Aderemi Adeoye, retired Anambra Commissioner of Police (CP), on Friday, dismissed claims that he described himself as a billionaire.
Information Nigeria reports that during his retirement last Saturday, he disclosed he is now going fully into business and is ready to give Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, a run for his money.
He had said that he founded Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC) Limited in 2018 with a modest sum of N54 million, but the investment is now worth over N20 billion.
“That will be my full time business from Wednesday, May 1 when I fully disengage. We have been investing and now we want to go into full time business and we will in the next 10 years give Dangote a run for his money,” Adeoye had said.
However, he denied saying he is competing with Forbes’ richest African on Arise Television’s ‘The Morning Show’, adding that he never amassed wealth or abused his office.
According to him, the civil service rules and police code of conduct do not bar anyone from investing, neither is the law against buying shares.
He also said his activities in an investment club he co-founded never conflicted with his job as a policeman.
During the programme, Adeoye urged the hosts to provide the clip where he said he was now a billionaire as reported.
His words: “I have never said anything of such. I weigh my words before I utter them and every word say, I say in good faith. I never said I am now a billionaire and anyone who has proof to the contrary is challenged to produce it.
“Now, as to whether I have used my office (by running an investment club). Those who make their assertion should also prove that if they have evidence.
“Civil service rules and police code of conduct do 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. Civil servants belong to cooperatives. I am a member of the police cooperative. There is no law against it.”
He said during his service period, he equipped himself through trainings in Nigeria and abroad and gained financial education, leading to the establishment of an investment club in 2018 by members of a from he had lectured.
On the allegation that a search at Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and on Google failed to establish that the club was legally registered, he said he did the same search himself and found several entries that explained to the world what the investment club does and its mode of operation.
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“It is an investment club that has a loan arm that is registered with the Lagos state government as a cooperative and we are registered with the CAC. I have our certificate of registration here, and I hereby display it for the world to see. Not only are we registered with the CAC, our annual filings are up to date with them,” he said.
“Like I mentioned earlier, our known arm is also registered with the state government as a cooperative. Here is our SCUML 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 the EFCC.
“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 will 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. He was satisfied.”
He furthered that the club pays all the taxes related to its transactions and the accounts are available to its 1,400 members, some of whom are based in Europe.
The club has communicated with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to find out if its activities are within their purviews, he disclosed.
The retiree blamed the fraud allegations on some “renegade” members of the club who were expelled “for criminal activities.”
He clarified that ATIC is an investment forum and not a limited liability company.
“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 employees, we don’t pay salaries, we don’t run generator, we have no official cars, we don’t refund the expenses of any kind.
“We never campaigned publicly for membership. Our members inform their relations and friends who might be interested and for the five years of our existence, we have paid dividends every year without fail. We pay dividends once a year.
“Our membership due is N5,000 per member per annum. You must be a Nigerian, irrespective of where you are domiciled in the world. You must have a visible means of livelihood, which we verify. Usually we demand to see workplace identity card and we do further to verify. 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 formation in Nigeria. Those who are pending matters with EFCC are excluded. Majority of our members are Nigerian professionals all over the world,” he added.
In January 2024, a group had petitioned Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), asking him to intervene in an alleged case of fraud and misappropriation of funds by Adeoye.
The group accused him of operating a “Ponzi scheme” and misappropriating funds meant for investments in Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC), the cooperative co-founded by him.
He denied the allegations at the time.
