Babalola Debunks Claim on Ownership of Star Orient

Femi Solaja

Business magnate, Babatunde Babalola, has dismissed the claims against him as the owner of the aviation depot, Star Orient Nigeria Limited which is presently enmeshed in debt recovery.

Babalola, who sit atop conglomerate including First Deep Water, Star Petroleum, Discovery Airways, OSCON firm among others explained that he was not blocking Special Fraud Unit Nigeria Police in Lagos, investigating the into the financial dealings of the Star Orient Limited as claimed by the duo of Lanre Bamgbose and Dare Osamoh recently.

He explained that the two accusers whom he entrusted with the running of the depot years back, mismanaged the loans collected from a major financial institution and at pay-back time and now attempting to avoid justice in the course of investigation and would prefer the company to go under.

“As a busy entrepreneur and should be able to entrust people with responsibilities and the course of my relationship with them, I appointed them to hold for me in trust in day to day running of the company.

“But date back in 2014, I secured a land at the airport and built a depot from start to finish with the purpose to serve Discovery Airline and to serve other airlines too and thereafter, I allocated shares to them but today they are laying claim to the owners of the shares.

“I signed a Deed of Trust with Dare which he drafted for me to sign but there comes a point in time they are having financial problem and needed the assistance alongside Isaac Adewole of Shibahwells Energy Services Limited who also came in and wanted a Joint Venture agreement and the agreement was signed on 31st July, 2018.

“The modus of agreement was simple bring in product, sell product and share the proceed and each parties go their ways until a year ago when he came and said he was looking for N1.4billion and I initially took as a joke until it became a police matter and I was invited for questioning and wondering why they are not comfortable with the agreements again.

The duo of Bamgbose and Isaac claimed they have an audited account of the company and alleged diversion of funds which led to the present financial mess of the company with the claims that Babalola was influencing the Special Fraud Unit to subvert justice in a petition they wrote to the Inspector General of Police.

In his response, Babalola denied the claim and wondered how it could be possible since the duo are sole signatory to the accounts while all through the duration of the venture, he was never involved with any financial transactions.

“The two are signatory to the account and all payments were made by them and I never signed any cheque nor payment of any sort was instructed by me.

“There game plan was simply to let the company wined up and this is the contentious issue now and we are awaiting the Police preliminary report of the investigation carried out.

“They are not comfortable with my position in the whole matter claiming I am no longer part of the company even when one of them, Dare, has relinquished his shares back to me while the remaining shares are still being held by them. All I want is for the law to take its due course.

“There is a difference between allocation and ownership of shares. It takes certain procedures for transfer of ownership to take place and one thing that is clear is that I incorporated the company.

“They wanted to borrow more money but I refused them on the grounds that they need to send back my shares before another access to more loans.

On the petition by Bamgbose and Osamoh to Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman on his attempt to stall the further investigation because of the petition he wrote to SFU on the initial loan Star Orient obtained that led to the financial difficulties, he said as the rightful owner of the company, he reserved the right to take action that will speedy up the investigation procedure which is contrary to their claim.

“The whole thing can be likened to the biblical King Solomon judgement of two women contesting the ownership of a baby during which of the women preferred the living baby to die as well.

“I won’t allow my company to go under and this explains why I want the law to take its due course. They claimed to have engaged an auditor whose reports they have been brandishing all over the place.

“I suggested the services of Price Waterhouse Cooper whom we all know will do a neat job and ready to foot the bill they refused. Instead they’ve been going all over the place including the DSS office claiming I was planning to bomb the airport and the depot as well.

“I was wondering if I could sit at the top of the conglomerate and would it be naïve to destroy a depot I built with my sweat. Imagine Bamgbose claiming he doesn’t know me whereas because of my relationship with him over the years, he is also a director at OSCON firm which I also owned.

“This was a man that waited for six months before I could grant him an audience and I met through one of my staff and Discovery Airline was having some challenges and he claimed he has contacts that could help resuscitate the company and we became friends since them but today he claimed he doesn’t know me.

“While in the case of Adewole, we worship together in the same church because he is a pastor, but in the last two years, things have changed.

“The truth is that they used Star Orient secure bank loans and they have the obligation to pay back and that is what I stand for. In business it’s either you lose or make gains.

“At a time I wanted to help using the group but they seem to have somethings hiding and when receiver’s managers from FCMB came in they quickly ran to court just to delay further investigation into the financial dealings,” he explained.

However, Osamoh may have seen the light after reports claimed he had left the struggle because of threat to life and was partly the reason why Mr. Adewole stepped in as joint ownership of the company in contention.

On the present situation of the company, Babalola said they duo are still there running skeletal services because all the patronage like Air Peace and few other airlines has since stopped the dealings.