The Many Troubles of Ifeanyi Uba

Ifeanyi Uba’s Capital Oil Petitioned over Another Fuel & Subsidy Scam

Ifeanyi Uba

Chiemelie Ezeobi

There is more trouble ahead for the beleaguered owner of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba, who was remanded in police custody Thursday for fraudulently claiming N22.4 billion from  the Federal Government through the fuel subsidy scheme.  

As he is battling to extricate himself from the allegation, he faces a fresh allegation of fleecing his financier in a $289.517 million transaction between his company and an auto firm, Coscharis Motors Limited.

The auto company has petitioned the police to investigate the alleged criminal diversion of imported petrol by Capital Oil.

Coscharis, in the petition dated October 9 and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos, accused Capital Oil of reneging on an agreement between the two companies in which the auto firm would finance the importation and sale of petrol.

Coscharis, in the petition, signed by its President/CEO, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, to the Commissioner of Police, SFU, Mr. Tunde Ogunshakin, said his company entered into a joint venture agreement with Capital Oil in July 2011 to import petrol.

Under the terms of the agreement, Coscharis is to provide the funds while Capital Oil is to provide the logistics for the importation and sale of the petrol. The oil company will also provide its import permits from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for the execution of the agreement.

Coscharis said on its part, it took a $180 million import facility from a bank to fund the transaction and 10 letters of credit (LCs) for $289,517,680 were opened.
It said out of the 10 LCs, product were received for six shipment while the product for the remaining four LCs, established to be 130,000 metric tonnes of petrol were not delivered.

According to the petition, the four LCs, valued at $133,084,980, were negotiated, while the suppliers paid for the full value and the bill of lading issued by the shippers were consigned to the financing bank.

However, Coscharis said contrary to expectations, it did not receive the product, billed to have started arriving in Nigeria from October 25, 2011 and discharged into Capital Oil tank farm at Ibafon, Lagos.

It added that its enquiries on the status of the product from Capital Oil yielded no positive result.

“We have strong reasons to believe that Capital Oil in collusion with the shippers must have diverted the products given the dates on the Bills of Lading and the facts that the original Bills of Lading are still with the bank, the lawful owners (consignee) of the products. Under the Bills of Lading, the products were expected to be delivered within three weeks from the date on the Bill of Lading (i.e. on or before January 10, 2012)”, it said.

The petitioner added that the diversion of the product by Capital Oil with the connivance of the shippers had exposed it unduly as the repayment of the facility was to have been done from the sales proceeds of the product.

“This has led to our inability to meet our repayment obligations to the bank. The outstanding balance on the account presently stands at N20,949,147,956.16 while interests continue to accrue,” Coscharis explained.

It also accused Capital Oil of refusing to release 56,568,587.11 litres of petrol in its tank farm so that it could sell the product to enable it to settle part of its obligation to the bank.

Coscharis, therefore, urged the police to probe the whereabouts of the product to safeguard the ongoing reforms in the banking and petroleum sectors.

Meanwhile, Uba and four members of his staff were yesterday denied bail by a Lagos State Tinubu Magistrate Court 5, following an appeal by the SFU.

The SFU also secured a court order to detain the Managing Director of Matrix Energy Limited, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, and two other top staff members — the Operations Manager, Yusuf Adebowale Oyinlola, and the company’s Accountant, Adewale Akinde — in custody pending the conclusion of investigation into their alleged involvement in oil subsidy scam estimated at N13.376 billion.

Uba and four others who were brought before Magistrate Martins Owunmi were ordered to be remanded in SFU custody for 14 days to enable the unit to conclude its investigations.

Others remanded alongside Uba are the Executive Director, Operations, Mr. Orji Joseph; Head of Training, Nsikan Usoro; General Manager, Operations, Chibuzor Ogbuokiri; and Depot Manager, Mr. Godfrey Okorie.

Although prosecuting counsel, Effiong Asuquo, a Superintendent of Police, had filed for a remand request that Uba and others be detained for 30 days to allow the SFU to conclude investigations into the alleged fraud, the magistrate agreed to 14 days after hearing the argument of Uba’s counsel, Joseph Nwobike (SAN).

In an affidavit, Asuquo told the court that the nature of the fraud committed by Uba and his men were capable of undermining Nigeria’s security considering the huge amount involved.

However, in defence of his clients, Nwobike argued that the request of the SFU was unknown to law in that it was not an application seeking remand pending legal advice.

Nwobike appealed to the magistrate to release his clients on liberal terms seeing that they had been in SFU custody in the last three days.
Also, Owumi while hearing the case against the Matrix Energy officials, said the court had no legal jurisdiction over the matter, which Bode Olanipekun argued for.