.…..As Panic Grips Gov. Okowa
The operatives of the Department of State Security and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are said to be currently closing in on the major financier of Delta state governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa’s 2015 election and Managing Director/CEO of Rain Oil Limited, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechie who is alleged to be among the big players in the corruption ridden oil and gas sector of the country which President Muhammadu Buhari has sworn to clean up.
As a former Minister of Petroleum during the military regime, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was in tune with the goings on and the malfeasants in the country’s oil and gas sector. Now a democratically elected ruler, one of the main objectives of President Buhari is to cleanse the petroleum industry of corrupt practices and block all leakages
HardReporters oil and gas correspondent investigation revealed that, President Buhari, early 2016 set up an investigative panel to discreetly probe the oil and gas sector and the reports to be channeled through the Chief of Staff, Mr. Abba Kyari and delivered on his table.
One of the mandates given by the president to the investigative panel was to exhume all reports of all probes, investigations and petitions that been swept under the carpet by previous administrations.
Sources close to the presidency however revealed to our correspondent that few weeks after the panel swung into action, the Managing Director/CEO of Rain Oil Limited, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechie’s name and his company, Rain Oil Limited were allegedly found in many mind boggling dirty deals with officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Our sources stated that an interim report of the secret investigative panel which had been submitted to the President Buhari’s table with its recommendation leading to the arrest and detention of flamboyant businessman, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah who is currently being detained by the DSS.
The DSS had few days ago told an Abuja High Court that Capital Oil boss unilaterally diverted about 80 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) kept in his Tank Farm by the NNPC, sold the products and pocketed the money. The DSS argued that the offence amounted to economic sabotage and punishable by death under the law.
In the case of Mr. Ubah, investigations revealed that in year 2012, the Report of the Adhoc Committee of the House of Representatives to verify and determine the actual subsidy requirements and monitor the implementation of the subsidy regime, revealed by the committee under the heading; Sales of NNPC Petroleum Products By Capital Oil Limited.
According to an extract from the report “The Committee observed that NNPC entered into a Storage Agreement of products with a Tank Farm Owner, Capital Oil Limited and consequently stored a volume of 94,330,030 litres in the Tank Farm of the company. However, due to alleged nonpayment of the storage fees for a period of Nine (9) months, the company sold the entire products belonging to NNPC ostensibly to recover the debt owed it by NNPC.
“The Committee noted that the Agreement did not give the company the right of offset. Despite this lack of provision in the Agreement, NNPC bent the rules to accommodate the sale, in consideration of the company’s undertaking to allow the Corporation to recover the value of the sold products and accruing interest on incurred sums amortized over a period of time.” it stated.
It was also gathered that following the arrest of the Capital Oil boss, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, the searchlight was allegedly beamed on the Rain Oil boss who was also said to have been allegedly investigated in 2012 by the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee where allegations were leveled against him of allegedly diverting NNPC product kept at his Tank Farm in Oghara, Delta state, but however found his way out of the mess after allegedly ‘settling’ some members of the committee.
Our Oil and Gas correspondent’s investigation further revealed that the Rain Oil boss is alleged to be currently facing another probe by the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on review of pump price of petroleum where he was among others accused of not being able to account for over One billion dollars petroleum products.
The Rain Oil boss was also accused of misappropriation of the FOREX collected as oil importer to ensure steady supply of Premium Motor Spirit.
A source in the oil and gas industry confessed to our correspondent that fraudulent practices have allegedly taken over the industry and that “Rain Oil boss, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechei is one of the kingpins, until the likes of Ifeanyi Ubah and Gabriel Ogbechei are made to face the law, the anti-corruption war of President Buhari will still be regarded as tales by moonlight in the Oil and Gas sector of Nigeria’s economy.
Confiding in HardReporters, sources at the DSS and EFCC disclosed that the agencies are already rounding off their investigations on the Delta state born oil mogul and would be arrested soon.
All efforts by this medium to reach Rain Oil boss for reactions were not not successful as at the time of filing in this report.
In a telephone interview with our oil and gas correspondent Thursday, EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the Rain Oil boss issue has not be brought to his knowledge as such cannot make statement on it.
Meanwhile, reports filtering from the home state of the Managing Director of Rain oil, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechie has shown that his current predicament has allegedly sent shivers down the spine of his home state governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa.
Embattled Ogbechie, HardReporters reliably learnt was one of the major financiers of governor Okowa’s election in 2015 by donating a whopping sum of N100 million to Okowa campaigns.
“I can conveniently tell you that Okowa currently experiencing sleepless nights, Okowa is seriously worried about the unfolding development. It appears now that the Rain oil boss’ donation of N100 million to his electoral funds in 2015 happens to be a slush fund.
“Early this year governor Okowa approved over fifty hectares of Land for the Rain oil boss recently in Asaba in a deal that culminated into several other reasons that forced the redeployment of the former Commissioner in the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Urban Development, Mr. Dan Okenyi.” our source said.
