The founder and chairman of Innoson Nigeria Limited, Innocent Chukwuma has reacted to the arrest warrant issued by the Federal High Court yesterday. The court had granted the request of a Director in the Ministry of Justice to arrest Chukwuma and two others, in order to arraign him in court to face criminal charges.
Chukwuma in a series of tweets on his company’s Twitter account, @innosonvehicles, stated that Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) was behind the arrest warrant issued, stating that the issuance of bench warrant against him is an abuse of process taken too far.
Justice Ayokunle Faji granted the request made by the prosecutor, Mr Julius Ajakaiye to arrest Chukwuma, Charles Chukwu, and Anajekwu Sunny over their refusal to present themselves in court for a case bordering on conspiracy, forgery, and fraud to the tune of N2.4 billion filed by the IGP through the Federal Ministry of Justice sometime in December 2015.
The three, alongside Innoson Nigeria Limited and a shipping company, Mitsui Osk, were charged before the court, but only Mitsui Osk was represented in court. So Ajakaiye informed the court that the warrant of arrest was in pursuant with sections 113, 114 and 395 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
Chukwuma refuted the charges in a press release sent to Nairametrics. He explained that there is no prima facie case against him. According to Chukwuma, the charge was based on suspected action of Innoson Nigeria Limited, and Innoson Nigeria Limited was a party originally to the charge but was discharged by the Court of Appeal.
Firstly, there is no prima facie case against me. The charge was based on suspected or trumped up action of Innoson Nigeria Ltd and Innoson Nigeria Ltd was a party originally to the charge but was discharged by the Court of Appeal.
— Innoson Vehicles (@innosonvehicles) June 24, 2019
