The Association of Mobile Money & Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) was established to help facilitate, organise and speed up agents’ efforts towards the financial inclusion policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria but internally it faces a problem with reports of its suspended national president, Mr. Fasasi Sarafadeen Atanda. Its Board of Trustees (BoT) accuses the president of financial misappropriation and breaking several rules deliberately enacted to lead the community effectively.

A strong-worded petition has been sent to the office of the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, Zone 2 Command, headquartered in Onikan, Lagos, by AMMBAN’s board members, who accused Mr. Atanda of embezzling money. The police’s role following the notice it received on Monday, November 4, 2024, is to carry out an unfettered investigation into the allegations, which either confirms or disclaims the suspicions.

Part of the five-paragraph petition sent to Onikan said the president funnelled association funds into his pocket before his suspension. It was also alleged that he specifically failed to account for the monies received from members despite several engagements asking for clarifications. 

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It has come to our attention that the President has been receiving Association funds directly into his personal/corporate bank account, an action directly violating Article 23.2 of the Association Bye-Laws, which mandates that all funds must be maintained in the Association’s official accounts. This deliberate disregard for the established financial protocols of AMMBAN constitutes serious mismanagement of Association resources and poses substantial risks to financial accountability, declared the members in their petition to the AIG.

Trustees needed a quick recovery from the sacrilege they were seeing happen around them all these past months because Mr. Atanda reportedly hoodwinked unsuspecting members about where their contributions had been going. They do not know about him diverting their payments away from the official payment channels of the association into his personal company’s account (Partner De Ecosystem), reportedly to organise an event that the association was to benefit from but that didn’t happen.

There haven’t been traces that the suspended president went through with what he argued money was to be used for. Such actions, the petition says, are incompatible with the fiduciary duties of transparency and integrity that the President is obligated to uphold.

Although the accusation that Mr. Atanda has been fraudulent is as grave as an allegation gets, the BoT is nudging the police to expand its research to cover the Companies and Allied Matters Act which instructs whether corporates or professional groups on how they are to be governed.  

The longer this issue festers untended, the more the damage that will be done to members, the BoT argues in the petition. This is why the trustees want a very quick intervention from the police in order to protect other associates who still believe Mr. Atanda is the president, which means they give him their trust.

Acting President Dr. Obioha Otti is naturally, based on the association’s constitution the one to be in the role he now occupies. Before now, he was simply Vice President 1 of AMMBAN.

We in AMMBAN NEC and SEC of the BoT are carefully studying the activities of Mr. Fasasi and I can assure you that something is being done about it, marked his words of assurance taking over the reins. 

His confidence-building cuts across to those members who have knowingly or unknowingly collaborated with his predecessor.

We are only doing our best to ensure that we exhaust all avenues of ensuring that we conform to all our AMMBAN rules and regulations and also the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Acting President Otti wants the world to believe that he and other critical members are working round the clock to ensure that the association is moving forward as one indivisible and big family that is bridging the financial disparities that once plagued Nigeria before its establishment up to eight years ago.

Meiza Nigeria