I never said I’m a billionaire— Ex-Anambra CP

“May I request that you provide the clip where I said I am now a billionaire,” Adeoye said.

“I never said so and i am shocked that erudite journalist of very high reputation will simply run with a story they never researched. I have never said anything of such. I weigh my words before I alter them and every word say, i say in good faith. I never said I am now a billionaire and anyone who has proved to be contrary is challenged to produce it. Now going to whether I have used my office. Those who make their assertion can also prove that if they have evidence.

“I have never abused my office. I have never amassed wealth. I have never done anything that is against civil service rules or any law known to man.

“Civil service rules and police code of conduct does not bar anyone from investing. There is no law against buying shares. There is no law against investing in land or property. The only thing is that you must be able to justify the means.

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On April 27, the commissioner bowed out of service after 35 years of service and 10 months of leading the police command in the state.

He revealed that during his service period, he equipped himself through trainings in Nigeria and abroad, gained financial education, leading to the establishment of an investment club in 2018.

Olusegun Adeniyi, a former presidential spokesperson and chairman of THISDAY editorial board, in article tittled “The Billionaire Police Commissioner” alleged Adeoye to have said his net worth is now N20 billion and he has set his eyes on displacing Aliko Dangote as the richest man in Africa within the next ten years.

Adeniyi said he is not opposed to legitimate ‘side hustles’ but there is a problem when public officials acquire stupendous wealth that is impossible to explain and then make a show of it.

He added that he conducted a search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)and google search, and the results were shocking as a business concern with a portfolio of N20 billion is not listed at the CAC.

Reacting to this, the retired commissioner said he did the same google search himself and found several entries that explained to the world what the investment club does and its mode of operation.

“It is an investment club that has an arm that is registered with the local state government as a cooperative and we are registered with the corporate affairs commission (CAC) Olusegun Adeniyi, in his verdict calling, claimed to have done a google search and he couldn’t find anything else,” the commissioner continued.

“Even though when I did the same google search myself, I found several entries that explained to the world what we do and how we do it. He said he checked the CAC database and he could not find us, meaning we are illegal, meaning we don’t exist. That’s a fallacy.

“I have our certificate of registration here, and I hereby display it for the world to see. This is for CAC. Not only are we registered with CAC, our armament files are up to date with the CAC. Like I mentioned earlier, our known arm is also registered with the local state government as a cooperative. Here is our school certificate issued by the EFCC. So you can begin to see when someone says we don’t exist, we are not registered, and I’ve shown evidence that we are, including registration with EFCC.

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Adeoye added that the former presidential spokesperson only found out a petition to the inspector general of police by renegade members expelled for criminal conduct.

“The inspector general of police is a disciplinarian. He does not tolerate nonsense and the IG will not condone an officer going into anything that is against the ethics of the job, and we look on, the IG never does that.

“The IG forwarded the petition to me in the spirit of fairness, and I replied, addressing every issue that was raised in the petition, the IGP was satisfied.

The retired commissioner clarified that the name of the club he founded is Alpha Trust Investment Club, adding that it is an investment forum and not a business entity.

“Our purpose is to invest. Not to do business. So we don’t have an office, We don’t have overhead costs, we have no employee. We don’t pay salary, we don’t run generator. We have no official car, we don’t refund the expenses of any kind.

“We never campaigned publicly for membership. We simply put out an update and our members informed their relations and friends who might be interested and for 5 years of our existence, we have paid dividends every year without fail. We pay dividends once a year. The question you ask about how we put resources together is very simple.

“Only thing members pay, those who are officials of the club, is their data and that data each person uses for his work is seen as their individual contribution to the growth of the club. Only thing we spend money on is organizing our meetings.

“Physical meetings and this is paid for by membership dues which is 5,000 Naira per member per annum for anyone to be a member, he must be a Nigerian. Irrespective of where he is domiciled in the world. Number two. He must have a visible means of livelihood. Which we verify. Usually we demand to see workplace identity card and we do further to verify. If he did, his documents are genuine. We do background check.

“We insist that any member we are to admit must not have a criminal record or a pending criminal matter at any police commission in Nigeria. Those who are pending matters with EFCC are excluded. Majority of our members are Nigerian professionals all over the world.

So, anyone to be admitted must meet these criteria. He has a visible means of livelihood. He is now free to indicate how many units of our shares he or she wishes to buy, subject to a minimum of 50,000 units.

I never said I’m a billionaire— Ex-Anambra CP