Atiku Denies Owing Foreign Workers

After days of silence, former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has denied claims in some quarters that he is owing some foreign workers recruited for his media company, GOTEL.
In a statement, yesterday, his media office rebutted the claim, saying “Nothing can be farther from the truth”.
The statement explained that the money to pay the workers of GOTEL, both local and foreign, was given to their recruiter and a famous journalist, John Chiahemen, adding that the matter had once been reported to the police.
The statement claimed that Chiahemen had since disappeared.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the funds dedicated to the payment of salaries of staff, both local and expatriates that were engaged by Chiahemen himself were made available to him. All those concerned are advised to contact Chiahemen accordingly”.
“To retool its operations, GOTEL had in 2013 hired one Mr John Chiahemen to lead the planning, design, build-out and rollout of TV GOTEL Africa to be based in Abuja.
“To this end, Chiahemen was given a free hand by the founder and board of the company to run the affairs of GOTEL.
“Requisite resources, as requested by Chiahemen were made available. On his own part, Chiahemen had committed to a revenue profile of N150million, among others.
“But by 2016, there were concerns that the Chiahemen management was only long in promises and short in performance, prompting the then board to empanel an ad-hoc visitation committee to examine the state of the company. The findings of that committee were damning.
“Consequently, the committee recommended the need for a comprehensive audit of the company. The audit revealed serious fiduciary infractions by the Chiahemen-led management.
“Further to the audit report, a board meeting was convened to consider the auditor’s report. However, before that meeting, John Chiahemen bolted and has refused to make himself available to account for the huge resources put in his charge.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the funds dedicated to the payment of salaries of staff, both local and expatriates that were engaged by Chiahemen himself were made available to him. All those concerned are advised to contact Chiahemen accordingly.