A legal firm, Alpha-Harris Solicitors has flawed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) criminal allegations against its client, Mr. Alex Ikomi, in a contract agreement between the latter and Alausa Power Limited, saying the allegations are untrue
The agreement was for the rental and deployment of three units 1MW Power Plant at Ikeja Mall under a Power Purchase Agreement between Alausa Power Limited and Ikeja Mall.
The anti-graft commission had recently accused Ikomi of ‘crime of internet fraud, impersonation and obtaining money under false pretenses’ and published the allegations in some national newspapers, the social media and its website, and declared the accused wanted.
Worried by the EFCC and Alausa Power Limited’s misinformation of the public about the terms of the contract, Alpha-Harris Solicitors clarified that in reaction to the vexation and scandalous publications, Alpha-Harris Solicitors stated that it had taken up the challenge by filing relevant court processes to set aside the scandalous and defamatory publications, adding that the processes are currently pending before the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja Division.
It claimed that on realizing that the team of the EFCC officials is only concerned with pursuing debt recovery for the interest of Alausa Power Limited, it approached the High Court of Lagos State in suit No. ID/15471MFHR/2023 Owumi Ikomi & 2Ors Vs. EFCC and Alausa Power Limited & Others seeking declaratory reliefs and injunction restraining EFCC from further harassment arrest and/or detention Ikomi regarding the rental agreement between him and Alausa Power.
The solicitors to Ikomi further clarified: “To put the records straight, we wish to state unequivocally that there was nothing like internet fraud, neither is there anything like impersonation or obtaining under false pretences that was committed by our client in his transaction with Alausa Power.”
The law firm stated that based on the way the anti-graft commission is presenting the matter to the public through media publications, it suspected that, (it does appear) that some people in the employment of the EFCC may be using their position in the Commission to work as debt recovery agents in pursuit of the commercial interest of Alausa Power Limited.
Stressing that the contract agreement between its client and Alausa Power Limited contains Arbitration Clause for resolution of any dispute arising from the contract, the firm pointed out that “as the issue arose, we served Notice of Arbitration on Alausa Power for referral of the dispute to Arbitration as stipulated by the contract. On January 30, 2023, which is 5 months before the agreed date for completion of the project and while the Notice of Arbitration has been served, our client was informed that Alausa Power Limited wrote a petition to EFCC; which lead to EFCC freezing our client’s bank account and sent invitation to his customers, vendors, suppliers purposely harassing them to report to their office for interrogation”.
According to the solicitors, by virtue of the agreement, the delivery and commission of the Power Plant was to take place five months after payment of security deposit but the payment of the security deposit was delayed and later made June 3, 2022, leading to project delivery time of December 2022.
Alpha-Harris Solicitors further stated that in August 2022, parties had further renegotiation and by agreement further extended the contract delivery period by six (6) months which then extended the delivery period to June 2023. In September 2022, Alausa Power visited our client’s facility, inspected the 1.5MW generator and 3 units of 1MW Gas Generators that were being deployed and reaffirmed the June 2023 extended delivery date. “
This is even as it maintained that strangely, in October 2022 exactly one month after their visit, its client was contacted by the legal department of Alausa Power Limited and informed that the company is already calculating liquidated damages of N500,000.00 daily against the client, a claim that was immediately rejected by him with a demand that the calculation of the liquidated damages be suspended forthwith as it will frustrate the performance of the contract and the delivery of the project.
The law firm further alleged that meanwhile Alausa Power Limited was already in default of her contract with customer due to the pressure of the failure of delivery of the project by a previous vendor, which put Alausa Power under significant pressure. To rescue the situation, our client offered to do an early deployment of 1.5MW generator to help reduce the pressure Alausa power was getting from her customer and so that Alausa Power Limited does not lose the contract.
