Concluded from last week, the story of what I strongly believe to be a set-up to rip Nigeria off an amount that she doesn’t even have, or to liquidate the entire country into the pockets of a few people. Read on…
5 How did Petrol Union manage to have 2.5 billion Great British Pounds Sterling sitting coolly in their account in 1994? The company was never a big player in that sector. I doubt if Royal Dutch Shell, or any of the seven ugly sisters could claim to have such idle liquidity – or to be able to raise such an amount from investors in a jiffy and without any proposal or documentation for use of funds.
6. If the funds were borrowed – and indeed to build a refinery an investor will have to raise money from banks, private equity and all sorts of parties (see Dangote the richest black man in the world for instance) – how come the big banks of the world have not chased their money to Nigeria? How can financiers release billions of dollars for the funding of a project and as alleged, watch CBN and Union Bank simply appropriate the funds. In my view, there are a thousand ways to catch a thief. No thief succeeds in covering all the tracks.
7. It is also instructive to note that this company – Petro Union – has no footprints in the business space. For a company who could be sitting on 2.5 billion pounds way back in 1994, one would expect them to have done some big projects. None showed upon my scouring the internet. As a fact, Petro Union does not have a website which could be put together with $200 today. A company without a mere website is chasing a deal of 2.5 billion, or 15 billion pounds sterling!
8. Even if Barclays Bank is claiming that the Gazeaft UK Limited account had been closed five years before the cheque was issued, but Petrol Union and co claim that is not true, the simple thing for them to do is produce a statement of account where the 2.5 billion pounds was debited into the account of Gazeaft UK Limited.
9. Why is Petrol Union – which is now being run by the children of Prince Isaac Okpala – and as contained in their last statement, now saying if Union Bank and CBN could ‘apologise’ for what happened they will be okay and probably walk away from it all? Who walks away from 2.5 BILLION pounds at the sound of a nice ‘sorry’?
Commonsense over law
I have always had issues with some decisions that judges take, and how lawyers sometimes reason. We are in our own era of lawyering, as against seeking and obtaining justice. From the calculations of compounded interest on the judgment sum till date, Union Bank and CBN now ‘jointly and severally’ (including all of us) owe Petrol Union the sum of 15 billion pounds sterling and counting based simply on the ability to reproduce a cheque. All the SANs in the world have lined up to feed from this high drama and intended largest ever heist in history; another act of ignominy that will place us further on the dark map, as if we haven’t seen and heard enough. What could be deciphered by commonsense often gets complicated and made into a huge mountain once we start plodding through the ‘law’, especially in this country. We also know how infamous some of our judges can be as some can send the innocent to the gallows and free dangerous menaces to society, for the love of money.
Sense of proportion
What makes this more interesting for me is the lack of sense of proportion. The heist may not be as ridiculous sounding if it was 25 million pounds or 2.5 million pounds, and indeed they may have well got away with everything. I just checked the historical perspective of Nigeria’s external reserves and as at 1994, Nigeria probably had less than $1 billion in reserves as a country. Then in comes some singular person with a single cheque for $2.5 billion. If CBN wanted to confiscate and spend the money as alleged, the CBN will still invite the company and slam money laundering charges on them while the money gets forfeited. So, the CBN and Union Bank know that it will be unjustifiable to simply keep quiet and share monies belonging to Mr Okpala and sons.
The truth is that Union Bank slept on the transaction, or there were insiders in Union Bank who ‘died’ the cheque, which was never presented at Barclays London. If Nigeria was to truly refund 15 billion pounds or $21 billion today, we may as well fold up and go home, and change Nigeria’s name to Federal Republic of PetroUnion, or United Republic of the Okpalas. This is one country-wrecking, continent-liquidating caper. All blaggers, scammers and schemers in the world, must be lined up, hands behind their backs, heads popped forward, watching intently as this family attempts to pull this off in the country known for the highest rapidity of fast financial magic.
Catch if you can
The cheque kiting and suppression case reminds one of the prolific conman, Frank Abagnale who was so prolific, he has become a living legend. In those analogue days, Abagnale simply created his own cheques, using his artistic prowess. He preyed on the trust that permeated the system in those days. But even he will marvel at the size of this one. Abagnale basically ran peanuts in a clever way. One is also reminded of the P@ID case… and I always told people that from the name of the company alone, Michael Quinn (now late) and Brendan Cahill – both Irishmen – set out to simply dupe Nigeria. Process and Industrial Development was the name of the company, so they simply paid a cynical game on the country because the acronym is actually PAID. They intended to get PAID by Nigeria for doing nothing – or just to teach us a lesson in how not to be sloppy with taxpayers’ money. We think our boys are the only smart ones going around duping vulnerable, brokenhearted old women and scamming benefit schemes in America, but these white guys are far worse and more calculating. At $9.6 billion, the P@ID case is larger than this one but is a contract scam. Also, with the court judgments, this 2.556 billion pounds matter has now ballooned to 15 billion pounds sterling. This one takes the cake for a scam wrought on the banking system but when we consider that there is a judgment from the Supreme Court which has acted alongside other lower courts, like man was made for the law and not the law made for men, we have to say to the Okpalas, Tuale!
(Concluded)
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