28 January 2014, Lagos — Share holders of Mass Telecommunication Innovation, MTI, Plc have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, over the involvement of some of its former directors in the fraudulent appropriation, distribution and utilisation of the company’s funds raised from the capital market.
According to the written petition from the shareholders, “between March and April 2008, after obtaining the consent of the SEC, MTI had a private placement to raise funds for the purpose of implementing its business development and expansion programme, improvement in information technology infrastructure, staff development and working capital as stated in the offer document.
“The sum of N5,200,000,000 was raised by way of private placement and the company was converted to a public limited liability company and its shares were listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, after a successful private placement.”
The shareholders said as soon as the funds were released to the board and management, the first event was the payment of what the directors called “severance pay.”
Each of the five directors, the shareholders said took the sum of N55 million amounting to N275 million adding that all the directors, including the non-executive directors remained on the board after collecting the severance pay.
*Peter Egwuatu – Vanguard
