The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said yesterday it deployed operatives to enforce the closure order on The Honda Place (THP) offices in Lagos and Abuja.
Operatives took over the offices owned by the Vaswani brothers for failure to comply with the directive to seal off the premises.
EFCC resorted to forceful closure since the management of the outfit defied the order in the Lagos and Abuja offices.
Head of Media and Publicity, Femi Babafemi, told Daily Independent that operatives of the anti-graft commission on Wednesday took over the offices in Lagos and Abuja, chasing away all the staff who reported to their duty posts. “The management of The Honda Place went ahead to do business in their offices in Lagos and Abuja, defying the order of closure. Our operatives have taken over the premises and enforced the closure,” he said.
Suril, Haresh and Mahesh Vaswani are being investigated for allegedly forging a document to lure Globe Motors into a sub-dealership that never existed in the bid to earn sole dealership of the Honda Motors, Japan
Globe Motors, in its petition to the EFCC, accused the Vaswanis of obtaining N40 billion from the deal.
But the Vaswanis reacting to media reports said it was “untenable” that a claim of N40 billion that went before the Federal High Court and the Supreme Court, which was found to be untenable and dismissed, could resurrect before an agency of government despite the counsel and directive of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
In a three-page statement issued in Lagos through their lawyer Abdullahi Ibrahim (SAN), The Honda Place, owned by the Vaswani brothers Sunil, Haresh and Mahesh said it had no contract whatsoever with Globe Motors neither are they owing them any money.
The company also stressed the lawful nature of all their businesses, saying that they have nothing to hide from the authorities.
The Honda Place further said “Our Lawyers have already written two letters to EFCC explaining that the complaint of Globe Motors is pending before the Court. The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation recently wrote to EFCC upon receipt of a copy of our Lawyers’ letter and asked the EFCC to suspend investigations so that the action in Court will not be duplicated. The letter of the Honourable Attorney General was copied to our lawyer, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim. “Our officials subsequently visited EFCC’s office in Abuja and they were asked to hold on until further notice. This was, as far as we are December 2008.
“The allegation that we have failed to heed EFCC’s summons or defend ourselves of Globe Motors’ petition as published on the pages of Newspapers are therefore baffling to us. This is the more reason why the current action of the EFCC is baffling to us and will appear to have emanated from a mix up.”