Barely 24 hours after they were declared wanted over a fresh N3billion fraud, the Vaswani brothers yesterday insisted that they are being witch-hunted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, had on Friday declared the Vaswani brothers – Sunil, Haresh, and Mahesh, wanted over alleged underpayment to the Nigeria Customs Service.
She said the Vaswani brothers refused to pay a N3billion duty on rice importation.
Waziri also claimed that the brothers had escaped out of the country to Europe and Dubai.
But in a statement yesterday by the Chairman of the Stallion Group, Sunil, the Vaswanis denied any underhand dealing with the Federal Government.
The statement reads: “During the time that rice prices skyrocketed worldwide in 2008, Stallion responded to the requirements of the Nigerian people by making supply arrangements of sufficient quantities internationally between May-October 2008. Government had issued a waiver of duty during that period.
“All of these shipments entered Nigerian waters before the stipulated duty free deadline of October 31
st2008 and were also partially discharged in Lagos port. These shipments and their arrival details are legally well documented.
“However, in January 2009, three months later, the Customs chose to claim duties against these last shipments. As payment of duties would undermine the very purpose of FG’s move to stabilize local prices and ensure food security, Stallion group contested these decisions officially with the Customs and have provided all requisite information since then.
“This government says it is a due process government and we believe them. Why is the EFCC not toeing the official line of due process?
“Disputes between importers and the Customs are common and they happen all the time. In this instance, we even showed good faith by asking our bankers to issue guarantees, in the event the government adjudicates the matter not in our favour.”
On the second allegation of N3billion fraud that led to EFCC chairman’s briefing, the Vaswani brothers, in the statement, made their position known quoting sources in the Stallion group.
According to the statement, “issue is about two shipments of rice that were imported after January 2009 with all necessary legal documents.
“The customs duties and charges were issued by COTECNA, the international pre-shipment inspection agency. This was also at that time confirmed by Customs which issued the necessary assessment notices.
“Duties were duly paid accordingly on a timely basis. After the payment of these duties; the Customs suddenly almost doubled the price of the product and issued demand notices to the group to pay the difference.”
The quoted sources also said the group contested the debit notes when it got worried that such a high valuation could result in increased local prices of rice and that the Stallion group nevertheless gave the Customs a Bank Guarantee for the amount they were claiming, pending resolution of the matter, following the rule of law and due process.
Since both issues are presently under consideration by relevant government authorities and with Stallion having provided the fullest cooperation including issuance of the bank guarantee demanded by Customs and submission of all documents, the source said, the group felt that the “EFCC”s action is misguided and lacks any supportive evidence.
“It is notable that a few weeks back, EFCC initiated action against Stallion on an issue relating to Globe Motors, but had to pull back as it became evident that the allegations were baseless and frivolous and that the matter was earlier conclusively dealt with in Stallion’ s favour by the various courts in the country.”
Sources with the group have appealed to all concerned that due process should be allowed and that they, in the meanwhile, should be allowed to carry on their businesses without unwarranted disruption. It is pertinent to note that some of Stallion’s new businesses involve sizeable foreign investment into priority sectors like agriculture and being run in active collaboration with FG to the tune of several hundreds of Billions.”
They said they suspected a hidden agenda by the EFCC to send the Vaswanis out of business.
“In the latest incident, the disputed matter of duty payment on the importation of rice, a matter now before the Minister of Finance has become the ploy to tarnish our good trading name,” they added.
They recalled that in December last year, the EFCC had shut down the Honda Place in three major cities in the country on the pretext of a petition that the complainant had himself taken before a judge of the High Court of Lagos.
“The Federal government went into the matter and asked the EFCC to vacate their premises and allow the courts to settle the matter. The Vaswanis went on to win that case.
“About three weeks ago, the EFCC issued a statement that was highly defamatory of the Vaswanis, in the mistaken assumption that a certain Vaswani who had a case with the EFCC was their family member and even when the records showed that he was not, the Commission had not deemed it necessary to render them an apology,” they added.