Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi
Ubah, has sued the Department of State Services before the Federal High Court
in Lagos over what he termed unlawful detention by the security agency.
Ubah’s lawyer, Mrs. Ifeoma Esom, who appeared before Justice
Mohammed Idris on Tuesday with an ex parte application, claimed that her client
had been in detention since May 6.
She urged the judge to order the DSS to release Ubah to
prevent the security agency from coercing him to accede to “whatever conditions
they impose on him in exchange for his freedom.”
Upon hearing the ex parte application on Tuesday, Justice
Idris ordered the DSS to bring Ubah before him on May 12, 2017, to show cause
why the businessman should not be released unconditionally.
In an affidavit filed in support of the application, the
Secretary of Capital Oil and Gas Limited,George Oranuba, claimed that the DSS
arrested his boss on account of allegations levelled against him by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria.
According to Oranuba, the issue had become a subject of
litigation and was already before the court.
Oranuba, however, said despite the subsisting suit, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the DSS still invited Ubah for
questioning.
According to him, Ubah had earlier been detained from March
24 to April 14, 2017.
The DSS had claimed that it arrested and detained Ubah for
what it termed an act of “economic sabotage” involving an alleged diversion of
petroleum products worth about N11bn.
The DSS claimed that the said petroleum products, belonging
to NNPC Retail, stored in the Capital Oil farm in Lagos, went missing under
controversial circumstances.
However, the company secretary, Oranuba, said the agreement
leading to the keeping of the petroleum product with Capital Oil, allowed
“conversion and diversion of IT products by operators as long as the operator
is prepared to re-deliver the products within seven days of demand by the owner
of the product or to pay a penalty for non-re-delivery.”
According to him, failure to re-deliver did not amount to a
crime but is a mere breach of contract, which can be remedied by payment of a
penalty to the owner.
“The agreement expressly states that any penalty due for
non-re-delivery is to be treated as a debt and I verily believe that law
enforcement agencies are not allowed to operate as debt collectors,” he said.
Oranuba claimed that NNPC is indebted to Capital Oil and Gas
Limited in “excess of N13bn yet the company did not call law enforcement
agencies to collect the debt, despite the length of time NNPC has held on to
the money.”
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