ATIC – The Giant Oak They Want to Destroy Is Still Formidable… President
Aderemi Adeoye
ATIC had a membership of 1400. All was well until we disclosed that our asset base had hit N20B then the rumble started.
Ayo Turton, who holds 50,000 shares – the barest minimum anyone could hold to be a member – started instigating members in the Diaspora Telegram Group.
There were about 200 members in that group. Only about 15 gave him any attention. He was posting highly incendiary comments claiming only one person was managing such humongous resources. He wanted the accounts audited.
We had an AGM in September last year. The accounts were laid bare. AGM which is the highest decision making body and to whom I report endorsed the accounts and approved the same.
No one brought up the issue of audit. Members know how transparent and accountable we have been. Receipts of our transactions are routinely posted in the Lounge.
We operate a zero-expense model. The only thing we spend money on is our meetings. That is covered by dues paid by members annually. In the last two years I have exempted members from paying those dues. I paid for everyone.
The same way I have financed the Club’s activities anytime we run short of cash to cover our meetings.
Ayo Turton started issuing threats that he and his gang would hunt down the Treasurer to his base in Australia to retrieve their money he had stolen!
He did not even know that the person was not the treasurer, though a BoT member. That person also happened to be the largest single shareholder with 11 million shares!
In the corporate world the number of votes a member has is his or her number of shares. It is not a democracy!
The Joint Panel comprising Board of Trustees (BoT) and Executive Management Team (EMT) met for three days online to review the grievances of the group.
A communique was issued. The Cooperative’s operating model was explained to them. We would have to get the AGM to first change our investment model so we can employ staff and keep the records needed for audit annually.
When we started, it was just a hobby. Our growth took us unawares. Our assets grew in leaps and bounds. We know we have reached the stage for formal structures. We invited the group to nominate members to be part of a review of our investments pending the AGM.
The group which had started issuing e-signed releases polarising the membership spurned the offer. They insisted on having an audit NOW.
There was no talk of who would pay for it or what would be audited in the middle of a financial year. The Joint Panel explained that there was a sequence to follow and declared its full confidence in my leadership. 98.5% of the membership endorsed the position of the Joint Panel.
The three largest shareholders are on that panel.
The e-signatory group became more virulent. Accusing the BoT of being in my pocket alleging they have been compromised.
The atmosphere in our e-lounge became toxic. Members took a leave from the lounge to preserve their sanity.
The Joint Panel decided that the majority of our members had to be protected and their peace and harmony restored.
Those who had made the space ungovernable, impairing our profit making processes were expelled and asked to liaise with the President for their investment claims.
An Exit Lounge was created to process the claims. An Invitation was sent to the expelled members. They refused to accept the invitation to create the impression that they were being scammed.
Popular celebrities on Facebook Iyabo Alabi and Olutoyin Adeyinka Eweje went to town with horrible lies against my person and the Cooperative.
“All of a sudden the Cooperative which gave them succor for years became a Ponzi scheme”.
Eweje borrowed money serially from the Club to meet with commitments at home. Now she is accusing me of targeting diasporans to scam!
Members know I did not even have time for diasporans. I am not in the Diasporan Group. I left them in the care of their coordinator US-based Emmanuel Dan who turned out tragically to be one of those signing petitions to get me sacked from my job.
I have never engaged in any exchange with either Iyabo Alabi or Eweje yet they lied that I bullied them and expelled them for asking questions! Devil is a learner in lying!
ATIC Cooperative remains as strong as ever. We are not in any crisis.
Joint panel has decided we will no longer admit new members. Last year we admitted only 32. I was not even involved. we do not need new members to thrive.
Since our number has seen us having all descriptions of characters inimical to progress we will forge ahead with only those who believe in what we do.
ATIC is law abiding. We have never broken any law. We are an investment cooperative. We are registered with Lagos State Government and CAC.
Up till now we only invest. There is no law or regulation that prevents public servants from investing.
None of us is employed by the Cooperative, none is on salary. We are all volunteer co-investors.
We have confidence in our investment partners and we are proud of the services they have rendered to us over the years despite a few hitches here and there.
It has always been our policy to protect our members against losses. At the end of our first year I paid members who wanted to exit their full sums from my pocket despite an initial 26.6 percent loss.
Three months later we bounced back to profit and paid a N10m dividend after veering into Real Estate. From that point Real Estate became the cornerstone of our investments.
So when you read the expelled members dishing out lies and blackmail it is because they are pained to death by their expulsion but they are the architect of their own misfortune.
They should accept the invitation to our EXIT Lounge and collect their entitlements. They claim we did not buy any land. so we invited them to come and take possession of their plots, they said no.
They wanted cash. You asked us to buy land for you. It is your land you will take. None of the conditions for allocation in their name or taking possession was imposed by this Cooperative.
They are standard terms of the developers who they are to pay directly to, yet Doyinsola Ilori claimed the conditions showed how evil and vindictive I am.
Is there a better way to showcase ignorance? We will sell loyal members’ assets to buy exiting members’ plots. It is not our business to find buyers for persons who are no longer our members.
Our model has provision to sell those lands to the public in the near future but not on behalf of those who claim we are ponzi and scam!
One Facebook romance scammer I exposed years ago whose name sounds like the barking of a dog – something Lawoof – has been hyperventilating all over Facebook celebrating the imaginary collapse of ATIC.
Her friends have been mourning with her.
I will send her a condolence message.
