BREAKING: Diezani's Ally, Jide Omokore, Ex NNPC GMD ARRESTED By EFCC This Morning

The Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested former Group Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu and rearrested oil magnate, Jide Omokore early today.

An official briefed on the matter said the businessman would be arraigned alongside Andrew Yakubu, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, who has also been picked up, according to Premium Times

Our sources said the duo would be charged before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja on a four-count charge of money laundering.

According to EFCC insiders, other defendants in the case are Victor Briggs, Abiye Memnere, David Mbanefo, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Limited.

Yakubu became GMD of NNPC in 2012 after his appointment was approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan and was sacked Jonathan in 2014. Jide Omokore is a close associate of the former President and former Petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Details soon

FUEL HIKE: FG's Decision STUPID, SENSELESS - Buhari's Friend, Prof. Tam David-West Blasts

Prof. Tam David-West, a historical ally of President Muhammadu Buhari has described the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal Government's decision to hike the fuel price from N86 to sudden N145 per/liter as 'stupid' one, report according to TheEagleOnline suggests.

Our source says, Tam West banded with a historical adversary to rail against the new pump price of fuel, which caught consumers by surprise on Thursday, May 12, and scattered family budgets with the ripple effects.

Transport fares have gone up everywhere as a consequence, speeding off with the prices of everything from foodstuff, other household items, plus school fees, to the cost of a hair cut in small shops, and grinding pepper in open markets in Kano and Calabar.

Buhari’s right hand man, Tam David-West, picked holes in the hike in fuel price from N86 to N145 per litre.

The professor of virology and former petroleum minister argued from Ibadan that the increase announced by Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, does not make sense.

His view resonated up North with Buhari’s traditional critic, former Kaduna State Governor, Balarabe Musa, who accused the president and his All Progressives Congress (APC) members of fleecing Nigerians to amass a war chest for the general election in 2019.

Importing at N86, selling at N145

“It is stupid for two reasons. First, the same NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) a few days ago was filling petrol stations and selling fuel for N86. How can you turn around a few days after to say N145?” David-West asked.

He said the stock now sold at N145 per litre had been imported before the announcement.

“No new petroleum has come in. It takes two weeks for vessels from Europe to arrive Nigeria. There is something wrong with the logic.”

Deregulating, fixing price

The second abnormality with the increase, David-West insisted, is the directive to marketers not to sell above N145.

“How can you say people should import fuel and you tell them how to sell it? It is stupid. You cannot tell a private man to import fuel into the country, and when it arrives the government will now tell him how much to sell it.

“It is stupid. It negates basic economic principles. When I see Buhari, I will make a formal statement. I cannot see how they can justify it.”

Other queries

David-West said he has noted 12 areas to take Kachikwu on, not only on fuel price, but also how the NNPC is run.

“But if I say it now, they will misunderstand me. They would say I want to be minister. I don’t want to be minister. My record there is clear.

“Okay, look at what [Kachikwu] said – that there is hydrocarbon in every part of Nigeria; which is not possible. He is saying a lot of things that are outrageous.

“When the time comes I will take him on. I don’t want to say it now so that it is not misunderstood. I want to see Buhari first.”

David-West said he believes that Buhari does not know what Kachikwu was cooking before the hike.

“Buhari is not in the country. They rushed it because they knew that if he was around he would not allow them. You increased petrol price to N145, and you said immediately, like a military dictator.”

David-West argued that he was wrongly quoted that fuel was going to sell for N40 per litre once Buhari got into office.

“I said if they removed 14 items they are adding to pump price which should not be there, petrol would sell for N40 per litre.

“There are a lot of things they added to inflate it. That is cheating.

“They are adding NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) charge, jetty depot price, storage payment, margin for retailers, bank charges, transportation from Europe, bridging, and all sorts of things.

“If they remove all these, petrol price will come down to N40. A Nigerian professor of petroleum in Texas has confirmed my figure.

“Let me tell you about bridging. When I was minister, bridging was paid by the government, not by consumers.

“I met N400 million in the bridging account when I was minister. If you take petrol from Port Harcourt to Sokoto, the government pays for the haulage, not consumers.”

TheegleOnline

Fuel Scarcity: NNPC Rescinds After Backlash, Unveils Strategies To End Scarcity In Few Days

Ibe Kachikwu

ThisDay - Apparently miffed by the controversy generated by the declaration of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, that the current petrol shortages could last up to two months, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has unveiled strategies to end the scarcity within the next few days.

The corporation has also reassured Nigerians that it was on top of the petroleum products supply and distribution situation, and remained committed to eliminating this endemic issue once and for all within the next few days.

NNPC’s Group General Manager in charge of Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Garba Deen Muhammed, said in a statement last night that in the medium term, the corporation was working on sustainable strategies to permanently address the issues and challenges facing the midstream and downstream sectors.

According to him, the overarching objective is to make Nigeria a net exporter of Petroleum products as was the case in the 1970s.

“Our commitment to ramp up our local refining capacity and availability remains unwaivered with the ongoing rehabilitation works targeted at running all Refineries at a minimum 70 per cent capacity utilisation within the next eight to nine months. This is in addition to our initiative of increasing the combined capacity of the domestic refineries through co-locating smaller but cost efficient modular refineries within the existing refineries premises within a time frame of 12-24 months,” Muhammed explained.

He further stated that as a result of the challenges that major oil marketers faced in contributing their supply quota due to constraint in accessing foreign exchange and outstanding subsidy obligations, the corporation was burdened with the obligation to guarantee almost 100 per cent in the national supply.

Muhammed noted that since the domestic crude oil supply of 445,000 barrels per day could only guarantee about 50 per cent of the 45 million litres national requirement for petrol, NNPC had secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.

To curb storage and logistics challenges, he said the corporation was working on a joint partnership with technically and financially capable investors to ensure that petroleum products transportation and storage facilities were efficiently operated on an open-access common-carrier user-tariff basis.

“Some of these depots will be nominated as strategic reserves while we take possession of a strategic reserve vessel in the next three months. Tangible results will be delivered within the next three – six months. Changes usually take time, effort and a lot of focus. We understand the plight of Nigerians and the impact on the overall economy. We genuinely empathize with the attendant sufferings and wish to reassure that we are focused and committed to bring an end to this situation within the next few days and we kindly call on all Nigerians to partner with us on this journey to allowing the whole process of change come into fruition,” he explained.

Muhammed further explained that the current administration inherited a huge catalog of issues and problems in the downstream sector not limited to arrears of subsidy payments to oil marketers, corruption and inefficiencies in the supply and distribution chain, incessant vandalism of pipelines, and refineries poor performance.

According to him, a combination of these issues resulted in most oil majors completely pulling out from the importation business and NNPC assuming a near 100 per cent importation obligation without the necessary logistics put in place.

He said in line with the change agenda of this administration, NNPC had initiated and made progress on various key solutions to providing a lasting end to most of the issues.

One of the issues that had been successfully addressed, according to him was the unpaid arrears arising from the subsidy regime had necessitated most oil marketers to stop all forms of involvement in petroleum products imports.

“Thankfully, with the firm support of Mr. President and the National Assembly, we greatly reduced this debt burden and since January 1, 2016 we have been able to eliminate subsidy payments by managing prices at current levels through price modulation. This has resulted to savings of over N100billion monthly for the nation,” he added.

He also added that the nationwide petroleum supply and distribution had been ramped up to all states to ensure product availability in the country, stressing that the current supply to states was in excess of the normal consumption especially in the five major consuming cities.

Muhammed also stated that monitoring had been intensified to ensure full compliance with approved prices.

According to the NNPC spokesman, violations of approved prices and hoarding of petroleum products attracted the following penalties:

“Level 1: Giving out of petroleum products free to the public. Level 2: Sealing off fuel stations found to be hoarding petroleum products and payment of a fine. Level 3: Withdrawal of Marketer’s licence,” he explained.

He said any government official found conniving/wanting would be sanctioned accordingly in line with public service guidelines and procedures.

Muhammed also encouraged the general public to report product hoarders and saboteurs of this administration’s change efforts, adding that they are wittingly fighting every bold change effort currently being put in place.

He also charged motorists and other fuel users to shun panic buying and undue return trips, stressing that this attitude emboldens marketers to hoard products.

“Supply constraints due to foreign exchange challenges are being resolved through collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria on innovative ways of closing the gaps in accessing foreign exchange. Similarly, as a result of credible leadership provided by the Minster of State, Petroleum Resources/Group Managing Director, NNPC, the major international upstream oil companies have indicated their willingness to support major oil marketing companies with some of the required foreign exchange. We are vigorously pursuing an improved model for ‘crude oil for refined product’ exchange (the Direct Sale – Direct Purchase arrangement) which eliminates inefficiencies with an attendant cost saving for the nation of about $1 billion. This will guarantee sustainable product supply to the nation,” Muhammed explained.

Dasukigate: Fresh N2.2b Fraud For Spiritual Battle EXPOSED

Besides the fortune sunk into phoney arms deals, no less than N2.2billion was spent on prayers against Boko Haram, it was learnt yesterday.

 Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration blew the cash on special prayers in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to win the war.

The cash was disbursed through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), following a proposal by a former Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa.

Baba-Kusa, in his statement of witness filed in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is facing trial with a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) and three others.

The others are Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited (owned by Baba-Kusa) and a former Director of Finance in ONSA, Shuaibu Salisu.

In the statement, Baba-Kusa said the N2.2billion was spent on prayers to hasten the defeat of Boko Haram. The cash was released in two tranches of N1,450,000,000 and N750,000,000.

Baba-Kusa told EFCC investigators that the contract proposal was verbal. But the suspect has promised to refund the N2.2billion by disposing of his assets. Baba-Kusa said: “I approached the former NSA and discussed Boko Haram problems and I suggested there is need for prayers and he considered and accepted in 2013 when he first came to office.

“I personally sponsored many people locally and some few to Saudi Arabia. Some monies were later paid into our companies, which we paid to some of the mallams. “I then arranged to recover my personal expense which I put into our own businesses.

 “We have been spending a lot from our businesses and personal accounts. Money paid through UBA, First Bank and ECOBANK. For Acacia Holdings Limited(A/C 1017330319-UBA); ECOBANK(0122012650); and First Bank(Reliance Referral Hospitals Limited A/C 2022394057). The total amount is N2,200,000,000 from October 2014 to April 2015.”

He told detectives that he is not an expert, “but I used some of the mallams to organise in Abuja, Zaria, Kano, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Kaduna and Saudi Arabia covering 2013 to 2015.” He added: “I give them funds as required from time to time, ranging from N500,000 to N30million, depending on their needs, traveling, sadaqat and others for local expenses and travels to Saudi Arabia for Umrah and Hajj.

“I reminded the NSA many times before payments were made. We grew up together with the former NSA with common friends in ABU.

“Most of the payments in cash were meant to give out cash to people that have been organising prayers. Some transfers to Acacia to other banks were for logistics and also to some mallams in cash.”

The suspect also confirmed that the prayer contract was not documented. He added: “The proposal made to the former NSA was not documented by him or myself. The verbal proposal to him was for prayers to overcome Boko Haram within the shortest possible time.

“The engagement for prayers by organising some people to be praying was not formally written down. “There was no amount of money agreed on. I said to him, I will start organising, which he agreed and said he will see what he would give at a later time.

Baba-Kusa said he had an estimate of over N700million spent “from my own resources before I started to ask for money from him”. Some of these funds came from disposal of some of my land in Abuja. One in Maitama, one in Gudu and one in Guzape.

 The Maitama was a little over N200million; Guzape (N80m), Gudu(N18m), he told the EFCC. But, according to him, he kept no records of the money he gave to individual Mallams organising various groups. I requested for no acknowledgement from them when I gave money to them.”

He assured the EFCC that he would refund the said cash if he is able to dispose of his landed properties. He said: “I am making efforts to dispose of my properties in Abuja which would be over the total amount of N2.2billion. If the sales go through and the amount from the sales is made in full, I will make full payment.”

 In the 19 charges against the five suspects, Baba-Kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited are alleged to have “between October 2014 and April 2015 in Abuja agreed to do an illegal act to wit : dishonestly receiving property to wit: an aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000 being part of the funds in the accounts of the Office of National Security Adviser and that the same act was fine in pursuance of the agreement among you and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Vol.4, LFN 2004.”