Alleged Fraudulent Conversion Of N214M By Jumia Food: Castle Logistics Services Ltd Petitions Assistant IGP

In the petition dated the 24^th day of December, 2018, signed by one Mrs. Catherine Azubuike, and made available to TheNigerialawyer (TNL), the petitioner alleged that they entered into a Service Level Agreement, sometime in August 2016, wherein they are 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 on 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, Mr. 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.]]>