The chairman of Capital Oil and Gas limited, Andy Ubah has
described his arrest by the Department of State Services as a complete attempt
to blackmail him. The oil magnate said the claim by the DSS that he was
involved in theft of petrol kept by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, in his tank farm in Lagos was a wrong accusation.
The agency on Friday picked up Ubah over his connection with
the missing petroleum product, which was valued at over N11bn. The department
said Ubah’s action amounted to economic sabotage, with “capacity to negatively
impact on national economy”.
Reacting, however, in a statement issued on Monday, Ubah
said his arrest by the DSS was a breach of his fundamental right to liberty,
freedom of movement and association.
The statement signed by the management of the company said
all the allegations leveled against their boss, Ubah were false and unfounded.
The statement reads in full.
The incarceration of our Chairman by DSS is unlawful, a
disregard for the rule of law and a breach of Dr. Ubah’s fundamental right to
liberty, freedom of movement and association.
A similar invitation was extended to Dr. Ubah on the 24th of
March 2017, which he honoured as a law-abiding citizen only to be detained in
DSS offices in Abuja for almost a month.
During that period a Fundamental Rights Enforcement
Application was brought on behalf of Dr. Ubah at the Federal High Court Lagos
as Suit No. FHC/L/C/487/2017.
Although an order was made for his production in court in
that action, rather than obey the order, officers DSS, using a combination of
coercion and cajoling, constrained him to discontinue that action upon an
understanding that he would be immediately released. He was not released until
over two weeks after he had complied and completely discontinued that action.
Upon his release on the 13th of April 2017, it was now
discovered that during his incarceration he had been coerced into executing
various documents committing the company to make certain payments and pledge
some assets to NNPC Retail Limited. He was also made to execute a document in
favour of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
As soon as his doctors permitted access to him an action was
brought at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court seeking, inter alia, an
order to restrain DSS and others from further inviting, arresting or
threatening to arrest or detain him in regard to the NNPC/NNPC Retail Ltd
matters.
The processes originating the new action filed as Suit No.
FHC/L/CS/644/2017, were served on the DSS on the 28th of April 2017.
Dr. Ubah’s lawyers wrote to the DSS pointing out that any
preemption of the judicial intervention during the pendency of the new action
is totally irregular, a disregard of the rule of law, the constitutional
guarantees of separation of powers and breach of the doctrine of Lis Pendens.
Rather than respect its constitutional and statutory limits the
DSS has brazenly abducted Dr. Ubah and commenced a media blitz to justify their
illegality.
THE ACCUSATIONS OF THEFT AND ECONOMIC SABOTAGE ARE
COMPLETELY FALSE.
For the avoidance of doubt and to put the records straight,
NNPC owes Capital Oil & Gas Industries Limited over N16 billion represented
as follows:
$5,540,000 (N2.2billion) – unpaid berthing fees for NNPC
vessels that called at our Jetty
$2,952,555 (N1billion) – invoice for chartered vessels to
carryout STS operations Lagos offshore to ferry product (PMS) to storage at the
request of NNPC since 2015
N1.170billion – amount owed to Capital Oil & Gas
Industries Limited for throughput services from March to October 2016
N3.146billion – payment made to NNPC for 26,820million
litres of PMS vide Pro-forma Invoice No. 53598 which is yet to be delivered to
us
N2.0billion – Payment to NNPC in April to facilitate the
release of the Managing Director and engender reconciliation which NNPC reneged
on.
N6.266billion – N0.80k and N0.40 Jetty Throughput charge on
over 7 billion liters dispensed for NNPC by us.
On economic sabotage, it is unimaginable that a company
which has stood by NNPC and by extension the country at very critical petroleum
supply crises can now be accused of engaging in activities to undermine the
effective distribution of petroleum products across the country having thwarted
a nationwide industrial action called by oil marketers during the epic
inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
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