Garland for Aiteo’s Benedict Peters

Undaunted by two years of persecutions and unsuccessful attempts to drag his company’s name through the mud of politically-motivated cases, the Chairman of integrated energy conglomerates, Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters’ unblemished records have continued t

Awards 2018. The CAF Awards, now renamed the AITEOCAF Awards, honours footballers who have made outstanding contributions to football development in Africa.

More honours, recognition

As a demonstration of his impeccable records, the Aiteo boss, who clocked 51 in December, received three big awards from three prominent national dailies - the New Telegraph, BusinessDay, and Leadership newspapers within the past few weeks in recognition of his company’s outstanding contributions to the development of local communities, Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, as well as local and African sports. Indeed, all previous winners of the African Player of the Year, since its inception by CAF in 1992, are expected to grace the Aiteo CAF Awards Gala 2017, scheduled for January 4, 2018, at the International Conference Centre in Accra, Ghana, according to a statement by CAF. The statement noted that from Abedi Pele, winner of the maiden edition in 1992 to Riyad Mahrez, crowned in 2016, the winners who represent various generations will be given prominence at the ceremony designed to celebrate the key stakeholders of African football. Others are Nigerian trio, Emmanuel Amuneke, Nwankwo Kanu and Victor Ikpeba,p Ikpeba, Cameroonian and four-time winner, Samuel Eto’o Fils and compatriot,p compatriot, Patrick Mboma, Ivorian Yayay Yaya Toure, a four-time winner and countryman,y countryman, Didier Drogba;g Drogba; and also El Hadjij Hadji Diouf of Senegal.g Senegal. The rest are Georgeg George Weah of Liberia, Mustaphap Mustapha Hadjij Hadji of Morocco, Malian Frederic Kanoute, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon and Togoleseg Togolese Emmanuel Adebayor.y Adebayor. Also, the women are not left out as pprevious previous Queens of African football are also ppencilled pencilled for the biggestgg biggest assemblageg assemblage of football stakeholders. The list of invitees is not onlyy only limited to p previous winners, but also to other pplayersy players and officials whose contribution towards the pprogressg progress of African football cannot be overlooked. Meanwhile, Egyptiangyp Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Gabon’s Aubameyangyg Aubameyang and Sadio Mane of Senegal are the contenders for the pprestigiousg prestigious African Playery Player of the Year while the trio of Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria),g (Nigeria), Chrestina Kgatlanag Kgatlana (South Africa) and Gabrielle Aboudi Ongueneg Onguene (Cameroon) will battle it out for the Women’s Player of the Year.

There is no doubt that the company’s intervention in sports is changing the face of the game, while its giant strides have contributed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth over $4bn to the Nigerian economy. The success of the company has attracted enemies and friends alike.

To check the activities of mischief makers who are hell-bent to rubbish the accomplishments of the company and its chairman, the group has engaged reputable local and international law firms to argue their case.

One of the early mandates of the Nigerian legal team is to review defamatory publications commonly referred to as “open source” materials in which Aiteo and Peters were featured in the last few years and to redress these fabricated insinuations by all available means including court actions, a process which appears to have already started.

The team, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), comprises senior lawyers like Kanu Agabi (SAN) and Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), both former Attorneys General and Ministers of Justice of the Federation.

Other senior lawyers in the team include renowned Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Messrs Paul Usoro (SAN), Rotimi Ogunesi (SAN) and A. U. Mustapha (SAN). Others are Ebenezer Obeya, Chief Andrew Oru, Mrs Boma Alabi, Messrs Chidi Nobis-Elendu, Emeka Ozoani and Josephp Joseph N Nwatu.

Aiteo Groupp Group Executive D Director and General Counsel, Andrew O Onyearu, had said in a statement that the comp company’s p belief in the rule of law and the legalg legal pro p processes in Nigeria requireq require engagementgg engagement with b both commitment and ppremium premium resources.

Accordingg According to him, the com company’s conviction in the infallibilityy infallibility of Ni Nigeria’s judicial p processes continues to be vi vindicated by jjudicial judicial ppronouncements pronouncements de deprecating the unjustifiedj unjustified calumnious atta attacks on its business and ppersonal personal outlook.

“The Groupp Group has been adv adversely affected byy by a litanyy litany of unsusta unsustainable unlawful developmentsp developments affectingg affecting bot both reputational and commercial integritygy integrity in a manner that has negativelygy negatively impactedp impacted its operations. The Groupp Group can no longerg longer allow this situation to continue and as such, has re resolved to take stepsp steps to pprotect protect all its legalg legal i interests. Recent ppositive positive – and ggroundbreak groundbreaking – outcomes from jjudicial judicial interventions that we have achieved serve as clear ppoin pointers about the direction that we are no now pursuing. Increasingg Increasing the successful ut utilization of the jjudicial judicial pprocess process in areas wh where we have been wrongedg wronged will be the main o objective of the team we have now put toge together,” Onyearu added.