Fejiro
Oliver
If there
is any word to describe this bombshell; ‘masterstroke corporate fraud’ will be
the name, as it reveals what the governor of Ondo State had breath a huge sigh
of relief that all loopholes of it coming to the public has been blocked.
On March
2001 under late governor Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State, a world class
business deal was reached between Ondo State and Integrated Mineral Development
Company (IMDC), headed by Mr. Simon Kolajo. The agreement was for IMDC to
prospect and drill oil in Ondo State, haven found out that there was crude oil
in the state.
Haven
reached a consensus, a Shell Petroleum Company known as Owena Oil and Gas was
brought into the picture to serve as the corporate body to carry out the
prospect. The then governor, Adefarati signed a document with Owena to cede the
full ownership of the company, since Owena was solely responsible for the
finances and logistic of the business, but however retained 30% so that the state
will have a sense of belonging as well as enable it to provide Jobs and
employment for its indigenes. The MOU made available to us revealed that the
state will nominate directors to represent them on the board, which they did.
An oil
mining bid which was carried out by the state saw Owena Oil and Gas winning the
mining license and was given bloc OPL 95/OPL 241. However Adefarati defeat by
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saw late Olusegun Agagu climb the
governorship stool, but this never deterred Owena Oil from doing business in
the state as it went further to acquire two refinery licenses to utilize the
production of crude oil it was billed to produce from its acquired bloc of OPL
241, while Agagu graciously made a financial commitment on behalf of the state
to the deal in a loan form to buyout a stakeholder in OPL 241 and the remaining
funds was warehoused in an interest yielding account.
According to our sources, Olusegun Mimiko who had been part of the deal from day one came into power through the court in 2009 and turned the table upside down. We gathered that he made attempts to have an equity share in the deal for two years, but was rebuffed by the management of Owena, thus leading him to go for the deadly kick. Within three months, he connived with some employees of the Corporate Affairs Commission to register a pseudo company named OWENA ENERGY LIMITED, whose main focus was to acquire the deal earlier signed by OWENA OIL AND GAS LIMITED to himself and not Ondo State. His Senior Special Assistant on petroleum, Mr Goke Adeniyi was made the Managing director of the fraudulent company and charged with the sole responsibility of diverting all the funds earlier gotten by Owena Oil and Gas to their own company. The first strike according to documents made available to us was to connive with United Bank for Africa (UBA), Akure Branch to transfer a staggering sum of N750 Million which was the funds of the buyout by the Agagu government for Operations to their own Owena Energy Limited, listing OPL 95 and OPL 241 as their own bloc.
According to our sources, Olusegun Mimiko who had been part of the deal from day one came into power through the court in 2009 and turned the table upside down. We gathered that he made attempts to have an equity share in the deal for two years, but was rebuffed by the management of Owena, thus leading him to go for the deadly kick. Within three months, he connived with some employees of the Corporate Affairs Commission to register a pseudo company named OWENA ENERGY LIMITED, whose main focus was to acquire the deal earlier signed by OWENA OIL AND GAS LIMITED to himself and not Ondo State. His Senior Special Assistant on petroleum, Mr Goke Adeniyi was made the Managing director of the fraudulent company and charged with the sole responsibility of diverting all the funds earlier gotten by Owena Oil and Gas to their own company. The first strike according to documents made available to us was to connive with United Bank for Africa (UBA), Akure Branch to transfer a staggering sum of N750 Million which was the funds of the buyout by the Agagu government for Operations to their own Owena Energy Limited, listing OPL 95 and OPL 241 as their own bloc.
Aware that
Governor Mimiko has planned to transfer over $2.5 million dollars from Owena
Oil and Gas fraudulently, the company hurriedly went to court to obtain a court
injunction to stop the State government from parading itself as a stakeholder
in the business deal. After the court case, the two warring parties decided to
sit down and agreed that Ondo State will now be represented in the board by its
Commissioners, while IMDC will turn the business into a full corporation, considering
the fact that they own the major stake in the joint deal. This led to the
creation of an office of a legal adviser and company secretary. Mimiko however
refused the arrangement offered by Owena Oil and Gas, but instead offered to
buy the full stake of IMDC who owns 70% of the shares with a laughable sum of
N67 million, which was immediately scorned at and rejected, thus drawing a
battle line.
ATTEMPT TO
KILL THE SECRETARY BEGINS
With
things falling apart for Mimiko and seeing his coveted million dollars not
coming to him, he made move to silence the newly employed company secretary,
who had all the files and details of the proceeding from day one. The Ondo
State government filed an application before a magistrate court accusing the
secretary who was only employed in 2011 of forging and manipulating the shares
belonging to the government and Owena Oil and Gas; a deal struck in 2001 when
the Secretary had not dreamt of working there. A warrant of arrest which was
not duly signed was brought before the secretary who was in Lagos State, by a
squad of policemen, who never told the Commisioner of Police, Ondo State that
they were leaving their domain to effect an arrest in Lagos State. The
Secretary who is a lawyer we gathered told them to inform the Lagos State
Police Command of their presence before he could follow them. It however became
clear that the Police did not even come with a vehicle to convey him for
‘trial’ to Ondo State, hence he had to provide transportation for all of them,
while secretly praying that he is not shot on the way.
Our
findings revealed that the Ondo State Magistrate court has no jurisdiction to
have heard the case in the first place as the issue of Company registration is
a Federal Case, yet we have on good authority that the Magistrate agreed to
hear the case, with government press corps covering it. Realizing that the case
was not going to be a smooth one as orchestrated by Governor Mimiko, the Judge
read out a printed sheet of paper some funny bail conditions which included; a
serving permanent secretary under Ondo State employee (A situation which is not
possible since it involes the state government versus Owena Oil and Gas) and
the accused having a surety who must be a lawyer with chamber in Akure (Another
impossible case, since the accuse lives in Lagos and was ‘abducted’ to Ondo
State). These were brought to the Magistrate hearing who quickly went into the
Chamber to consult with the state government on the next line of bail action.
On January 3rd 2014,
there was another attempt to murder the Secretary by the Governor and his SA,
Mr Goke Adeniyi, when he failed to reveal the documents following a meeting he
had with Owena on December 24th 2013,
before he flew to the United States for Christmas
Our source noted an
online media based in New York had earlier gotten the story though did a shoddy
job, as it never had a full grasp of it as well as lack of documents, but went
ahead to publish it. Mimiko we gathered contacted the online media and after
paying heavily for it; the story was brought down and killed
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