MAMBILA BEVERAGES NIGERIA LIMITED
(TEA ESTATE, KAKARA VILLAGE, OFF NGUROJE, PMB 2207, GEMBU, SARDAUNA LGA, TARABA STATE, Nigeria)
A REJOINDER TO THE ALLEGATIONS LEVELED AGAINST MAMBILA BEVERAGES NIGERIA LIMITED VIDE FACEBOOK PUBLICATIONS BY ISMAILA DAHIRU
The attention of Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited has been drawn to the publication on Facebook sometime in April 2024 by a certain Ismaila Dahiru and captioned “FOR THE RECORD?” as well as the publication on Facebook, under the account name “Munmia Munmia”, sometime in July 2024 by one Hon. Sunday Mathew, captioned “THE BREWING SCANDAL AT MAMBILA BEVERAGES AND MISCONDUCT MISMANAGEMENT EXPOSED”. Both publications insinuate financial misappropriations and injustice. It is strongly believed that all the facebook allegations were authored by the same Ismaila Dahiru, a former employee who resigned from the services of the Company after being demoted amidst accusations of financial misappropriations during his tenure as Head of the Marketing Department.
To say the least, those allegations by Ismaila Dahiru were not only false, baseless, libelous and malicious, but they were a figment of the imagination of the writers and their sponsors who decided to embark on a campaign of calumny aimed at tarnishing the good name and hard-earned reputation of the Board Chairman and Managing Director/CEO of Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited (Developers, Manufacturers and Marketers of Highland Tea & Highland Green Tea). The writers were sponsored by those who are not comfortable with the giant strides, enviable milestones and success stories the management and the Board of Directors have recorded in the company. So, they should go and ‘tell their cat and bull stories to the Marines’; it is clear that they are all pure and huge lies.
Ordinarily, we would have ignored and/or avoided joining issues with Ismaila Dahiru, his associates and sponsors but for the fact that the purported and unfounded allegations have the propensity to mislead some of the Company’s stakeholders and the unsuspecting public. It has come to our attention that those allegations were intentionally leveled in an attempt to divert public attention from the unethical behaviours that led to the disciplinary actions taken against him and also to enable him to cover his tracks, in the face of ongoing investigations.
Contrary to the misinformation contained in the two publications, management is most safeguarded and constrained to inform and make clarification to its esteemed customers, valued stakeholders and the general public as follows:
That it is instructive to note that the resignation of Ismaila Dahiru from the services of the company was approved in principle, with a condition that he would commit to honour the company’s invitation whenever the need arises for him to defend himself on his involvement in the investigations of certain irregularities in financial transactions when he was the Company’s Head of Marketing Department. He was invited recently to appear before a Committee set up to investigate some allegations against him so he could be given a fair hearing, in continuation of the administrative resolution of the matter and the actions/decisions were to be taken thereafter by the Board of Directors. He instructed his lawyers to put up a protest appearance on the ground that the Committee lacked jurisdiction to investigate him. The investigations have been concluded and the Company is ready to bring all the parties found culpable to justice.
For the avoidance of doubt, it is pertinent to state that the law is well settled to the effect that management has evidence for the libelous publications, to enable it to institute and sustain an action for libel against Ismaila Dahiru.
In the light of the foregoing, it is regrettable that a former employee, who is facing serious accusations of financial misappropriation during his time with the company, has chosen to “kore kunya da hauka” (sacrifice shame at the altar of madness), making false and baseless allegations against the Chairman, Board of Directors and the Managing Director/CEO of this Company as a means of deflecting attention from his inglorious actions, without respect for constituted authority and the rule of law. We want to make it abundantly clear that we do not condone any form of unethical behaviour within our organization, and we always take swift and appropriate actions to address any breach of trust or misconduct.
For crying out loud, a fact-finding trip down the memory lane for a review of Ismaila Dahiru’s career history will reveal a pattern punctuated and epitomized by gross misconduct with impunity under various administrations, including but not limited to financial misappropriations, tribalism, nepotism, and other forms of abuse of power, processes, and procedures. For instance, under the defunct Nigeria Beverages Production Co. Limited, he contributed to the poor management of the company when he was favoured by his kinsman, the then Managing Director, Dr. Hammajoda Usman Kakara, to have been given approvals for the dispatch of trucks of Highland tea products without remitting the proceeds to the company. Then, PR was the order of the day. This led to the dwindling fortunes of the company as it could not even pay staff salaries due to the resultant operational challenges.
Ismaila Dahiru was billed to be dismissed by the Board when Mr. Jonah Agyo became the Managing Director, following his indictment by a Board Committee in June 2005, due to financial misappropriation and defecation; but he was advised to resign from the services of the company, which he did. When Mal. Ibrahim Nwunuji took over as the Managing Director, he (Dahiru) pleaded with him for reinstatement but his request was turned down. Irked by this, he decided to write a damning petition against him, accusing him of embezzling company funds, without providing any evidence to bolster his claims.
Furthermore, he had a stint at the National Assembly where he served as a legislative aide to Sen. Abubakar Tutare, and was dismissed from service due to his disreputable activities. In 2017, Rt. Hon. Abel Peter Diah graciously paved way for his engagement in the services of Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited but as we write, the ingrate is biting the fingers that fed him. Who in his right senses does that?
While his services with Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited lasted as Head of the Marketing Department, Ismaila Dahiru was fond of receiving deposits from some customers and/or distributors through his bank accounts, against company policy. Recently, management received a report that he lured a customer in Kano to pay money into his account on the 10th and 12th of July 2024 under pretenses, knowing fully well that he was no longer in the services of the company. Since then, he has gone underground and he’s unreachable by the customers who are ready to testify to that effect. What more can we say, seeing history keeps repeating itself? “Bad habit”, they say, “die-hard”. Indeed, “the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart”.
To put an end to Ismail Dahiru’s dubious activities, management has decided to put up a disclaimer on him. To this end, our esteemed customers, distributors and the general public are hereby advised that he is no longer a staff of Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited; and any person or organization who transacts business with him, purporting to be for and on behalf of this company, does so at his or her peril.
At this juncture, we make bold to categorically state the fact that the Board and Management of the Company are committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance best practice, integrity, and fairness in all aspects of our operations, having established robust systems and processes to ensure transparency, accountability, and ethical behaviour at all levels of the organization.
Given the above scenarios and to the best of our knowledge/abilities, we are committed to achieving our mandates, ensuring that Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited operates smoothly and remains on the path of sustainable growth and profitability, to increase Taraba State’s internally generated revenue, IGR profile amongst many other values/benefits to the stakeholders of the Company.
To this end, we remain eternally grateful to the forward-moving and people-oriented administration of His Excellency, Dr. Agbu Kefas, the Governor of Taraba State, and the Board of Directors for all the support and strategic guidance towards the enviable milestones and corporate success story we have achieved. We are particularly indebted to His Excellency for his gracious and exceptional approvals for importation off various CTC spares and packaging machines spares from China, India and Argentina, and for making Mambila Beverages Nigeria Limited to be one of the beneficiaries of the Agbu Kefas Agricultural Mechanization Project in the State.
We would like to call on our esteemed customers, stakeholders, and the general public to kindly ignore the propaganda of mischief makers as contained in the said Facebook publications, and be most guided by the sayings that, “a person may be unfit by being fitted in an unfit fitness” and “those the gods want to destroy, they first make them mad”. The Company further wishes to assure the stakeholders and the general public that it remains committed to the ideals of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the discharge of its statutory mandates of developing, manufacturing and marketing tea products and other related beverages.
Signed:
Management
August 10th, 2024
