‘ACC’S CRUSADE TO BRING US DOWN WRONG, XENOPHOBIC’

MBABANE – Businessman Fred Ngeri has accused the ACC of not doing any investigation in his case but were merely on a crusade to shut him down.

ACC is the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Ngeri is the Nigerian businessman who the ACC wanted to arrest together with former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Gideon Dlamini.
Speaking for the first time since the controversy about him and Dlamini came to the public domain, Ngeri said he was also appalled and disappointed by the manner in which the ACC went about conducting the investigation about him and his company, Traders Link. He said after noting the way in which the investigations were being conducted, he came to the conclusion that it was not an investigation but a crusade to shut his business down.

“Using the ACC to intimidate people is wrong; telling us they can bring us down in Swaziland anytime is wrong and xenophobic. Using ACC as a weapon to fight people who worked hard serving for the development of Swaziland is wrong. Swaziland’s interest must be protected by everyone living in Swaziland. If we don’t do that and carry personal agendas to become national agendas, we become the worst destroyers of growth in Swaziland,” he said.
Ngeri, however, did not mention the person(s) who he thought was using the ACC to intimidate people.

“Taking advantage of people because you are in government is the highest corruption. Nobody should feel intimidated in a country where they have spent 18 years of their life contributing to the economy positively,” he said.
When asked how he came to know that he and the former minister were under investigation, he said he was informed by one of his business associates via a telephone call in May 2016.

“This person said there was something about me. He said the ACC had visited his office that very same day, asking questions about me. He said they had also told him that I had received a lot of money from members of the public. I immediately called the ACC.  They never called to say anything or demand any document. I’m the one who personally called them. I invited them to come to my office to do an investigation and check my project. I told them they did not need a court order to come here,” he said.

Ngeri said he was lucky that after calling them, they gave him an appointment the following day.
“I told them that in a small economy, the way and manner in which they were going around investigating what we are doing, they were not investigating but were actually shutting us down.  I told them they were intimidating us. I asked them why they were not starting with us, allow us to give them a full report and documentation for them to verify if what they are saying is true or false. I told them they were not getting our side of the story first,” he said.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: