Business
AGF, Fagbemi, accused of intervening in another Afe Babalola case

Another legal controversy involving elder statesman, Chief Afe Babalola and his Chambers, may be brewing from an entirely different source, as Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, founder of Zinox Group, has accused the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, of unduly interfering in a court case instituted against their client.
The case, which dates back to 2012, was filed against one Mr Benjamin Joseph of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, over a business disagreement, but now seems to drag the AGF into it through his role in favour of Afe Babalola Chambers, where Mr. Fagbemi once worked as a partner. Mr. Joseph, an Enugu indigene based in Ibadan, who is described as “being a serial blackmailer and fraudster,” was sued by the federal government, for misleading the former Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, the previous AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami, the police and EFCC with false information. Afe Babalola Chambers represented Joseph in the case.
Dr. Ekeh, who spoke during an end of year inspirational talk delivered on the 14th of December, 2024 to his select mentees of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria monitored in Lagos, alleged that the emergence of Fagbemi as AGF changed everything about the protracted legal battle with Mr. Joseph on probable influence of Afe Babalola, SAN, a senior lawyer, who is currently embroidered in a defamation case with lawyer and activist, Dele Farotimi.
The Afe Babalola Chambers, he said, had been the lawyers to Mr. Joseph, and Fagbemi who had worked with Afe Babalola Chambers, opted to discontinue the Police case (CR/216/16) against Joseph as soon as he assumed office, following the petition lodged by the Chambers of Afe Babalola at the SFU, Milvertion Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on behalf of Mr. Jospeh, that was found to be false.
“Using what my companies TD Africa Distributions, Zinox Technologies, my colleagues in both companies, my wife, and I have suffered in the last 11 years in the hands of Benjamin Joseph of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, an Enugu indigene based in Ibadan, and an alleged serial blackmailer and fraudster as a case study, you shall appreciate the challenges of corporate relationships,” Ekeh explained in the lengthy presentation.
According to Dr. Ekeh, “The arrival of the new Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, changed everything. As a lawyer, who had worked with Afe Babalola chambers (former lawyers to Benjamin Joseph), one of his early actions in office was to discontinue the Police case (CR/216/16) against Benjamin Joseph following the petition lodged by the chambers of Afe Babalola, SAN, at the SFU, Milvertion Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on behalf of Mr. Jospeh, that was found to be false.
“As a distinguished lawyer that I respect, I expected him to request for source documents of the cases including one already decided against Joseph by Honourable Justice Senchi of the FCT High Court that had already found Mr. Benjamin Joseph of lying in his petition with a damage of N20 million imposed on him. As the number one judicial officer of the nation, even if he wanted to save Mr. Joseph from going to jail, I expected the Honourable Attorney General to act dispassionately in the light of a subsisting case/order directed against him to refrain from discontinuing the Police Charge pending the determination of that case, and also in the light of the valid and subsisting judgment of Honourable Justice Senchi.
“Instead, he, against all the glaring SFIU and EFCC reports and the decided case, withdrew the Police case against Mr. Joseph on reasons best known to him, thereby setting Mr. Joseph free, and he has been celebrating the withdrawal of a case he reported and could not prove/defend for years.
“To date, Benjamin Joseph acts as a blackmail platform for my competitors whenever we are competing on a bid, using nefarious publications in social media directed at me, my wife, and my company, Zinox.”
Benjamin Joseph, he said, “engaged Afe Babalola chambers and claimed that his company was used to defraud FGN, that no laptops were supplied, and that he was not aware of both the contract and Citadel Account opened with Access Bank Plc.”
The case, which involved former Vice president, Prof.Yemi Osibabjo, suggests that powerful people were behind Mr. Joseph for his case to attract the attention of high ranking government officials.
“While the above case was on, Benjamin wrote the same lies to the then Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, claiming that his company was used to defraud the FGN and the VP rightly instructed the Chairman of EFCC to investigate and report back. The EFCC in their report stated that the allegation was false and absolved TD and its staff of any wrongdoing because they are entitled to payment for the laptops they supplied on credit and did not forge any documents; in fact, had no reasons to forge documents.
Narrating the issues further, Dr. Ekeh said,
“I have never met Benjamin Joseph in my life and neither has he directly or indirectly enquired or transacted any business with Zinox Technologies Ltd in the history of our existence.
“Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd was amongst 13 companies awarded HP PC contract by Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) in 2012, with instruction from the FIRS that the laptops must be sourced genuinely from HP Authorized Distributor in Nigeria, and TD Africa is the biggest HP Partner in Nigeria. This is because the FIRS wanted to guard against grey or fake products and the challenges of after-sales support. Citadel, through its authorised partner, Princess Kama (with a letter of Authority signed by Benjamin Joseph as the MD of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd) approached TD Africa to supply Citadel the laptops on credit as the company did not have enough funds to pay TD Africa.
“The agreed condition was that FIRS shall pay into a Citadel Account where two staff of TD shall be signatories to protect our pre-agreed invoice value plus additional guarantee from a responsible Nigerian. Citadel raised a Board resolution to include two TD staff, Chris Eze Ozims and Shade Oyebode, as the signatories in an account Citadel opened with Access Bank. TD Africa then supplied the systems to FIRS with serial number of each system captured. This was the same process for the other companies awarded similar contracts by the FIRS who didn’t have enough funds to pay for the laptops.
“FIRS as a responsible FGN agency paid all on time and other companies immediately remitted pre-agreed amount from the dedicated account to TD Africa Account. But Benjamin Joseph the CEO of Citadel, as I was told by her partner, Princess Kama, wanted to divert the fund and possibly pay us at his own time or never. However, Princess Kama, because her Uncle Chief Igbokwe (a long-time partner of TD Africa) was an additional guarantor for the credit extended to Citadel, disagreed with the plans of Benjamin Joseph. She approached TD Africa signatories/representatives to debit the dedicated bank account the pre-agreed amount as Benjamin Joseph insisted on diverting the fund. TD representatives actioned immediately.”
The insistence, according to Ekeh, was where the problem started. According to him, one year after this transaction was closed and forgotten, he did not know both partners have been fighting over profit-sharing ratio.
“According to Princess Kama, Chief Afe Babalola SAN, a distinguished lawyer of Afe Babalola Chambers, invited her to Ibadan and she obliged and when he raised the claims by Benjamin Joseph, she presented documentary evidence which was confirmed by FIRS management that Benjamin Joseph was aware of the contract and indeed submitted a copy of his International Passport, a Letter of Acceptance of the FIRS Contract and the appointment of Princess Kama as the duly authorised representative of Citadel on the FIRS contract.
“In fact, her position was vindicated by the FIRS in a letter dated 11th February 2014 and signed by FIRS Head of Legal, Idrissa Kogo, addressed to the same Afe Babalola and Co confirming that Mr. Benjamin Joseph was aware of the contract and even gave FIRS a letter dated 13th December, 20212 to deal with Princess Kama in relation to the contract. In the same letter, FIRS confirmed that Citadel instructed them to pay the proceed of the laptop into the Citadel Account with Access Bank. These matters would later be corroborated in the Witness Statement on Oath by Benjamin Joseph in a civil case he filed at the Lagos State High Court, accepting he was aware of the contract and gave those documents to Princess Kama.
“According to Princess Kama, Chief Afe Babalola advised her to increase Benjamin Joseph’s share by an additional N2m from the N10million she had initially offered. But Mr. Joseph insisted on taking all the profit from the transaction and she refused.
“It was after one year that Benjamin Joseph started writing all sorts of petitions to different police stations and EFCC offices both in Lagos and Abuja and publishing interviews against me and Zinox with his hired media agents. I checked with Zinox and they never transacted any business with his company. When my staff started receiving invitations from the Police and EFCC, I had to independently investigate the transaction, and it was in order. I had no idea who both Benjamin Joseph and his partner Princess Kama were, and because a lady was involved, I had to investigate both and particularly Princess Kama to establish their partnership in case she was a member of a fraud syndicate and their true relationship. I hired foreign certified detectives who worked with local ones to establish their long-term relationship.
“They once belonged in the same church, nearly got married, and been partners for years and even had previous contract bids which Princess Kama did for Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd in many offices including the Presidency. This cost me then $241,000. It was after I received a comprehensive report from the detectives that I asked my office to invite her to see me and she came and confirmed everything.
“Mr. Joseph, who was properly investigated and documented including his financial status became more aggressive in publishing false claims, and probably expecting me to call him to negotiate as he was told I am a very rich man. At one point, an AIG of Police invited us to meet in his office at SFU Milverton, Ikoyi, to find a solution because he was shocked that someone was writing petition against my companies, my staff, and myself for less than N170m. But at the last minute, I apologized to the AIG, that I would not attend as Mr. Benjamin Joseph who came from Ibadan for the meeting was already blackmailing me in blogs and newspapers. He could use that meeting to a negative advantage.
“Sometime in November 2013, the law firm of Afe Babalola, acting for Mr. Benjamin Joseph and his company, Citadel, wrote the first petition to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police at Milverton Road, Ikoyi, that his signature was forged on the Board resolution and other documents. The SFU investigated his petitions and wrote a report that his claim of the forged signature by his partner Princess Kama and his claim that no computers were supplied to FIRS were false. He, again, petitioned the DIG of Police, then Dr. Solomon Arase, who finally became Inspector General of Police. Dr. Arase according to what I was told, sent his crack team to visit FIRS office and investigated other claims and found out that Mr. Benjamin Joseph lied absolutely.
“Consequently, the IG of Police charged him to court in Charge No. CR/216/16 before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court, for false information. Even though the Prosecution proved and closed its case in 2018, Mr. Benjamin Joseph could not defend or substantiate his allegations after being required many times by the court to open his defence. He would change lawyers and absent himself from court giving medical reasons. Rather than opening his defence, Mr. Joseph was spending time in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation begging for the AG to take over the case and discontinue the charges against him. However, the then Attorney General, after reviewing the case file on each of those three occasions, wrote to the Police to continue with his prosecution to a logical conclusion.
“These directives were contained in three separate letters dated 10th February 2017, 7th May 2018, and 6th June 2022.
However, the EFCC charged Princess Kama and her uncle, Chief Igbokwe to court before Honourable Justice Senchi of the FCT High Court, on the instigation of Mr. Benjamin Joseph. But, again, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, was unable to prove his allegations against them, and in a judgment delivered in February 2021, Honourable Justice Danlami Senchi in Charge No. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, discharged and acquitted both Princess Kama and Chief Igbokwe, and imposed a damage of N20million against Mr. Benjamin Joseph for false petitioning and to serve as a deterrence against others who engage in false petitions that waste tax payers’ money.
“More importantly, the judgment of Honourable Justice Senchi unequivocally stated that Technology Distributions and its staff were not liable for any fraud, that they were entitled to receive the proceeds of the laptops supplied on credit to Citadel Oracle Concept limited which were delivered to FIRS and confirmed by them. This judgment is still subsisting and Mr. Joseph has yet to pay the damage of N20million imposed on him. Before this point, Mr. Joseph and his media partners became desperate in blackmailing my wife, myself and Zinox Technologies in cheap blogs as no responsible media ever published any of their press releases except Sahara Reporters who was coopted and refuse to hear our side of the story.
“All these years, none of my staff, companies or myself was invited or included in all these court processes except the EFCC court case where TD was only invited as a witness because Citadel transacted with them. But his media blackmail was on me and Zinox and he smartly avoided his partner Princess Kama. What Benjamin Joseph and his syndicate set up is a platform to work with my competitors who are willing to sponsor them to diminish my reputation by escalating in the media same case he could not defend and begged that it should be withdrawn.
“This is the cause of the Nigeria digital Census project delay till date and equipment worth over N300billion are wasting in warehouses because my competitors and their sponsors at the highest level used them and engaged Femi Falana SAN to secure a Fiat against my name, my wife, my companies to tag us as frauds. By their action, Zinox almost lost a digital census contract of over $250million of which it was the most qualified.
“However, then Attorney General of Federation, Mr. Malami SAN, when he found out that he was deceived by Femi Falana (SAN) in granting the Fiat, wrote him a letter dated 28th October 2022, withdrawing the Fiat and discontinuing the case against me and my company which they had filed, unknown to us. This is because Femi Falana SAN did not disclose fully to the Attorney General the fact that there is a subsisting judgment given by Honourable Justice Senchi that has dismissed all the allegations of Mr. Joseph and asked him to pay N20million damages. He also did not disclose the fact that his client, Mr. Joseph, was still facing a criminal trial brought by the IG of Police against him.
” So, a few days after, President Muhammadu Buhari, based on submissions at the Federal Executive Council meeting, approved that the contract be awarded to Zinox Technologies Ltd based on competence, capacity and experience. And it was awarded to Zinox Technologies after months of blackmail to eliminate us from the deal. We delivered the project on time per our terms of engagement, but it was too late for the previous administration to conduct the Digital Census. What it means is that these blackmailers with support of people like Femi Falana caused the lack of credible data to move the country forward as all the equipment procured for the census are lying waste in warehouses nationwide. That’s shameless Nigerians for you and they walk the street as free men till date.”