Indeed, a good name is better than riches. Once upon a time, in the city of Lagos lived a man whose name was Mr. Akpan Effiong. He had a wife and three children. Mr. Akpan Effiong was an accountant who worked in a firm known as Emirate Investment and Holdings Limited. He had two colleagues who worked with him as accountants and their names were Mr. Akinwande and Mr. Nwokocha. They all worked in the same office but Mr. Akinwande and Nwokocha were fraudulent. They doctored the company's accounts at will and stole company's money through dubious means. They tried to introduce their fraudulent deal to Mr. Effiong but he refused to join them in defrauding the company because he had always wished to live a clean life. free of dubious activities as his parents had admonished him that a good name is always better than riches. They tried every means possible to convince Mr. Effiong to join them in their devilish acts but he refused. When they were not successful in convincing Mr. Effiong to join them. Mr. Akinwande and Mr. Nwokocha continued to defraud the company and at times converted company properties to their private uses. They opened several accounts bought land and houses in choice areas of the city of Lagos.
Mr. Effiong knew all these things but he determined that he would not contradict what his parents told him. At a particular period of time there was a project which the firm was commissioned to execute. The project was worth about twenty million U S dollars Akinwande and Nwokocha saw it as a wonderful opportunity to make more money and they seized it. They devised a plan to trick Mr. Effiong to sign a forged cheque so as to collect a large sum from the project fund. When they realized that this might be difficult, they resorted to forging Mr. Effiong's signature. When the firm found out that they had been duped they invited the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate into the fraud in the company It was found out that the forged cheque had Mr. Effiong's signature. Mr. Effiong was disgraced and arrested. The firm fired him. froze his accounts and impounded his cars as well as seized his house. He was forced out of his house to go and rent an apartment. His name was smeared as all newspapers had a coverage of the crime he had allegedly committed.
Mr. Akinwande and Nwokocha having fulfilled their mission, they were very happy and they continued in their dubious acts They were promoted to the posts of Head Accountant and Assistant Head Accountant respectively. They enjoyed their new status had the best of everything and didn't bother to know what was happening to Mr. Effiong's family.
After a short while their evil acts caught up with them as their plan to swindle the firm of another big sum of money failed. The skeleton in their cupboards were exposed and it was found out that they had been the ones duping the company all along Through their confessions when they were tortured by the EFCC, Mr. Effiong was exonerated. He was restored to his former office and shortly after. he was promoted. His name became a synonym for honesty and he also won the Silverbird Man-of-the-Year award for his honesty. He forgave Mr. Akinwande and Nwokocha and even gave them money for the upkeep of their families. Thus indeed, a good name is better than riches.