A prominent multi-billionaire, Mr. Emeka Ofor, has been fingered as a major face of the entrenched cabal that destroyed Nigeria’s refining capacity, thus precipitating the present crisis of trying to remove petrol subsidy in the country.
According to inside sources at the NNPC, Mr. Emeka Ofor, while still in his thirties, was allegedly rewarded a contract for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM), the first such indigenous patronage in the country, but ended up complicating and damaging equipment for the refinery in Port Harcourt. Sharpedgenews.com reliably guttered that Emeka Ofor, now 53, employed his intricate and intimate political connections with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to ensure that his atrocities were never exposed.
Sources who swore on the extent of rot brough into the refinery in Port Harcourt said that Ofor may jave benefited to the tune of N20b for doing nothing. He allegedly brought in “Romanians who had no clue on what to do. They brought further damage.”
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Austen Oniwon, told the Hon. Faruk Lawan Ad-hoc Committee on Subsidy Regime in the National Assembly that the cost of fuel in the country could have been relatively cheaper. He said this was not presently the case because of avoidable cost incurred by the corporation and others involved in fuel importation.
For instance, the NNPC boss said the poor state of the nation’s refineries with about 60 per cent operational capacity affected the ability of the corporation to process crude locally. Oniwon said lack of functional infrastructure, especially jetties and depots affected discharge and storage of petroleum products. He added that funds for the Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, of the refineries would not be sourced from the Federation Account but from the internally generated revenue of the corporation. The GMD warned that the TAM might again be frustrated except urgent steps were taken to reduce the spate of pipeline vandalism in the country. Oniwon, who explained that the proposed TAM of the Port Harcourt Refinery would be completed by December 2012, also revealed that maintenance on the Kaduna refinery would begin in January 2013 and end in the first quarter of the same year, while that of the Warri Refinery will be completed by the last quarter of 2014.
The NNPC boss, who added that on completion, the capacity utilization of the refineries would be raised from 30 to 90 per cent, however, stressed the need to eliminate the activities of pipeline vandals in areas such as Auchi, Okene, Lokoja, Abaji, Gombe and Ogoniland. He lamented that previous efforts by the Army and the police to ensure the safety of the pipelines had failed, despite assurances by community leaders. On the difference between the subsidy claims presented by the corporation and the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Oniwon said the NNPC had never provided any figures to the NEITI. “I do not know how they arrived at that calculation. I have not communicated to NEITI; I never knew where the body got that from. I only heard the figure for the first time. The N1.348trn was the reconciled figure between the NNPC, PPPRA and the Ministry of Finance,” Oniwon said. He, however, promised to look into the claims made by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, on the corporation’s N45bn indebtedness to it, promising to commence negotiations with the service to ensure the prompt payment of the sum.
Sources told sharpedgenews.com that Emeka Offor has never been held accountable for collecting N20 billion for a TAM that was never executed to specification. It has also been alleged that his penchant for deploying street gangs has always been the beginning of wisdom for journalists and law enforcement scrutiny. “He often sends contract killers,” said a concerned individual who didn’t want to be identified for volunteering details of how Offor operates.
A source said that whoever wants to put Emeka Offor in the dock would be prepared to take Obasanjo down with him. “He was a front for Baba,” our source said.
In 1999, Offor allegedly donated N200m cash to Obasanjo’s presidential campaign and that, amongst other dirty errands run for the Peoples Democratic Party, allegedly made him an untouchable member of the cabal.