Justice Lawal Akapo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos was
today February 11, 2014, told that Ifeanyi Anosike and his company Anosyke
Group of Companies never carried out any Ship- to- Ship transfer of 15,000
Metric Tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit PMS as claimed.
Anosike and his company are being
prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on charges
bordering on forgery and conspiracy to obtain by false pretence the sum
of N1,537,278,880.82 (one billion, five hundred and thirty seven million,
two hundred and seventy eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty Naira,
eighty two kobo) from the Petroleum Support Fund.
According to the prosecution witness,
Oghare Ebunu, an operative of the EFCC, investigations revealed that there
was no transfer of petroleum product from the mother vessel MT KLARA to
a first daughter vessel MT MARITINA at Offshore Cotonou where the content
was claimed to have been further transferred into SP Boston and Emocean
by feanyi Anosike.
Ebunu told the court that it was discovered during investigation that Anosyke
Group of Companies was licensed to import 15,000 metric tonnes of PMS,
and which Anosyke claimed was actually imported and transferred under the
watchful eyes of SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited from a mother
vessel MT KLARA to MT MARITINA and again to SP BOSTON and EMOCEAN.
Ebunu further told the court that
SGS never witnessed the Ship- to -Ship transfer from MT Klara to MT Maritina
and that the certificate of quantity transfer usually issued by the inspectorate
to certify that they witnessed the Ship- to -Ship transfer presented by
Anosyke did not emanate from SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited.
Ebunu also told the court that a letter from Mercuria Trading NV, where
the marketer was said to have procured the product, clearly stated that
the marketer was not known to them and that the claimed transfer of petroleum
product from MT Klara to MT Maritina was not verified by them as claimed
by Anosyke.
The accused also claimed that
SP Boston and Emocean discharged their contents at Master Energy storage
facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and Rain Oil facility at Oghara
in Delta State respectively.
When asked by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, to further explain
the findings of the EFCC as regards the location of the vessel on the said
date of Ship- to -Ship transfer, the witness told the court
that “according to Lloyd List Intelligence (LLI) which is saddled with
the responsibility of giving the location of vessels at any point in time,
on the date Anosike purportedly claimed the Ship –to- Ship transfer
took place, MT Klara was in Brazil and no where near the Nigerian
waters.
Rotimi then tendered the various
letters from EFCC to SGS Inspection Services Nigeria limited, Mercuria
Trading NV and the Corporate Affairs Commission as well as their responses
to the various enquiries and verifications by the EFCC as exhibit before
the court and they were admitted and marked accordingly.
Justice Lawal Akapo adjourned to April 1, 2, 28 and 29 for continuation
of trial,
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