Subsidy: EFCC Invites Oando, Conoil, Others For Round One Of Interrogations

SAN FRANCISCO, January 22, (THEWILL) – Barely a week after its investigators raided the offices of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), following the colossal fraud uncovered in the payments of subsidy on imported petrol and kerosene, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s main anti-graft police, has invited top executives of the beneficiary companies for questioning.

The preliminary interrogation by investigators of the commission will put to test President Goodluck Jonathan’s resolve to stamp out corruption in a country plagued by excessive graft, bizarre wastefulness and politicization of the fight against corruption.

EFCC sources Sunday told THEWILL that invitations to the chief executives of companies indicted by a Senate committee probe into the payments were concluded late last week. The executives were directed to report at the commission’s Abuja headquarters from Monday, January 23, 2012, with paper work relating to the importation of products and payments received, et cetera.

THEWILL gathered that investigators hope to match the files submitted by importers with those retrieved from the NNPC, PPPRA, Ministry of Finance and CBN, alongside documentations from the countries where the ships ferrying petroleum cargoes departed from, to see whether there are discrepancies.

EFCC's spokesman Walter Uwajaren could not be reached comments. The ceos of Oando, Conoil, Sahara Energy, and MRS Oil did not respond to our phone calls.

Recall the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. DiezaniAlison-Madueke, had a fortnight ago invited the commission to carryout forensic investigations into payments made on petroleum subsidy since the inception of the policy.

There have been allegations that some officials of the Ministry of Petroleum, Customs and other relevant agencies at the ports alongside importers of petroleum products have colluded over the years to inflate the volume of cargoes of imported petrol and kerosene and in turn received billions of naira in payments as subsidy on the volumes declared.

The companies alleged to have received payments according to the senate committee include:
Oando Nigeria Plc - N228.506 billion
MRS Ltd. - N224.818 billion
Enak Oil & Gas - N19.684 billion
Conoil - N37.960 billion
Bovas & Co. Nig. Ltd. - N5.685 billion
Obat - N85 billion
Integrated Oil and Gas - N30.777 billion
IPMAN Investment Ltd - N10.9 billion
Africa Petroleum Plc - N104.83 billion
AMP Petro-energy - N11.4 billion
Akor Plc - N24.11 billion
A.Z. Petroleum - N18.13 billion
Capital Oil - N22.42 billion
Dozie Oil and Gas - N3.37 billion
Mobil Oil Plc - N18.60 billion
Matrix Energy - N12.612 billion
Ford Oil - N8.502 billion
North West Petroleum and Gas - N46.27 billion
NIPCO Plc - N23.2 billion
Ontario Oil - N4.9 billion
Origin Oil and Gas - N2.69 billion
Bill and Ocean Energy - N1.77 billion
Sahara Energy and many other “brief case companies.”