of Miss Okeke’s ‘mystery’ disappearance, published in the Daily Sun of November 1 and November 22 last year, however, the company expressed suspicion that those who claimed to be looking for their allegedly missing relation might in fact know of her whereabouts.
It also opened a fresh can of worms, saying that the sister of the said staff who had signed her guarantor letter as a married woman was indeed unmarried and was not working at Guarantee Trust Bank where she claimed to be working.

The reaction from the employers spokesperson reads in part:
“Our attention has been drawn to the publications in the Dailies particularly the Sun Newspapers about the misleading stories from Miss Juliet Okafor the eldest sister of Miss Cecilia Okafor who absconded with our money.

Our intention was to react at the appropriate time when the Nigerian police must have concluded their investigations. We are forced to tell the true story due to the repeated mischievous lies and calculated attempt to dent the image of our organization.
“The story is that after a long plea from Miss Juliet Okafor, her younger sister Cecilia was employed to work with Andy Investment W.A Ltd. Most of the information they supplied which are critical before employment of staff were false.

Firstly they gave wrong residential addresses and Juliet who is the Guarantor of Cecilia claimed to be Head of Operations in GT Bank. These could be verified through their statements to the police or statement to the company prior to the employment. And less than three months of her employment, she was given some money to deposit in a Bank (Intercontinental Bank Plc Ijeshatedo Branch) which is a stone throw from our office and accompanied by a Security man who led her into the bank and at the point of counting the money. The security man came back thereafter. (This security man was deployed to our office by the Nigerian Legion, off Kingsway Road Ikoyi Lagos).

“Based on the information from the bank staff, she immediately excused to ease herself at the moment the security man left and ran away with the money. One pertinent question that should be asked at this stage is what could be in the minds of these two grown ups who deliberately gave wrong residential address to her employer and the Guarantor who claimed to be a GTB Staff (Head of Operations) when she had never worked in any Financial House and less than three months of being employed, the employee Cecilia disappeared with the company’s money.

Another interesting aspect of the story is that less than one hour Cecilia disappeared with the money, Juliet when contacted on phone claimed that a staff of the company had called to inform her about the incident. Up till now she has failed to either disclose the name and/or the GSM phone number of her informant…”

The statement restated the company’s conviction that it was the victim of a preplanned fraud, executed by a syndicate, adding that the only snag was that the planners “never knew that the company would go to this level to unravel what happen”.

It said that what has so far been fed the public about the matter has been outright falsehood. It added: They “gave wrong residential address and Juliet, the guarantor, who happens to be the immediate elder sister of Cecilia misled the company when she presented a GT Bank Identity Card as Head of Operations (Her handwritten guarantor’s letter stating that she is a Mrs. Which is also false is as shown below).
“It was after the disappearance of Cecilia with the company’s money that it was found out that all the information they supplied to the company was false”.