A United Kingdom Court has jailed the Chief Executive
Officer of Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited, Abdulrahman Bashir, after he was
found guilty of breaching multiple orders of the court in a pending suit
instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Limited.
A Collateral Management Agreement (CMA) containing a London
arbitration clause was entered into on July 8, 2018 between the two parties and
it was further learnt that Rahamaniyya agreed to store the gas oil at its
terminal pending payment by Ultimate. Sahara, it would be recalled, delivered a
total of 14,967.159 metric tonnes of gas oil to Rahamaniyya’s terminal in
Nigeria and also issued invoices for the gas oil on October 26, 2018 for $10,760,728.77.
The payment should have been made by August 29, 2019 but
Ultimate defaulted in making necessary payments. In December 2018, Ultimate and
Sahara entered into a settlement agreement in which Ultimate confirmed that the
value of gas oil that had been delivered was $10,760,728.77, and agreed to make
a series of monthly payments for it. Court records showed that some payments
were made, in consequence of which some 8,566.469 metric tonnes of gas oil was
released to Ultimate. Ultimate, however, reneged in performing the terms of the
settlement agreement in full by making all the payments due. After various
warnings, on May 10, 2019, Sahara terminated the settlement agreement,
notifying Ultimate that its agent, Asharami Synergy Plc. would take delivery of
part of the remaining gas oil from the terminal.
Various attempts made by Sahara, according to the court
papers, to obtain delivery of the gas oil were futile, leading to the lawsuit
which was filed both in Lagos and in the United Kingdom. Justice Butcher, who
delivered the third order following a contempt of court judgement, said: “The
basis of he sentence was that Mr. Bashir had committed continuing breaches of
the order of Mr. Justice Robin Knowles of 1 August 2019 and of the order of Mr.
Justice Bryan of 6 September 2019.” There was also a binding indication that
the sentence could be reduced to six months if Bashir complies with the
relevant order which had previously been breached. He was also fined £500,000
while Adebowale Aderemi, its manager, was fined £10,000.
newtelegraphng
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