Smouldering anger at Fire Service over undelivered vehicles

Some of Nigeria’s firefighters are angry. This time, their anger is not targeted at any raging inferno but a company, Whitehorse Capital Limited.

The company, a subsidiary of Whitehorse Group Limited, went into an agreement with personnel of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) to supply vehicles to subscribers of its vehicle purchase scheme within six to eight weeks after payment of a specified amount of money in advance.

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Four months, after the expiration of the maximum eight weeks, Daily Trust gathered that close to 50 personnel in the first batch of the scheme are yet to take delivery of their vehicles.

Whitehorse Capital Limited said it wasn’t able to fulfil its part of the obligation due to some “unforeseen circumstances.”

Since failing to meet the first deadline, the company has been pushing the date forward.

It was gathered that from 29th November 2020, the company moved the delivery date to 5th December 2020, but it also failed to deliver the vehicles on that date. Instead, December 18th was announced as the new delivery date. But that date has since come and gone.

A message sent to subscribers by the company reads: “This is to further update subscribers of the car loan scheme regards venue and time. 1. You are to proceed to our Abuja office…for further documentation from Tuesday 8th December. 2. From 18th December 2020, car collection begins. Bear with us for the few days behind schedule.”

However, having gone to their office to do the required documentation, the company again, failed to deliver the vehicles on the due date.

After coming up with excuses, again, the date was moved to the end of January and later the 28th of February 2021. When those days came and passed, none of the promised cars was delivered.

Another message sent to the WhatsApp group informed subscribers of yet another shift in the date based on some logistic problems it encountered.

Since February 28, 2021, the day the vehicles were to be delivered, no communication had been made to the subscribers.

The contract

The agreement signed on behalf of Whitehorse Capital Limited by the Chief Executive Officer of Whitehorse Group Limited, Paul Ndi Oyemike and the FFS personnel demands that the subscribers pay 50 per cent of the total amount of the desired vehicle upfront.

The money was paid directly to the company’s account.

The subscriber is to receive the said vehicle within six to eight weeks of payment of the advance.

The remaining 50 per cent is to be deducted over two years from the subscriber’s monthly salary.

Besides the 50 per cent payment, subscribers were also asked to pay another 5 per cent of the total amount as “commission.”

An explanation was not given on what the commission is for and who is receiving it but it was paid to the account of one Ezekiel Best, a marketer with the Whitehorse Capital Limited.

The complaints

Personnel of the FFS are lamenting the continuous delay in the delivery of their vehicles.

They feel the company is taking them for granted while the management of the FFS is insensitive to their plight and are already planning to take legal action.

Personnel, who spoke to Daily Trust, pleaded for anonymity as it is against the rules of the FFS to speak to the press without authorization.

One of them told Daily Trust that he sold his old vehicle to raise funds for the 50 per cent advance requested, hoping that the company would deliver the vehicles on the agreed date.

“Since then, I have been taking public transport to and from the office and it has been so hectic for me,” he said.

Another personnel told our correspondent that because the company did an investigation to ensure that personnel who subscribed were not owing to the Federal Government, there was no way he would have taken a loan to pay the 50 per cent required.

Hence, he sold off his old vehicle to meet up the amount needed to pay 50 per cent of the price of the vehicle he desired.

He lamented that taking his children to and from school daily has become a very demanding task as he had to pay exorbitantly for cabs.

Another personnel told Daily Trust that she suspected that the company took the subscribers’ money to transact a different business and was waiting for the profit from it to purchase the vehicles for the subscribers.

She said when complaints were getting too much, the company bared personnel from commenting in a WhatsApp group created for subscribers.

“What they do now is just to dish out information while we wait without being able to reply,” the visibly angry senior officer said.

The aggrieved personnel said they were already looking at options in sustaining a case against the company.

Vehicles coming soon –  Whitehorse

After several efforts to get a reaction from Whitehorse Capital Limited, the company finally copied Daily Trust in a letter sent to the FFS authorities over mails earlier sent to the company by our reporter on the issue.

The letter was signed on behalf of Whitehorse by one Erasmus Ogeleka Esq, Director of Legal Services/Company Secretary.

“We candidly acknowledge the fact that we entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)/Vehicle Supply Agreement with some personnel of Federal Fire Service.

“Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances, we have not been able to fulfil our part of the obligation to supply the vehicles to the said personnel in question…,” the company acknowledged.

The company said, that notwithstanding, it has continued to work assiduously to ensure that the vehicles are duly supplied to the said personnel without any further delay.

It also added that its inability to supply the vehicles yet was not deliberate, adding that “it is occasioned by some challenges of logistics and other procedural challenge encountered by the financial institutions handling the transactions on our behalf.”

The company said, notwithstanding the challenge, it will soon fulfil its obligations to the personnel of the service.

In the letter sent to the FFS authorities, the company, while referring to Daily Trust’s request for its response as a “threat,” said it has not done anything wrong.

“…our transactions with the different personnel of Federal Fire Service is legitimate and devoid of any criminality, nay fraudulent intentions,” it insisted.

FFS keeps mum

FFS authorities are being accused by the subscribers of not doing enough to protect their interest.

A few very senior officers of the FFS have been interfacing with the company but subscribers feel those officers were not protecting their interests.

Daily Trust made several efforts to speak with the authorities of the service but the person in charge of communication refused to reply to our inquiries.

The Public Relations Officer of the FFS, Huan Ugo, also did not take calls placed to her phone.

A message seeking clarification on the state of the vehicle purchase scheme was sent to her WhatsApp number which she acknowledged and promised to get back to our reporter. Yet, despite reminders, she has still not responded.