The Board of Directors, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, has described the fraud allegations levelled against the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Taiwo Adewole, as misleading and capable of instigating violence of which may disrupt the smooth operations of the company.
According to a statement signed by the chairman of the board, Mr Akinboye Oyewumi, “We have gone through the entire piece of information shared by some group of people and concluded that they are not only far from the truth. We consider this as malicious and intended to mislead the public and the government of Ondo State in order to provoke unnecessary and avoidable violence aimed at disrupting the smooth operations of the company.
“Even though we do not intend to join issues with those behind the unfounded allegations, we like to state that we have confidence and take pride in the achievements of the company under the present board of directors with Mr. Taiwo Adewole leading the executive management team.
“We wish to state without any iota of doubt that the financial and operational performance of the company has always been subjected to proper and responsible scrutiny since the inception of this board, comprising of very eminent Nigerians from the investing public, state government, traditional institutions and the host communities which I have the privilege to chair.
“It is important to state that the current Board of directors, with Mr Adewole as the head of executive management, introduced a cashless policy from its inception in April 2018.
“This cashless policy ensures that cash is not handled in any form in the company. All revenue of the company is paid directly to the bank and is captured fully within the banking procedures of the company.
The board noted that dividends have been paid to shareholders twice under the current management and for the first time since 1994 when the company became a Public Limited Company. It is also important to state that the company’s annual turnover increased from a mere N260 millon in 2017 to about N2 billion at the end of 2023 and profitability moving from a profit of N38.6 million in 2017 to almost N1 billion in 2023.
It stated further that the company uses manuals developed by a globally renowned consultancy firm to guide its processes and guide the operations of the company and safeguard the assets of the company such that it is practically impossible for its assets and hard-earned resources to be disbursed by any individual or group of persons outside the parameters clearly set out by the Board of Directors.
It also decried what it termed as dirty ethnic politics being introduced into the affairs of OOP Plc where some frustrated kingpins of illegal harvesters were leading the illegal call for the removal of the Managing Director, Mr Taiwo Adewole on the illogical claim that he is not of Ikale extraction and making mischievous allegations of fraud.
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