Billionaires back as friends after messy public fight,
Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola are behind the list of oil marketers being investigated
for mega fraud.
Here are the details
A high-ranking source at the Department of State
Security (DSS) has alleged that so-called Africa’s richest person, Aliko
Dangote, and Lagos-based businessman, Femi Otedola, recently used their
perceived closeness to just-inaugurated President Muhammadu Buhari to instigate
a widespread clampdown by security agents on businessmen in the oil sector.
Our source disclosed that Mr. Dangote and Mr.
Otedola, who swiftly switched loyalty to Mr. Buhari as soon as he won the March
28, 2015 presidential election, had used their influence to get the DSS to go
after some of the two businessmen’s involved in shady oil marketing who are
biggest competitors against them in the oil sector. Both Mr. Dangote and Mr.
Otedola have reaped huge profits as fuel marketers.
Among the targets on the Dangote/Otedola list are
oil marketers Benny Peters of Televaras, Igho Salome of Aiteo, and Tonye Cole
of Sahara Energy.
A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, told our correspondent
that the two businessmen had “compiled a list of businessmen and approached us
[the EFCC] to begin inviting them for interrogation over alleged financial
crimes.” He added that the EFCC refused to act on the list, deciding to wait
for directives from the new Buhari administration.
Miffed by the rebuff from the EFCC, Mr. Otedola
reportedly contacted Ita Ekpeyong, the director general of the DSS, and handed
him the list. Our DSS source said he and other officers were dismayed that Mr.
Ekpeyong fell for the two businessmen’s ploy. Before last Saturday morning, DSS
operatives had rounded up several businessmen on Mr. Otedola’s list,
interrogated them, and asked them to surrender their international passports.
SaharaReporters learnt that the DSS had not only
interrogated some of the businessmen on Mr. Otedola’s list but had also
questioned more than twenty officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) as of Monday.
A source close to Mr. Buhari said the new president
had been briefed on the connivance between Otedola, Dangote and the DSS.
“That’s why President Buhari issued a press statement on Saturday washing his
hands off the harassments,” said the source.
Despite Mr. Buhari’s statement, the DSS continued
to invite and interrogate persons named on Mr. Dangote and Otedola’s list. The
DSS invited and interrogated the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory
Agency (PPPRA) executive director, Farouk Umar, Executive Director Petroleum
Products Marketing Company, Frank Amego, Group General Manager of PPMC, Gbenga
Olu Komolafe and the Managaing Director of NPDC, Tony Monueke.
Dangote and Otedola are two of Nigeria’s most
well-known and controversial moneymen. Both men have parleyed their closeness
to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan
to build multi-billion fortunes. Even though they have interests in a wide
variety of sectors, including cement and fertilizer importation, they have reportedly
raked in hundreds of millions of dollars through fuel marketing.
The two men were quick to visit then
President-elect Buhari to offer congratulations on his election, even though
they were believed to have offered significant financial backing to former
President Jonathan. They were huge beneficiaries from import waivers and
dubious loan buy back schemes that helped catapult them to the rank of
billionaires.
Culled from SaharaReporters.
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