Effa Imoh Okim, a prosecution witness in the trial
of Helen Aninye, Chizobam Ben-Okafor and their company, Pon-Specialized
Services Limited, who are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, allegedly for N1.4billion subsidy fraud, has told Justice
Olasumbo Goodluck of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Maitama,
Abuja how the accused persons collected
about N1bn( One Billion Naira) from the Federal Government as subsidy,
which was in excess of about N300 million (Three Hundred Million Naira) that
they were entitled to.
PW7, Imoh, an operative of the EFCC and a member of
the Commission’s Special Task Force on Petroleum Subsidy, gave a blow-by-blow detail
of the illicit deal that the accused persons had allegedly been involved in.
At today’s
hearing, Imo, who was led in evidence by
the counsel to EFCC, Steve Odiase,
said the Commission received, on request, a list of about 141 companies
from the PPPRA that benefitted from the subsidy payment, which included Pon-specialized
Services.
In his
testimony, he said: ‘‘15000 metric tonnes was loaded into a mother vessel,
Cielo de Napoli, which arrived offshore Cotonou and did a ship to ship, STS,
transfer on a daughter vessel, MT Fulmar on April 1, 2011; it did a ship to ship, STS, transfer on April 10, 2011, discharging same to the 2nd
daughter vessel, MT cape Bradley, on July 4, 2011; and then, another STS transfer to MT Aidin on July 18, 2011 before another STS transfer to a 4th
daughter vessel, MT Dani-1.’’
According to Imoh, there were a total of five
vessels in one transaction before the product was finally discharged into
Masters Energy depot in Port Harcourt on July 27
to 30, 2011.
He added: ‘‘We observed that the duration was
really long; it was about 118 days, that is over three months in one transaction
of just 15000 metric tonnes. We compared this to over 140 companies that were
investigated and we never saw a similar situation.
‘‘Consequently, letters were written to Quality Marine
Services, vessel owners, agents as well as various relevant stakeholders. The
response revealed that within the 85 days period that the defendants claimed
that MT Bradley had the product, it was in France. The vessel left France on May
14, 2011 and did STS transfer to another vessel MT Crete on June 9, 2011.”
According to him., letters and
documents from Quality Marine Services Limited QMSL, revealed that the second
and third defendants used forged certificate of transfer and cargo manifest to
obtain subsidy payment.
The actual documentation signed by QMSL revealed
that the defendants had discharged just about 3000 metric tonnes of product to
MT Dani-1 from two different vessel compartments.
Imoh further told the court that after PPPRA
was invited, it was revealed that “the first, second and third defendants were
entitled to about N300million (Three Hundred Million Naira) as subsidy, but collected
in excess from the Federal government.
The
prosecution tendered letters of petition from the former Minister of Petroleum,
Femi Falana, SAN, Civil Society Organisations, stakeholders as well as letters
from the EFCC to PPPRA.
The accompanying responses were all admitted in
evidence as Exhibits PW6A-1&2, PW6B-1&2, PW6C1&2, PW6D1&2,
PW6E1&2, PW6F1-4, PW6G1-43.
Other witnesses presented by the prosecution were:Paul
Ojukwu, PW5, a cargo surveyor and an employee of SGS Inspection Services
Nigeria Limited; Abdulkadir Attahiru
Adamu, PW6, Base Operations Manager, Dado Maritime Services Limited.
They were both cross-examined by the defence
counsel, Solomon Edogo, who stood in for Tayo Oyetibo, SAN,
Justice Goodluck adjourned the case to Wednesday, May
11, 2016 for continuation of cross-examination by defence and further hearing.
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