The chairman of Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, has
granted an interview with ThisDay Newspapers, in which he exposed the
details behind the current bribery scandal rocking the House of
Representatives.
Femi Otedola |
The full details of the $3 million bribery scandal involving members
of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Fuel Subsidy
probe were revealed yesterday, as one of the major actors in the scandal
has opened up on what transpired.
In an exclusive interview with
THISDAY, chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, who
hitherto was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery scandal,
blew the lid on what transpired and how chairman of the ad-hoc
committee, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the secretary of the committee, Mr.
Boniface Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation
masterminded by the security agencies.
The amount was part payment
for the $3 million, which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to
exonerate Zenon Oil from the ad-hoc committee’s report.
As the
scandal unfolds, it was learnt that operatives of the State Security
Services have sent a video recording of the incident to the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission for further scrutiny and action.
Otedola,
who was opening up on the issue for the first time, narrated how Lawan
at the outset of the probe had approached him to get some insight into
the workings of the downstream oil and gas sector.
Otedola said he
obliged him and ensured that his managing directors of Forte Oil Plc
and Zenon Oil appeared at the subsidy probe during its public hearing
after both companies had been invited by the committee.
During
the probe, he said the committee was informed in no uncertain terms
that Zenon does not and has never made claims for subsidy payments from
the federal government, as the company was engaged solely in the
importation of diesel, a product that is not subsidised.
Zenon’s managing director, Mr. Kanmi Kareem Otaru, during the probe had denied that the company had anything to do with the subsidy regime. He told the committee, “For the avoidance of doubt Zenon never participated or benefited from the subsidy scheme or Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).”
According
to him, going by the Act which established the PSF scheme, “Zenon
couldn’t participate in it because we don’t have a network of PMS retail
outlets which was one of the key criteria beneficiaries must meet and
as such we are not qualified to participate to draw from subsidy
payments on PMS. So we never collected as records will show.”
Irrespective
of the clarification made at the hearing, Otedola said Lawan still
approached him a few days before the report was to be tabled on April
18, 2012 before the House of Representatives, demanding money so that
Zenon’s name will be kept out of the report.
“When this happened, I was very angry and reminded him that Zenon has never participated in the subsidy scheme and that it would be criminal to rope in the company for something it did not do.
“But Lawan responded,
stating that several other marketers were playing ball and had offered
the members of the committee large sums of money to ensure that their
companies’ names were not published in the report,” he added.
Otedola,
said initially he balked at Lawan’s attempt to extort money from him
and told the legislator that he would not pay up, as Zenon had not
committed any crime.
“Then a day before the report was to
be submitted, Lawan called again, informing me that Zenon’s name had
been included in the report.
“I, of course, was very angry and asked him to desist from his course of action, but Lawan insisted that I must pay up as other oil marketers had done before me.”
Otedola
said he could not believe his eyes the next day when the report came
out and Zenon’s name had been listed under the category of companies
that had bought foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
but had not imported petrol.
The amount ascribed to Zenon in the
report was $232,975,385.13. The report had recommended that Zenon and 14
other marketers that had bought the foreign exchange be referred to the
anti-corruption agencies to determine what they used the monies for.
Otedola said at this point he again called Lawan demanding that Zenon’s name be removed from the list, as there was no way his company could have bought that volume of foreign exchange without importing products.
“I
reminded him that the amount ascribed to Zenon was wrong as what the
company bought was over $400 million for importation of products through
the banks – Zenith, UBA and GTB – and that under Sanusi (CBN governor)
there was no way anyone could have bought that quantity of foreign
exchange and not imported the products having filled the Form M.
“Sanusi will simply clamp down on anyone who tries to pull that kind of stunt,” he said.
In spite of this, Otedola said Lawan still demanded that the members of the committee be given money in exchange for removing Zenon’s name from the report before it is considered in plenary by the entire House.
Otedola said he then asked how much would be required to make the committee happy, to which Lawan responded $3 million.
“I screamed at him, demanding to know why he was doing this to me. All he said was other marketers were paying up to keep their names out of the report so I should do likewise,” he said.
Otedola
revealed that it was this point he decided to involve the security
agencies to catch Lawan and his committee with their hands in the till.
According
to him, “As a law-abiding citizen, I decided to involve the security
agencies and they advised me to play along, which prompted me to offer
to pay part of the money with the promise that I would pay the balance
when my company’s name had been removed from the report.”
The
security agencies, he disclosed, gave him serialised dollar bills for
the sting job and there are call logs, video and audio recordings in the
possession of the agencies to confirm all that had transpired between
himself and Lawan.
He said on April 21, the Saturday
before the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected
$250,000 in cash, as the first instalment, “then the next Monday night
he came and collected another $250,000.
“On Tuesday, at 9am, just before the House commenced seating, Boniface came and collected another $120,000.”
Otedola confirmed that during the sting, Lawan and Boniface collected a total of $620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3 million demanded from him.
He added that with the $620,000 that
had been extorted by Lawan and the committee, during the plenary,
Zenon’s name was removed from the list of companies that had bought
foreign exchange but did not import products.
Otedola
continued: “He (Lawan) now asked for the balance of $2.5 million, but
when I told him that I had no money now that the money was in Lagos, he
suggested that I should charter a plane to fly the money from Lagos to
Abuja.”
Otedola stressed that his decision to get the law
enforcement and security agencies involved stemmed from the fact that he
had not broken any law, maintaining that as a law-abiding citizen, he
was saddened by the fact that he was being blackmailed by of all people,
members of the legislature.
“If you have information that an
armed robber is come to raid your home, won’t you notify the police? So,
that was the purpose of the sting operation.
“Besides, my
integrity is paramount to me. I started selling petroleum products 14
years ago in drums and somebody who has never run a petrol station is
trying to blackmail and extort money from me.
“If others (marketers) have paid money, maybe they are guilty. But I did not do anything wrong, so why should they extort money from me? As a law-abiding citizen, I had to involve the security agencies. Indeed, I’m very disappointed because I have worked hard to build my business.”
Insisting
that he had nothing to hide or fear over what had happened, Otedola
maintained if he was in the wrong he would not have involved the
security agencies in the first instance.
In a reference to
the strong denials made by Lawan since the scandal became public,
Otedola stated, “When he (Lawan) demanded the bribe, I called the
agencies. That is because I had nothing to hide. When the bribe was
paid, why did he not call and report it to the agencies if he had
nothing to.”
Meanwhile, THISDAY gathered that the videotape of the illicit transaction had been sent to the EFCC to investigate the incident.
When contacted, the EFCC, however, said it had neither received the videotape nor had it commenced investigations into the bribery scandal.
EFCC Head of the Media Unit, Mr. Wilson Uwugiaren, said the allegation had not been brought to the knowledge of the commission.
According to him, the only related matter currently being handled by the EFCC was the report of the ad-hoc committee that the commission was studying to establish the facts and track down anyone found culpable for the alleged mismanagement of the PSF.
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