…Declare Alagu wanted over forex for fuel
From Kemi Yesufu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of Petroleum Products Pricing has summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Minister of State for Petroleum, and Ibe Kachikwu, to appear before it next Monday over the alleged diversion of millions of dollars meant for the importation of premium motor spirit (PMS).
Also expected to appear before the committee are Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe, Chief Executive Officers of some deposit banks who were involved in the allocation of forex to the oil marketers.
This is as the committee directed the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and th tor of HAR Petroleum Resources Ltd, Andrew Alagu.
Chairman of the committee, Raphael Nnanna-Igbokwe, while making his observation during its investigative hearing yesterday, declared Alagu wanted, alleging that his company fraudulently sourced and received foreign exchange to the tune of $26 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) using the importation of fuel into the country as a front. Igbokwe expressed displeasure over the denial by the company via a letter to the committee, that it did not engage in the importation of fuel and therefore didn’t source and receive forex from the CBN.
HAR representative at the hearing, Jefferson Ogunma, who said his boss, Andrew Alagu, had travelled overseas on an official assignment insisted that his company only handled logistics on behalf of Total Nigeria Plc.
But his explanation was rejected by Igbokwe who disclosed that investigations by the committee showed that the company received forex to import fuel.
“We have it on good authority that in 2014, your company applied and got over $11 million, and in 2015, it got another forex over $14 million from Zenith Bank for the importation of petroleum products into this country and you now sit here and deny ever engaging in product importation or any of such transaction with the NNPC retail outfits? Where did the $26 million you took in forex from the bank, according to CBN records, go to?” he asked.
The committee re-stated its order that the Inspector General of Police and the Comptroller General of Immigration immediately determine the whereabouts of the company’s Managing Director and produce him on March 27, unfailingly for questioning.
The National Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms and police attaches were asked to take the representative and collect his written statement regarding the whereabouts of his boss, his own identity as well as what he knows about the $26 million taken by his company, according to CBN records.
Also asked to give a full statement to the police and Sergeant-at-Arms security for their record at the hearing was the Managing Director of Nice Bridge Petroleum Limited, Gregory Enahoro, whose company received $9.6 million in forex through its Zenith and Keystone Bank accounts.
Enahoro told lawmakers that his company carried out logistical activities for Total Plc, adding that Nice Bridge using Total platforms sourced for its products from retail outlets outside Nigeria and therefore was not in any transaction with the PPPRA, which would have facilitated forex for it.
Meanwhile, the CEOs of Keystone and Zenith Banks were also summoned to explain why they jointly gave the sum to the company and as well as evidence of utilisation, saying the forex sourced and received by the company has an imprint of fraud that requires further investigation.