I’m Ready For The EFCC   

Moses Audu is the Managing Director of a Kaduna-based MariamMoses Ventures Limited. In this interview with FEMI ADI, he reacts to allegations of fraud and sharp business practices leveled against him by a Dutch woman and says he is prepared to face EFCC if he is invited

•Moses Audu.

A Dutch woman has accused you of fraud, do you know her?
Yes, I met this woman when I was at the School of Mission, Kutamawa, Jos. I was undergoing a course preparatory to my being ordained as a clergyman when the relationship with her started. She is a very nice woman. When we got close, during my days at the mission school, she promised to assist me and my children, which she did. She really supported me in the mission.

Recently, through her lawyer, she claimed she has sent a petition to EFCC to investigate you on alleged identity theft, fraudulent practices and illegal operation of your business. What is your reaction to this?
If she did, nothing will come out of it. The entire allegations you just mentioned are baseless, false and unfounded. When the time comes, I will prove it to EFCC. I don’t know why she said I established a wonder bank business to defraud people, when we went to Corporate Affairs Commission together and signed the necessary documents, with our pictures, to establish MariamMoses Ventures. Why would she turn back to accuse me of identity theft and fraud? Yes, I am aware that she loves me so much and my children too.

According to the copy of the petition allegedly supplied to EFCC by her lawyer, you forged her signature to form a wonder bank to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians?
I can provide the documents that she signed personally, with her pictures and mine attached, that were taken to CAC for a corporate registration. So if she is alleging that I forged her signature, she lied. Why on earth can she say I forged her signature, when she agreed to sign willingly? She is only out to blackmail me because I told her the truth. You can please go to Access Bank and confirm if the signature on the bank details is not hers.

What truth?
That she should forget me and go back to her husband.

What about the allegation she raised that the Holland office address of your business is her residence?
It is not true. After she left Nigeria then, she called and pleaded that I  include her addresses and phone numbers in the business. I was reluctant, knowing that she is not my wife. We are just good friends. After telling her, she insisted, telling me that if I really loved her, I should not be afraid to include her address and phone numbers in my business. I felt pity for her, especially since she was of great assistance to me and my children in the past. So, for her to turn around now and accuse me of forging her signature is unfair and uncalled for.

She equally raised the allegation that you are using her name as a white woman to lend credibility to your NGO, Food for the Nation, and to defraud your clients. Is this true?
What I can just tell you is that the woman is confused. It is not true. God gave me a vision to set up my business to liberate the poor in our society. You go and ask those who have been doing business with me and the beneficiaries of the corporate social responsibility. If I tell you what we are doing at MariamMoses Ventures Limited, I will be blowing my own trumpet. So, go and confirm my credibility from my customers. I was supposed to be a pastor but the white lady caused my expulsion from the missionary school, when she forced me to have sex with her in a kitchen at the seminary. But I had to forget the incident and face my life. I have investments worth more than the value of the money saved in the business by our customers. I do clean forex business, I buy agricultural produce at cheaper prices from farmers, I am into property development and other good businesses that fetch money. It is God that lifted me up and she seems not to be happy with it. When we started, yes it is true that we agreed to do business together. But when we fell out and she demanded that I should remove her name from the business, I reverted to using my grandmother’s name, who coincidentally bears Mariam too. Then I changed the business name from Mariam Moses Ventures to MariamMoses Ventures Limited. And now we have completed the documentation process to change the business idea to a microfinance bank.

What about the issue that you have been parading her as your wife, when she is married to someone else?
We are friends and the friendship got to the extent that we had carnal knowledge of each other. It was after this that she was on me for marriage even when she had her husband in Holland. I refused and asked her to go and beg for forgiveness from the husband that she cheated on, and also called the relationship off. I agree that I did a wrong thing by sleeping with her, but I have asked God to forgive me. She begged that she would divorce her husband to marry me, I still refused. Of course, it must be due to these reasons that she is out to blackmail me. I was told that she wrote a petition to EFCC to investigate me on identity theft, fraudulent practices and illegal operation of my business. I am not bothered because I know that she did it because I have abandoned her. Let her do whatever she likes, I want to assure you that she will not succeed.

If you have called off the relationship quits, what about the money she claimed was lent to you to start your business?
It’s true that she assisted with some money then, but just recently I sent some money to offset what she claimed she lent me. So, why would she say I defrauded her. She is finding means to destroy me because I called the relationship off. God gave me the vision and He helped to gain the confidence of the people. I am not doing 419 business. I simply invested people’s money into supply, food processing, trading, forex and other viable money-spinning ventures. Today, my business is credible, because those who are my customers and clients have seen that I am sincere, faithful and transparent. I just believe that she is desperate to marry me, that is why she resorted to blackmail. I want her to come to Nigeria and prove all her allegations.

But many people have done similar business in the past and closed shop. Don’t you think the same fate will befall this venture in future?
I don’t think so. The business is well grounded. I just told you that it has transformed into a Micro Finance bank. We are just waiting for the final order from Central Bank to kick off. Besides, we are into viable trading that gives good return on investment. Anybody can be part of it and it will work. Trading in forex is not 419, people give me money to trade for them, and from February to date more than 20,000 people have benefitted from our business.