Police report: No evidence Mmobuosi, Tingo diverted funds or falsified financial report

The legal unit of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) says there is no evidence to prosecute Tingo Foods, Tingo Mobile Plc and its founder, Dozy Mmobuosi, over allegations of fraud.

Ohiozoba Ehiede, the commissioner of police (legal), in a letter to Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector general of police, dated July 30, 2024, said the companies and the founder should be exonerated because it is “better that 10 guilty persons go free than one innocent suffer… it is about the balance between protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty”.

A complainant, Olayide Ayoola, who is also the acting managing director of Tingo, had alleged fraudulent diversion and misrepresentation of financial report with forged documents against two suspects, Stephen Okafor and Rose Ifedi.

Olaide, in the petition supported by an affidavit dated December 19, 2023 to the assistant inspector general of police, zone 2 command, Lagos, asked the police to investigate whether any of the staff members and management of Tingo Mobile Plc and Tingo Food, including their founder, Mmobuosi, diverted funds, misrepresented information about the company’s business, financial report or were involved in the forgery of bank documents.

The police legal advice reads in part: “Having painstakingly perused the case file and carefully examined the evidence in support of the investigation, the following were observed:

“i. That the complainant Ayoola Olaide, of No 95 Broad Street Marina Lagos doubles as the acting Managing Director of Tingo and Tingo Mobile Plc while the suspects in the case and who are now at large are Rose Ifebi, Stephanie Okafor, Timitope Ekondayo (at large) and Mavis Osakwe (at large).

“ii.  That Tingo Mobile is an Agric Fintech that provides technology such as mobile phones, loans, fertilizers and other agro allied material to farmers and operates it in business via mobile apps.

“iii. That Stephanie Okafor is the budget officer of Tingo Mobile Plc and the staff who created over Five Million Accounts and wallet for Alloje Royal Multi-Purpose Cooperative Kebbi (Dala) Cooperative Society and All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) on the instruction of the field Agents headed by Timitope Ekondayo (at large).

“iv. That the said Stephanie Okafor furnished Timitope Ekundayo (at large) with details of all the account numbers of individual wallet of farmers and members of respective cooperatives.

“v. That to authenticate the allegation and suspicion of the complainant, checks on the various accounts and documents obtained during investigation revealed that a third party account had been used to divert funds and revenues accruing to the company by the staff while bulk payment made by staff of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods were made through third party account instead of the company’s account, there by giving credence to the complainant’s allegations and suspicion.

“vi. That no exact amount has been confirmed to have been diverted from the company’s account as forensic audit has not been carried out.

“vii. That the disappearance of the two principal suspects, Timitope Ekondayo and Mavis Osakwe who are now at large so far made it difficult to ascertain the culpability of the suspects, thus no evidence so far adduced to support the claim of the Complainant against Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Foods Pic and Tingo Mobile Pic and same also in tune with findings of the investigation report.”

Ehiede said his office “is of the considered opinion to advise that efforts be intensified to apprehend the fleeing principal suspects: Timitope Ekondayo and Mavis Osakwe, conduct forensic audit of the company’s account to ascertain the exact amount of funds diverted

“Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Foods Plc and Tingo Mobile Plc (should) be exonerated as no evidence so far in the file to support the case against them. It is trite that is better that 10 guilty persons go free than one innocent suffer, it is about the balance between protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.”

Meanwhile, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has declared its “unflinching support” for Tingo Group over allegations by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a press statement, the AFAN said it “stands unwavering in its support for Tingo recognising the critical role its ecosystem of products and services play in the daily lives of millions of Nigerian farmers. Tingo’s contributions are instrumental in empowering millions and any disruption could have far reaching consequences”.

A seller, Hindenburg, had levelled allegations against Tingo and Mmobuosi, leading to the SEC investigations.

SEC filed multimillion-dollar fraud charges against Mmobuosi, alleging that he lied about owning $461.7 million when he allegedly had less than $50 in all accounts.

The development led to the indictment charge by the US department of justice in the charge dated January 2, 2024.

But Tingo and Mmobuosi have denied the allegations and complained that they were not given fair hearing.