Jumia Foods is facing allegations of fraud, bothering on false presence, fraudulent conversion and diversion of the sum of two hundred and fourteen million, six hundred and ninety-five thousand, four hundred and forty-five naira, forty-nine kobo, following a petition to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, of Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos by Castle Logistics.
In a petition dated the 24th day of December, 2018, signed by Catherine Azubuike, and made available to BusinessDay, the petitioner alleged that the company entered into a Service Level Agreement, to provide personnel services and equipment to Jumia food for delivery of food supply requests made online by its customers, adding that it also involves the collection of monies and consequent remittance of same to Jumia.
It was alleged that in May 2018, the contract became determined by Castle for gross failure to adhere to the terms by Jumia. Jumia was said to have been able to pay for only August, 2016 to March, 2018, and fell short of the payment of N214, 695,445.49, and upon a thorough investigation into the payment collection system, they found out that Jumia without Castle’s consent and permission gave to some of the Riders, Jumia food’s personal POS for collection of payments from customers, and effectively those payments were rendered directly into Jumia food designated accounts., adding that Jumia stole and converted the said sum for own use.
According to the petition, Castle demanded Jumia food to provide it with complete bank reports of the transactions on those POS machines, but Jumia refused.
“Jumia food refused but rather chose to randomly estimate a percentage of the total funds received from those POS machines as funds related to orders handled by castle. This resulted in huge monthly shortfalls on orders handled by Castle and Jumia Food kept demanding Castle to remit funds for those shortfalls without providing the POS reports.
Castle also alleged that further findings later showed diversion of fund, and that Jumia deceived them into remitting funds to its Zenith bank account with clear intention to permanently deprive them of its use. The petitioner stressed that the riders acted on the behest of the Managing Director of Jumia food, Guy Futi. The petition also included the issue of non-remittance of VAT and WHT by Jumia to the Tax authorities.
The petitioner is therefore calling on the Assistant Inspector-General of Police to investigate the issue and see to it that justice is served.
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, men of the Nigerian Police, Zone II, Onikan, Lagos picked up Guy Futi of Jade Internet E-Services Nigeria Limited (Jumia Food) over these allegations.
Although Jumia representatives have denied this arrest, a member of the anti-fraud unit, Adewumi Adegoke confirmed it.
He said, “I can confirm that the Managing Director of Jumia Food was arrested today and is in our custody. Investigations are ongoing on the allegations leveled against him and the company and I can assure you that they will be charged to Court accordingly upon conclusion.”
It was also learnt by our correspondent that the company is being accused of evading tax payable to the authorities.
By our Reporter
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