Tag Archives: subsidy scam

Subsidy Scam: How I Collected $100,000 From Otedola For Farouk Lawan – Emenalo

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Clerk to the then House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Boniface Emenalo, on Monday told a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Lugbe, that he collected $100,000 from billionaire businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, as part of the alleged $3m bribe promised to the then Chairman of the committee, Farouk Lawan.

 
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, is currently prosecuting Lawan for allegedly “corruptly” collecting $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he requested from Otedola in exchange for the removal of the name of the company of the businessman from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.

 

Emenalo, testifying as the first prosecution witness before Justice Angela Otakula, on Monday, said he collected the sum of $100,000 from Otedola in $100 bills.
He said, “I came across Femi Otedola during this assignment on April 24, 2012. I received persistent calls from Mr. Otedola in the morning and reported to Lawan and he asked me to play along with him, that he was with him (Otedola) the previous night.

 

“When Otedola called again, he asked me to come over to his house. He gave me the description (of his house). When I got there, he also confirmed that he was with my chairman the previous night. He gave me two bundles of dollar bills in $100 denomination. Each bundle was $50,000 making it $100,000 that were not converted.

 

“When I got back to the office, I wrote a memo forwarding the money to my chairman that same April 24, 2012, which he took from me.”

 

A copy of the memo was tendered before the court and marked Exhibit PW1 C.
The defence, led by Mike Ozekhome (SAN), did not object to the admissibility of the document.

 

Under cross-examination, Emenalo told the court that it was surprising when he read in the newspapers that Otedola actually gave him $120,000.

 

Emenalo, who was led in evidence by the lead prosecuting counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), said Otedola’s three companies, Zenon Oil & Gas, AP and Forte Oil, were named in the subsidy report.

 

However, Ozekhome sought an adjournment to serve the prosecution with a notice to produce an additional statement made by the witness as contained in the prosecution’s proof of evidence.

 

Meanwhile, the judge adjourned till April 12 and 13, 2016 for continuation of trial and cross-examination.

 

Credit : Daily Post

Obat Oil Denies Diversion Of N1.2bn Oil Subsidy

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The management of Obat Oil and Petroleum Limited has denied reports of its alleged diversion of N1.2billion oil subsidy, saying the publication is not only malicious but orchestrated to disturb its business.

 

 

The company also urged the public to disregard rumours that its tank farms had been sealed up by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC.

 

 

A statement signed by the Head of the Legal Department of the Oil Company Mr. Seun Bakare said “We take exception to any malicious publication and slander orchestrated by certain people in a bid to disrupt our business. For the avoidance of doubt, EFCC did not close our depot facility. We were only invited because of the petition and lies being spread by the Managing Director of Petrocam Trading Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Patrick Ilo.

 

 

“We urge the public to disregard the misinformation peddled in the false and malicious publications as well as desist from propagating same, in their best interests.

 

 

Bakare said it was unfortunate that Ilo could stoop so low to the extent of feeding the public with falsehood and attempted to denigrate the personality of His Imperial Majesty, Oba Fredeick Obaretu Akinruntan, the Olugbo of Ugbo who was not part of the business transaction.

 

 

Bakare said while it is true that Obat Oil had business transactions with Petrocam that failed to implement the transaction according to the terms and agreement, Obat Oil will not succumb to blackmail when Petrocam had refused to allow the Accountants of the two companies to reconcile their accounts.

 

 

According to the statement, “The transactions which gave rise to the false reports and the spurious claims from which they have sprung have already been submitted to the Court’s consideration and ordinarily should not be the subject of discourse or advertorials.”

 

 

“However, Petrocam Trading has gone out of its way to lodge false complaints against us and set in motion a sequence of events that have been widely reported. We are therefore constrained to protect our professional goodwill, integrity and reputation by putting out this publication.

 

Credit :  Vanguard