Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Management of Galaxy Transportation and Constructions Services Limited, has accused natural disasters in Abuja and Jere in Kaduna state, of being responsible for its inability to make returns to investors for five months.
The investors had accused the company of running a fraudulent business after it failed to settle their returns on investment for five months, from October 2018 to March 2019, which prompted the response that natural disasters was responsible for the development.
They disagreed with the position of the company and accused its Chief Executive Officer, Babagana Abba Dalori, of using the proceeds of the business to establish subsidiary companies.
The investors reported the company to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in March and the chief executive of the company was invited for questioning and he was detained since March 29.
The company spokesman, Abdulhamid Ibrahim, in a statement, admitted that the company established subsidiary businesses, but were all established from profits it generates and not what was supposed to given to the investors.
He said: “Yes, we registered Galaxy farms, Galaxy oil and gas, G-nature, Galaxy blocks, Galaxy shops and Galaxy movies. However, Babagana’s detention has compounded the situation and frustrated several of our efforts.
“When we acquired license from federal ministry of solid minerals to mine sand at Jere, Kaduna state, we eventually had to acquire some of the adjoining lands and compensated the landlords.
“But we realised that the land was so big and that compensating the people was not enough, so we converted the remaining land to maize and soya bean farm and employed the people to work for us.
“So it is from the proceeds of the farm that we started the fish pond, we used some of the maize and soya beans we harvested to produce the fish feed.”
The statement further insisted that nonpayment of return on investment from October to March has nothing to do with the setting up or running of other subsidiary businesses but due to the effect of natural disaster which affected mining and other businesses of the company.