The
full details of the $3 million bribery scandal involving members of the
House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Fuel Subsidy probe
were revealed yesterday, as one of the major actors in the scandal has
opened up on what transpired.
In an exclusive interview with THISDAY,
chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, who hitherto
was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery scandal, blew the
lid on what transpired and how chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Hon.
Farouk Lawan, and the secretary of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo,
had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by the
security agencies.
The amount was part payment for the $3
million, which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon
Oil from the ad-hoc committee’s report.
As the scandal unfolds, it was learnt
that operatives of the State Security Services have sent a video
recording of the incident to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission for further scrutiny and action.
Otedola, who was opening up on the issue
for the first time, narrated how Lawan at the outset of the probe had
approached him to get some insight into the workings of the downstream
oil and gas sector.
Otedola said he obliged him and ensured
that his managing directors of Forte Oil Plc and Zenon Oil appeared at
the subsidy probe during its public hearing after both companies had
been invited by the committee.
During the probe, he said the committee
was informed in no uncertain terms that Zenon does not and has never
made claims for subsidy payments from the federal government, as the
company was engaged solely in the importation of diesel, a product that
is not subsidised. Zenon’s managing director, Mr. Kanmi Kareem Otaru,
during the probe had denied that the company had anything to do with the
subsidy regime. He told the committee, “For the avoidance of doubt
Zenon never participated or benefited from the subsidy scheme or
Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).”
According to him, going by the Act which
established the PSF scheme, “Zenon couldn’t participate in it because
we don’t have a network of PMS retail outlets which was one of the key
criteria beneficiaries must meet and as such we are not qualified to
participate to draw from subsidy payments on PMS. So we never collected
as records will show.”
Irrespective of the clarification made
at the hearing, Otedola said Lawan still approached him a few days
before the report was to be tabled on April 18, 2012 before the House of
Representatives, demanding money so that Zenon’s name will be kept out
of the report. “When this happened, I was very angry and reminded him
that Zenon has never participated in the subsidy scheme and that it
would be criminal to rope in the company for something it did not do.
“But Lawan responded, stating that
several other marketers were playing ball and had offered the members of
the committee large sums of money to ensure that their companies’ names
were not published in the report,” he added.
Otedola, said initially he balked at
Lawan’s attempt to extort money from him and told the legislator that he
would not pay up, as Zenon had not committed any crime.
“Then a day before the report was to be
submitted, Lawan called again, informing me that Zenon’s name had been
included in the report. “I, of course, was very angry and asked him to
desist from his course of action, but Lawan insisted that I must pay up
as other oil marketers had done before me.”
Otedola said he could not believe his
eyes the next day when the report came out and Zenon’s name had been
listed under the category of companies that had bought foreign exchange
from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but had not imported petrol.
The amount ascribed to Zenon in the
report was $232,975,385.13. The report had recommended that Zenon and 14
other marketers that had bought the foreign exchange be referred to the
anti-corruption agencies to determine what they used the monies for.
Otedola said at this point he again called Lawan demanding that Zenon’s
name be removed from the list, as there was no way his company could
have bought that volume of foreign exchange without importing products.
“I reminded him that the amount ascribed
to Zenon was wrong as what the company bought was over $400 million for
importation of products through the banks – Zenith, UBA and GTB – and
that under Sanusi (CBN governor) there was no way anyone could have
bought that quantity of foreign exchange and not imported the products
having filled the Form M.
“Sanusi will simply clamp down on anyone
who tries to pull that kind of stunt,” he said. In spite of this,
Otedola said Lawan still demanded that the members of the committee be
given money in exchange for removing Zenon’s name from the report before
it is considered in plenary by the entire House.
Otedola said he then asked how much
would be required to make the committee happy, to which Lawan responded
$3 million. “I screamed at him, demanding to know why he was doing this
to me. All he said was other marketers were paying up to keep their
names out of the report so I should do likewise,” he said.
Otedola revealed that it was this point
he decided to involve the security agencies to catch Lawan and his
committee with their hands in the till.
According to him, “As a law-abiding
citizen, I decided to involve the security agencies and they advised me
to play along, which prompted me to offer to pay part of the money with
the promise that I would pay the balance when my company’s name had been
removed from the report."
The security agencies, he disclosed,
gave him serialised dollar bills for the sting job and there are call
logs, video and audio recordings in the possession of the agencies to
confirm all that had transpired between himself and Lawan.
He said on April 21, the Saturday before
the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected
$250,000 in cash, as the first instalment, “then the next Monday night
he came and collected another $250,000.
“On Tuesday, at 9am, just before the
House commenced seating, Boniface came and collected another $120,000.”
Otedola confirmed that during the sting, Lawan and Boniface collected a
total of $620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3 million
demanded from him.
He added that with the $620,000 that had
been extorted by Lawan and the committee, during the plenary, Zenon’s
name was removed from the list of companies that had bought foreign
exchange but did not import products.
Otedola continued: “He (Lawan) now asked
for the balance of $2.5 million, but when I told him that I had no
money now that the money was in Lagos, he suggested that I should
charter a plane to fly the money from Lagos to Abuja.”
Otedola stressed that his decision to
get the law enforcement and security agencies involved stemmed from the
fact that he had not broken any law, maintaining that as a law-abiding
citizen, he was saddened by the fact that he was being blackmailed by of
all people, members of the legislature.
“If you have information that an armed
robber is come to raid your home, won’t you notify the police? So, that
was the purpose of the sting operation.
“Besides, my integrity is paramount to
me. I started selling petroleum products 14 years ago in drums and
somebody who has never run a petrol station is trying to blackmail and
extort money from me. “If others (marketers) have paid money, maybe they
are guilty. But I did not do anything wrong, so why should they extort
money from me? As a law-abiding citizen, I had to involve the security
agencies. Indeed, I’m very disappointed because I have worked hard to
build my business.”
Insisting that he had nothing to hide or
fear over what had happened, Otedola maintained if he was in the wrong
he would not have involved the security agencies in the first instance.
In a reference to the strong denials
made by Lawan since the scandal became public, Otedola stated, “When he
(Lawan) demanded the bribe, I called the agencies. That is because I had
nothing to hide. When the bribe was paid, why did he not call and
report it to the agencies if he had nothing to.”
Meanwhile, THISDAY gathered that the
videotape of the illicit transaction had been sent to the EFCC to
investigate the incident. When contacted, the EFCC, however, said it had
neither received the videotape nor had it commenced investigations into
the bribery scandal.
EFCC Head of the Media Unit, Mr. Wilson
Uwugiaren, said the allegation had not been brought to the knowledge of
the commission. According to him, the only related matter currently
being handled by the EFCC was the report of the ad-hoc committee that
the commission was studying to establish the facts and track down anyone
found culpable for the alleged mismanagement of the PSF.
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