Subsidy Theft Allegations Against Us Are False — Oil Marketer

An oil marketer, Adaoha Ugo-Ndagi has told a Lagos High Court sitting
in Ikeja that the N1.9 billion subsidy fraud charge preferred against
her and three others were false.

Ugo-Ndagi, Managing Director of Ontario Oil and Gas Limited, who was
testifying before Justice Lateefa Okunnu, maintained that the
allegations was an attempt to settle old scores between Ontario and
two other key players in the industry.

She urged the court to discharge and acquit herself, Ontario and Mr
Walter Wagbatsoma, the Executive Director of the firm, of the
nine-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining property by false
pretences, forgery and uttering.

Led in evidence by the defence counsel, Mr Edoka Onyeke, Ugo-Ndagi,
said she had never met the third defendant, Mr Fakuade Babafemi, a
staff of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA),
until they were arraigned in court.

She said:"I have never seen him in my life before. The first time I
met him was when we were brought before the court.

"So, how can somebody now claim that we conspired with him to forge
documents to fraudulently obtain subsidy from the government?"

The witness maintained that the company imported 19 million and 15
million litres of Premium Motor Spirit in the third quarter of 2010
and the transaction followed the stipulated guidelines of the PPPRA.

According to her, the documents used for the transactions were signed
by all the relevant agencies including the PPPRA, Department of
Petroleum Resources,DPR, Navy, Immigration, Customs, Ontario surveyors
and surveyors representing Obat and Integrated tank farms.

She said it was therefore strange that the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) relied on Shore Tank Certificates signed only
by both tank farms and their surveyors to institute a criminal charge
against the defendants that they imported 12 and 10 million litres
respectively.

The witness said:"I was not surprised that these tank farms were used
by the EFCC to try and substantiate their charge against us.

"Issues of discrepancy happens everyday in the industry and parties
find ways to resolve them. We have had issues with them in the past
and have even taken one of them to court for selling our product
without authorisation.

"So,If there were issues in the transactions, the tank farms ought to
have notified us but nothing like that was done."

She further told the court that their accusers failed to produce the
waybills and truck out tickets used for the transactions to
substantiate the allegations.

"Both of them could not produce their waybills. They could not produce
the tickets. Everybody who handled these operations miraculously
disappeared,"Ugo-Ndagi, said.

Earlier in a cross examination by the prosecution counsel, Mr Rotimi
Jacobs, SAN, the witness re-affirmed that on several occasions,
players in the industry do have variations in figures, which most
times resolved.

The matter was adjourned till Feb.8,2016 at the instance of the
defence for continuation of cross examinations of the witness.

—Vanguard