One year after, subsidy cases move slowly, unsteadily

Adoke, Jonathan and Lamorde
| credits: File copy

ADE ADESOMOJU reports that the speedy prosecution of all suspected fuel subsidy fraudsters  remains an unfulfilled promise by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

One year after the Federal Government was forced to start prosecuting some suspects of the multi-billion naira fuel subsidy scam, only little has been done in a bid  to bring culpable firms and individuals to justice.

Following a public outcry, the Federal Government,  partially restored the subsidy which it earlier removed totally on January 1, 2012 and promised that no one found culpable in the massive fraud would be spared.

Between July and August 2012, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arraigned  some oil marketers and their firms with assurance that others would be charged to court thereafter.

But an EFCC source, who is involved in handling the fuel subsidy cases told our correspondent that only 12 firms out of about 124 that were being investigated had been charged to court since last year.

While there are three of the cases before a Federal High Court in Abuja, the rest are before the Lagos High Court.

Some of the firms which have been arraigned along with their officials, include Alminnur Resources Ltd, Brila Energy Limited, A.S.B Investment Company Ltd, Nasaman Oil Services, and Downstream Energy Sources Ltd.

Others are Eterna Oil and Gas Plc, Fargo Energy Ltd, Nadabo Energy Ltd,  Rocky Energy Ltd, Axenergy Ltd, Ontario Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited and Pon Specialised Ltd.

Some of the firms like Brila are facing separate charges of fuel subsidy fraud before the Abuja and Lagos courts.

Among the officials and promoters of some of the firms, which have been arraginged are Walter Wagbatsoma and Adaoha Ugo-Ngadi of the Ontario Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited. They were  charged along with an employee of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency, Fakuade Babafemi, and a Managing Partner at Akintola Williams Delloitte, Ezekiel Ejidele, who were accused of conspiring with the oil marketers to defraud the government.

Also, Mahmud Tukur, son of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur, of Eterna Oil and Gas Plc, is facing the fuel subsidy charges along with Ochonogor Alex and Abdulahi Alao.

Meanwhile, Alao who is a son of an Ibadan-based business man, Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao, is facing separate but similar  charges along with his firm, Axenergy.

Though the source dismissed speculations that other cases were dead and might never be taken to court, he told our correspondent that EFCC officials who are involved in investigating and prosecuting the cases were concerned about the slow pace of the cases.

“I don’t think they are dead. But we are tired of meeting on the same issue all the time without any progress,” he said.

He told our correspondent that the attitude of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr.  Mohammed Adoke, has not been helping the situation.

The source said, “What many do not know is that EFCC has limited discretion about the cases. The person that has the final say is the Attorney General of the Federation. He is the one who gives the go ahead to prosecute.

“When we finish investigation, the files are sent to him. He is the one who tells us to charge suspects to court. If he does not give us the go ahead, there is nothing we can do. Some files are already with him. I am sure about eight were sent to him last month. But we have not heard anything.”

The EFCC official said it was difficult to ascertain the total amount of the fuel subsidy fraud, but he said there were over 1,000 transactions between 2006 and 2011 which were being investigated by the EFCC.

The source said, “Among these transactions, we have called on some firms to answer some questions, and some were able to clarify their roles in such transactions.

“Subsidy transactions are done in every three months. So we are supposed to investigate the transactions from 2006 to 2011, but as it is now, only the transactions of the third and fourth quarters have been charged to court so far.”

He said though, EFCC has not completed investigating all the cases, more than half of the cases had been completely investigated and were ripe for being charged to court. He refused to mention the names of firms which EFCC had already finished investigating.

He also explained the usual difficulties encountered by the EFCC in investigating some of the transactions.

“Why we have not been able to finish the investigations is because some of them have international dimensions. In such cases we will require, Mutual Legal Assistance from the countries concerned and that would ordinarily take time,” he said.

The source was asked why EFCC had to embark on fresh investigations when various panels, including the House of Representatives’ Farouk Lawan-led ad hoc committee and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede-led Presidential Panel on Subsidy Verification, had already submitted reports on the same subject matter.

The source said, “What the Farouk Lawan committee did was just calculation of how much was spent on subsidy since the scheme began without doing much on what part of it that was fraudulent. You have to know that there were some oil marketers who did genuine transactions.

“The Aig-Imoukhuede committee you are talking about was coming to us for information. We gave them information on numerous occasions. So the reports are not sufficient for what we are doing.”

 Government forced to act

In some of the cases which have already been charged to court and in which trial has started, EFCC has, through the testimonies of its investigators, who are witnesses in the cases, said that it only swung into investigating the cases after receiving petitions from the civil society groups.

The petitions by the civil societies were also said to have been followed by that of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

According to the witnesses, among the petitions by the civil societies which formed the basis for EFCC’s investigation, were those of Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and former member of House of Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye.

Tukur’s peculiar case

Apart from the case involving Pon Specialised, which was only taken before a Federal High Court in Abuja along with its officials in April 2013, only the case involving Tukur and his firm, Eterna Oil and Gas, has yet to proceed to trial.

Tukur, Alao, Alex  and Eterna Oil and Gas Plc were jointly arraigned before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of a Lagos High Court in Ikeja on July 26, 2012 on nine counts, including an alleged fraudulent collection of about N1.899bn from the Federal Government as payment for subsidy.

The case was part of the first batch of the fuel subsidy matters brought before the Lagos High Court between July and August 2012.

While others have proceeded to trial, Tukur’s case is still being bogged down by various applications seeking the court to quash the charges.

Earlier before the applications were filed, Justice Onigbanjo had conceded to series of adjournments at the instance of Tukur’s counsel, who had  sought for time to explore an option of out-of-court settlementof the case.

At a time, EFCC counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), urged the court to allow the matter proceed to trial, saying the settlement option had failed. But the counsel, who was representing Tukur at the proceeding, insisted that talks with the Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, were still ongoing.

Case withdrawal

On July 31, 2013, EFCC withdrew the charges it earlier field against some oil marketers and their firms at a Lagos High Court in Igbosere.

The defendants in the suit tagged ID/122C/2012, were Durosola Omogbenigun and Peter Mba along with their firms, Integrated Resources Limited and Pinnacle Oil and Gas.

Counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Oyedepo Rotimi, had told the court at the proceedings, few weeks after the charges were filed, that the case was mistakenly instituted against the defendants.

Attempts to reach EFCC’s Head of Media Unit, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, on the issues were unsuccessful. He did not answer  telephone calls and also did not respond to text messages sent to his phone.

Also, spokesman for the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Ambrose Momoh, could not be reached as his telephone lines were unavailable.

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, said the prosecution of the fuel subsidy suspects was only done to assuage the anger of the public which kicked against the Federal Government’s removal of subsidy on fuel.

Aturu said, “The prosecution (of the fuel subsidy fraud suspects) was done to deflect popular anger in the wake of the provocative hike in prices of petroleum products. Having achieved that end nothing is expected to come out of the false trials.

“The truth of the matter is that the attitude of the Federal Government cannot be divorced from the economic source or props of the ruling elite.”

On his part, Executive Director, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, said the Federal Government was not serious with the subsidy fraud cases.

Mumuni said, “There is no seriousness and fundamental  commitment in the prosecution. What we have been seeing is motion without movement; and sound without a bite.There is absolutely no fire and fury in this endeavour.”

 Another civil rights lawyer, Mr. Olu-Ebun Adegboruwa, said government was only “pulling the wool over the eyes of Nigerians”.

He said, “No serious trial is going on presently, as all the suspects have literally perfected the style of entering into plea bargain with EFCC to return paltry sums, out of the billions of naira stolen from the our commonwealth. This is to pat them on their back and to encourage them to further loot the treasury.”

Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said rather than prosecuting suspects of the fuel subsidy fraud, the government was only busy setting corrupt persons free.

He said, “My perception towards the Federal Government’s attitude towards fighting corruption has been much of despondency. This government is not ready to fight corruption, it is only concerned about setting corrupt persons free.”

Mr. Malachy Ugwumadu, a lawyer and activist, said it was obvious that the Federal Government was not genuinely prosecuting the fuel subsidy fraud suspects.

He said, “It is obvious and evident that the Federal Government is not disposed to tackling corruption, not less the prevalent and known corruption in the oil sector. This is probably because the investigation of the alleged fraud in the oil subsidy scheme was a product of the January 2012 uprising of the Nigerian people.”