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Tag: Capital Oil

  • Only court can stop my governorship ambition – Ifeanyi Ubah

    Only court can stop my governorship ambition – Ifeanyi Ubah

    A governorship aspirant on Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) platform in the forthcoming poll in Anambra, Mr Ifeanyi Ubah, said only the court could stop his ambition.

    He alleged that the party’s primary election conducted to pick its candidate for the poll, was fraught with irregularities and that the party leadership had refused to address his complaints on it.

    Ubah made this known at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, and said that he would continue with his aspiration until his complaints were addressed by the party.

    He said that he would approach the court to seek his right after exhausting all the internal mechanisms to address the issues as stipulated in PDP Constitution.

    He said that he had contacted party leaders, Board of Trustees members as well as appeared at the party’s primary election Appeal Panel, but that his concerns had not been addressed.

    “I will be going to court to seek redress; only the court will determine the party’s candidate or the party should come back to us and addresses the irregularities.

    “They know that the person they have chosen has no requisite to be the party’s candidate. It is their responsibility to right the wrong,’’ he said.

    Ubah, who is the Chairman of Capital Oil, said that he would pursue the legal angle on the matter for himself and other Nigerians that may also be treated in the same manner in future.

    “I am doing this not just because of me but because all the political parties will not act the same way PDP has done. If we continue to allow issues like this, people will continue to suffer over impunity.’’

    Ubah said that Mr Oseloka Obaze, who was declared winner of the primary election and upheld by the party’s Appeal Panel, did not emerge through a transparent, free and fair means, describing the primary as “a fraudulent exercise.”

    He said that he noticed some irregularities in the primary, including overnight change of delegates’ list, and alleged that the delegates used for the election were different from those on Certified True Copy list he obtained.

    He added that people that lodged the complaints at the primary election venue were chased away with tear gas.

    “They use that opportunity to smuggle in people. We have 326 wards in Anambra, and even if we had three delegates per wards, we will have 678 delegates, not 958.

    “Also in the party’s Constitution there is what we call statutory delegates who are over 400, they were all cut off.

    “What they did was that they gave black marks on the fingers of those they wanted in, and by the time they call you in and if you don’t have those marks they pushed you away.

    “All complaints on these issues were ignored.’’

    Ubah said that he remained the best candidate of PDP for the election in the state “because we are closer to the people, and have invested in the party and in the people’’.

    He accused former governor of the state, Mr Peter Obi and Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers of imposing an unpopular candidate on the delegates.

    “Sadly, an election which was supposed to provide a level-playing field for all seven aspirants cleared for the race turned to a dance of shame.

    “All these represent the greatest act of impunity bearing in mind the fact that the party had began to gain sympathy from Nigerians.’’

    On the allegation that he was hobnobbing with other political parties, Ubah said that as a business man, he was free to relate with any political party and the Federal Government.

  • NNPC recovers N2b out of N11b from Capital Oil

    NNPC recovers N2b out of N11b from Capital Oil

    • Reps invite oil chief

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation  (NNPC)  said its has recovered N2billion from Capital Oil and Gas  from the N11billion worth of petroleum products it warehoused in the tank farms of Capital Oil.

    The House of Representatives has however  asked the management of Capital Oil and Gas to appear before its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) today or face legislative sanctions.

    The lawmakers said the summon became imperative due to the inability of the Committee to successfully serve its invitation on the company despite many attempt to do so.

    Chairman of the Committee, Joseph Adelaja during the opening of a two-day public forum on the disappearance of the petroleum products warehoused in Capital Oil’s tanks,  said the matter over which the company was being invited has huge implication on the funding of the national budget.

    Akinlaja said since the Committee does not have the luxury of time at its disposal and would not allow the oil company to thwart its investigation.

    In his presentation, NNPC’s  Chief Operating Officer (COO), Downstream, Henry Nkem-Obih  said external assistance for the recovery of the money was sought after all internal mechanism to resolve the issue with the oil firm failed.

    He said: “The throughput agreement we had clearly state that no party involved in this transaction is authorised to touch eact other’s inventory without a written consent of the other party, but in this case no such thing happened.

    “Since NNPC is a government agency, the matter was referred to the DSS (Department of State Security Services) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the loss of government asset valued at over N11billion.

  • AGF, EFCC get court’s nod to prosecute Ubah, Capital Oil

    AGF, EFCC get court’s nod to prosecute Ubah, Capital Oil

    •Appeal Court voids purported clearance by AGF, House of Reps, others

    The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja which among others, prohibited  investigation and prosecution of businessman Ifeanyi Ubah and his firm, Capital Oil and Gas Limited over their alleged complicity in the massive petroleum subsidy scam recorded under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    The court, in a unanimous judgment by a three-man panel, voided the purported clearance jointly issued Ubah and his firm via separate letters written by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a report by the ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives (that probed the oil subsidy scam).

    The judgment was on an appeal  initiated by the Chairman of the EFCC and AGF against the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on July 25, 2013 in a fundamental rights enforcement suit  filed by Ubah and his firm. It was prosecuted by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), with Ajibola Oluyede and Babs Akinwumi representing Ubah and Capital Oil.

    Court documents revealed that trouble started for Ubah and his firm when the Presidential Committee on the Verification and Reconciliation of subsidy payments to petroleum marketers queried the payment of about N43.291billion subsidy payment to them on the ground that the process leading to the payment was suspicious.

    The case was referred to the Police’s Special Fraud Unit, ‘D’ Department, Force CID, Lagos for investigation. It issued two interim reports dated November 2, 2012 and November 3, 2012, claiming that the transactions involving Ubah and his firm were suspicious.

    Ubah and Capital Oil, who queried the composition of the Presidential Committee on the ground that it was headed by former Access Bank Managing Director, Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, with another board member, Cosmas Maduka, as member (a bank with which they had financial dispute), had the two police interim reports set aside by a judgment of the Federal High Court on February 18, 2013.

    For unexplained reasons, the police, on February 28, 2013 issued a third report exonerating Ubah and his firm. The House of Reps’ ad-hoc committee gave a similar verdict in its report of April 18, 2012. The AGF, in a legal advice to the EFCC Chairman and the IGP, dated October 2014 exonerated Ubah and his company from criminal liability.

    Based on the AGF’s advice, the EFCC Chairman issued a report dated February 25, 2015 confirming that there was no criminal liability established against Ubah and his firm.

    The AGF followed up with three letters dated March 12, 2015, addressed to the Ministry of Finance, the Debt Management Office and the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), notifying them that the EFCC has discontinued any investigation into the case and has issued Ubah and his firm clearance letter.

    But, in the Court of Appeal judgment, delivered on May 12, a copy of which The Nation obtained last Friday, Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, who read the lead judgment, said those letters were mere opinions of the authors, not sufficient to confer a status of innocence on a criminal suspect, who has not been tried in court.

    Justice Agim said such letters can also not deter relevant investigative agencies from reopening investigation on the case, because a legal advice by the office of the AGF on a case file sent to it by the police after investigation, was not the same as the exercise of the AGF’s power to take over or discontinue criminal proceedings under Section 174(1)(a) and (c) of the Constitution.

    The judge said Ubah and his firm’s reliance on the letters “and two recent judgments of the Federal High Court, they quickly procured upon obtaining those documents (the letters by AGF, IGP and EFCC Chairman), are all aimed at circumventing and defeating the decisions of this court in IGP v. Ubah, Aig-Imoghuede v. Ubah and Maduka v. Ubah (three decisions of the court’s Lagos division which set aside the February 18, 2013 judgment given by the Federal High Court, Lagos.

    Justice Agim noted that the fact that the office of the AGF and the Chairman of the EFCC have continued to prosecute the appeal despite the letters purportedly written by them in favour of Ubah and his firm, was an indication that “the current holders of those offices have refused to ratify or adopt the letters written by their predecessors.”

    The judge added: “I have held herein that the said report of the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives is of no legal effect and that in any case, it did not absolve the 1st and 2nd respondents (Ubah and his firm) from complicity in the massive fraud in the petroleum subsidy payments.

    “I have also held herein that the investigation report in exhibit CAPOIL 4 (the 3rd police investigation report) exonerating the 1st and 2nd respondents from complicity in the commission of the said crimes conflicts with the elaborate findings of facts showing their commission of the offences in exhibits CAPOIL 1 and 2 (the 1st and 2nd police investigation reports) and that this justifies the further investigation of the matters by the appellants.

    Justice Agim noted that one of the allegations raised by then Chairman of Access Bank, Dr. Cosmas Maduka against Ubah and his firm before the Presidential Committee that investigated the subsidy fraud was that they “fraudulently obtained clearance of imported petroleum products when the original copy of the bill of lading for the products was still in the possession of the consignee, Access Bank that financed the letters of credit for the importation.”

    He also noted that the second police investigation report on the case, marked: exhibit CAPOIL 2 contains findings of facts of Ubah and his firm’s involvement in petroleum subsidy payment fraud.

    “Exhibit CAPOIL 4 (third police investigation report) and exhibit PA3 (the report of the ad-hoc committee of the House of Reps) relied on by the 1st and 2nd respondents all agree that there was massive fraud in petroleum subsidy payments involving petroleum marketing companies, tank farm owners and Federal Government officials.

    “There was therefore, a reasonable basis for the suspicion of the 1st and 2nd respondents of committing the said offences.

    “The fuel subsidy fraud involved corruption and fraud on a very massive scale, involving many oil marketing companies and officials of government regulatory agencies, resulting in the looting and stealing of trillions of naira from the Federal Government of Nigeria and threatening the security and economy of Nigeria.

    “This fact is common knowledge and is not open to question. The petroleum subsidy fraud is a serious and very complicated fraud that has dealt a devastating blow on the security and well-being of the people. “

    Justice Agim, who likened the massive fraud that was perpetrated in the name of petroleum subsidy to terrorism and treason, castigated trial court judges, who chose to yield their platforms to suspects being investigated for complicity in such grave offences.

    “Yet, the trial court and other courts have determined applications for the enforcement of fundamental human rights of persons being investigated for committing this and similar type of offences in such a manner as to prevent or frustrate such investigation by issuing injunctions to stop ongoing process and prevent even future processes without regard to the very serious nature of the crime alleged to have been committed and its far reaching destructive effect on society.

    “Such legal processes initiated by suspects to pre-empt the due investigation of the allegations against them amount to gross abuses of the legal process and court processes.

    These pre-emptive legal processes initiated by persons suspected of committing very serious offences such as petroleum subsidy fraud, theft of public funds and properties, terrorism, treason, etc to prevent the initiation or continuation of the due criminal processes of investigation of the allegation against them is not a legitimate or genuine use of the court process.

    Justice Agim frowned at the conflicting roles played in the case by relevant government agencies including the police, the office of the AGF and the EFCC, who at different points, issued letters of clearance to Ubah and his firm.

    Justices Peter Olabisi Ige and Tani Yusuf Hassan, who were members of the three-man panel, agreed with Justice Agim’s views in the judgment.

  • Capital Oil workers fear job losses

    Employees of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd have urged the Federal Government to release their Chairman, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, who is in the Department of State Services (DSS) custody.

    The workers urged Acting President  Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the Minister of Labour, Sen. Chris Ngige to intervene so that the over 2,000 Capital Oil and Gas workers will not lose their jobs.

    A statement by the Manager, Distribution, Capital Oil & Gas, Mr. Saturday Igbarease, said Ubah’s continued detention has resulted in the shutdown of operations, with staff on the verge of losing their jobs.

    Worried about not receiving salaries this month, they urged the Federal Government not to allow them and their families starve.

    “The injustice meted on Dr Ifeanyi Ubah is negatively affecting over 2,000 workers of Capital Oil. The Federal Government should be mindful of the implications on our families who are gradually been forced to starve,” he added.

    The DSS had arrested the businessman over allegations of “economic sabotage” and alleged diversion of petroleum products to the tune of N11 billion.

    The Service last Thursday obtained an order from a Federal Capital Territory High Court to detain him for 14 more days.

    The same day, Federal High Court in Lagos also ordered DSS to release him within 48 hours or charge him to court.

  • NNPC: our case against Ubah, Capital Oil

    NNPC: our case against Ubah, Capital Oil

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied instigating the Department of State Services to arrest Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas LimitedDr.IfeanyiUbah.

    It told the Federal High Court in Lagos that it was not indebted to Ubah nor did it violate his rights.

    Ubah is praying the court to order the DSS to release him from detention and to hold that the respondents violated his rights.

    Arguing the businessman’s fundamental rights suit before Justice Mohammed Idris, Mrs.IfeomaEsom said the DSS was not a debt collection agency.

    “Even if money were owed, it is still not enough reason to arrest and detain the applicant (Ubah). The functions and duties of the State Security Service (SSS) as provided by law does not include the recovery of debts.

    “There is no correlation between the facts before my lord and national security,” Esom said.

    The DSS arrested Ubah for alleged “economic sabotage” and “illegal sale of petroleum products stored in his tank farm by the NNPC”.

    Justice Idris on May 9 ordered the DSS to produce Ubah in court. But the agency obtained an order from a Federal Capital Territory High Court to detain him for 14 days.

    Ubah was first arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on March 19 and was released on April 14, following which the DSS arrested him.

    In its preliminary objection, DSS prayed for an order striking out the suit for lack of jurisdiction.

    It said the applicant’s arrest took place in Abuja and that the alleged infringement of his right did not occur in Lagos.

    DSS’ lawyer Peter Okerinmodun said: “We urge the court to dismiss the application because it is a ploy by the applicants to distract the agency in the ongoing investigation.

    “This is a case of economic sabotage for which a court in Abuja has ordered that we go on with our investigation. I urge my lord to dismiss the application.”

    Defendants in the suit are the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), EFCC Chairman, EFCC, DSS Director-General, DSS, Inspector-General of Police, NNPC, NNPC Retail Ltd and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

    NNPC, in its response, accused Ubah and Capital Oil of not being transparent and of circumventing agreements to overreach it.

    NNPC and NNPC Retail (seventh and eight respondents) said thefinancial audits of their accounts and daily products had been scrutinised and investigated by various security agencies.

    In order to block leakages, they carried out “stock physicalisation of operators’ storage facilities”.

    According to them, it was discovered at the end of the exercise that Ubah and Capital Oil “had converted and/or diverted 84,891,730.00 litres worth N11.5billion without the knowledge and consent of the seventh and eight respondents.”

    NNPC said the applicants allegedly failed to return the exact volumes of litres allegedly converted or pay the cash value.

    In a supporting affidavit to Ubah’s application, Capital Oil’s Secretary, George Oranuba, said a “throughput agreement” between Capital Oil and NNPC allows for “conversion and diversion of products by ‘operators’ so long as the operator is prepared to re-deliver the products within seven days of demand by the product’s owner or to pay a penalty for non-re-delivery”.

    He said the failure to re-deliver was a “mere” breach of contract, which could be remedied by the payment of penalty to the owner, and was not a criminal act for which Ubah should be arrested.

    But, NNPC said the “through-put agreement” did not accommodate perpetual conversion or diversion of its products without its knowledge and consent.

    The corporation denied owing Capital Oil N10billion, $8million “or any amount at all arising from the transactions” between them.

    NNPC and NNPC Retail denied violating Ubah’s rights, saying his arrest and detention by the security agencies was in the course of their normal duties.

    They denied instructing DSS to collect debt from Ubah on their behalf and did not force him to sign off any of his assets.

    “He (Ubah) knows as a fact that it is part of the statutory mandate of the second to sixth respondents to investigate crime, recover any illegally acquired property and ensure restitution to their lawful owners.

    They added that officials of NNPC Retail were also investigated “to ensure that all money due to the Federal Government are accounted for and remitted appropriately without any let or hindrance or the prompting of the seventh and eight respondents.”

    Justice Idris adjourned till May 25 for ruling.

  • NUPENG seeks dialogue over Capital Oil crisis

    NUPENG seeks dialogue over Capital Oil crisis

    The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has called on the Federal Government to embrace dialogue to resolve the lingering impasse between the management of Capital Oil and Department of State Security (DSS).

    There has been disagreement between Capital Oil and DSS over the former’s alleged illegal sale of petroleum products stored in its tank farm by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    But NUPENG, in a statement  by its President, Comrade Igwe Achese, stressed that it did not support the illegal diversion and sale of petroleum products stored in Capital Oil’s tank farm by NNPC.

    It, however, stated that it was of the opinion that the Federal Government cannot sit down and watch workers lose their jobs, as in the case of Capital Oil, where over 2,000 workers are idle.

    NUPENG stated that workers had the right to protest the non-payment of their salaries and allowances and that the Federal Government should secure the jobs of those working in the sector. It added that the global practice was for the government to secure and create jobs.

    The union cited the case of Seawolf Oil Services that was taken over by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) where the workers have not been paid the backlog of salaries and entitlements for over five years.

    Achese said NUPENG believed that the job creation mantra of the government should be allowed to come into play, rather than paving way for job losses as with the closure of Capital Oil.

    He called on the government to allow the workers resume work at the depot and load products so that their salaries can be paid instead of throwing them into the unemployment market for no fault of theirs.

    The union urged the government to use social dialogue to resolve the Capital Oil impasse, so that the 2,000 workers in the organisation and their families do not suffer untold hardship.

  • (Updated)Missing N11bn petrol: Capital Oil wants account reconciled with NNPC

    (Updated)Missing N11bn petrol: Capital Oil wants account reconciled with NNPC

    Ifeanyi Ubah, the chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd has called for a reconciliation of the company’s account with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Ubah, made the call on Sunday in Lagos, in the wake of the allegation by the NNPC that his company could not account for 100 million litres of petrol stored in its depot in Lagos. The NNPC similarly accused the MRS, but said the company had returned 30 million litres that it initially diverted.

    Ubah described the allegation against his company as mischievous and misleading.

    Ubah said the NNPC also failed to tell the public that it also owed Capital Oil billions of Naira from their mutual business transactions.

    The NNPC had on March 17 said that it would take full measures to recover about N11 billion worth of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which it stored in the facilities of Capital Oil and Gas Ltd in Lagos.

    “It is normal for parties in businesses to owe each other in business relationships and that if reconciliation is carried out with the NNPC, the firm will find out that there may be very little or nothing for Capital Oil to pay the corporation.

    “In the last four months, NNPC has borrowed products running into millions of litres from Capital Oil,’’ Ubah claimed in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    He said the management of NNPC should have called for account reconciliation by both parties before forging ahead to issue a false statement alleging his company was owing the NNPC N11 billion.

    Ubah said the NNPC should stop trying to use the media to kill him.

    “We have an ongoing relationship and we need to sit down and reconcile our accounts.

    “NNPC has a subsisting contract with our company which is on throughput basis. The corporation has consistently been in breach of our contractual agreement by owing us money for services rendered.

    “Payments from NNPC for services rendered by our company has consistently been delayed for periods spanning over one year and remains unpaid till date.

    “Currently, NNPC owes us for services rendered to the corporation at very critical periods to salvage nationwide fuel scarcity since 2015 (more than two years now), amounting to millions of dollars and billions of Naira,’’ it said.

    “The corporation has failed to deliver products to us which were duly paid for.

    “It is instructive to note that Capital Oil and Gas has trucked out over seven billion litres of petroleum products for the NNPC over the last few years making us their biggest partner in the downstream sector of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry.

    “We have written the NNPC severally, requesting for our outstanding payments and delivery of products duly paid for by us.

    “Rather than honour our request, we are shocked that the corporation has resorted to this needless campaign of calumny, while refusing to make payments and deliver our products to us till date.’’

    Ubah said the company respected the fact that NNPC was its biggest partner in the downstream sector and had always stood by the corporation, especially in times of product scarcity.

    “We have proudly rendered intervention services at all critical times in the life of our nation.

    “It is on record that few months ago, when the same NNPC had a serious break in its supply chain and in a bid to avert an imminent national scarcity, Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd lent the corporation millions of product to close the gap.

    “It is our sincere hope that the corporation will respect our contract with it by paying all outstanding bills as well as deliver cargoes which have been duly paid for by us to end this situation.

    “We view this as a deliberate attempt to stifle our business bearing in mind that in spite of its unfair treatment, we still manage to retain thousands of employees in this critical period of the nation’s economy where even banks and multinationals are retrenching.

    “This act of strangulation has been reported by our company to the Nigerian Senate in a petition against the NNPC that was read on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, 8th of March 2017.

    “A similar petition was also submitted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Department of State Services (DSS),’’ the statement said.

  • Capital oil chief to name naira saboteurs

    • Stakes N500b assets as collateral to save troubled currency

    CApital Oil chief, Ifeanyi Ubah has said he knows those responsible for the continued slide in naira value against other major currencies.

    Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday, Ubah said he knows the people whose efforts have led to the fall of the naira but will only reveal their identities if he is made “Federal Government Consultant on Financial Stability”.

    Ubah said he took his campaign to save the naira to Channels Television a few days ago and reiterated that if made a consultant, he would bring the value of the naira down to N200 to the dollar in 30 days. He said he has “four cardinal points for bringing the naira back down to N200 to $1.

    He said: “Since my appearance and statement on Sunday night on Channels TV, dollar has crashed from N400 to $1 to N370 to $1.”

    Interestingly in Abuja yesterday, the value of the naira  appreciated to N315 to $1 and lower in some Bureau De Change at the popular Wuse Zone 4 parallel forex market.

  • Capital Oil releases 13m litres of fuel

    Capital Oil releases 13m litres of fuel

    Capital Oil and Gas Limited yesterday began loading of over 13 million litres of petrol from its depot in Apapa to various states to cushion the effect of the lingering scarcity.

    Managing Director/CEO Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah told reporters yesterday in Lagos that over 20,000 trucks have been penciled down for loading this week to boost economic activities.

    He said the company’s facility has the capacity to load over 13 million litres approximately 400 trucks, of fuel per day. “It is our belief that this development will enable our citizens to return to normal family and work life. We call on other petroleum marketers to follow suit and save our nation from this impending economic and social crisis,” he said.

    Ubah said: “On Saturday 16th May 2015, we received an SMS ordering the suspension of loading activities in all depots from Monday 18th May 2015. We later realised that this directive was as a result of unpaid funds owed to transporters by oil marketers who in turn are owed by the Federal Government. This development has resulted in immense hardship to our fellow country men and women. We believe that a better solution can be pursued towards solving this problem in a way that does not adversely affect our dear citizens.

    “We are constrained at this point and have decided that two wrongs cannot make a right. We will not be part of this sabotage against our fatherland. Therefore from this minute, we shall take the risk of opening our facilities and commence swift loading and distribution of products nationwide.”

  • Ifeanyi Ubah: weeping for his sins

    Ifeanyi Ubah: weeping for his sins

    If only babies could talk’, that was the catchphrase of a popular advert in the country sometime ago. If only we could have access to Ifeanyi Ubah’s mind, then we would know the real reason he wept like a baby during the submission of the report of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation to President Goodluck Jonathan, at the new banquet hall of the Presidential Villa on Thursday. According to Daily Sun in its Workers’ Day (May 1 edition) , Ubah started weeping after President Jonathan’s address, which drew a thunderous applause and standing ovation from the audience.

    The report added that he wept uncontrollably such that at a point, he had to excuse himself from the gathering, after some party chiefs had taken turns to console him, to no avail. Apparently, those party stalwarts must have understood the reason for his weeping. The report added that Ubah was sweating like a Christmas goat (please pardon my embellishment) at the occasion. When a billionaire weeps or sweats profusely in public, it is not a laughing matter.

    Chief Ubah is the founder and chief executive officer of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), the body that was at the vanguard of the president’s reelection campaign. That organisation meant nothing to most Nigerians and if it had any meaning at all, it was to those making money from it in the PDP and deceiving President Jonathan that the whole of Nigeria was behind him. As a matter of fact Ubah and Co. claimed they had 12 million signatures of Nigerians who wanted Jonathan to continue in office, after travelling all over the 36 states of the federation. In Nigeria, cooking figures is one of the easiest things to do.

    Ubah, lest we forget, is also the chief executive officer of Capital Oil. He and his firm have been in the centre of several messy deals, the most notorious being their involvement in the oil subsidy scandal. In 2012, Cosmas Maduka, President of Coscharis Group, accused him of duping him of N21bn in the course of some business transaction.

    In saner climes, the First Citizen would keep people like Ubah at an arm’s length. But, in a country of anything goes, and under a man like President Jonathan, the Ubahs called the shots. They are the president’s frontline allies. This is a man that we knew little or nothing about until he turned 40 a few years ago and celebrated his birthday in almost all the newspapers in the country; some of which gave out their front page for the vainglory.

    As a major player in the oil sector, Ubah must have been instrumental to the oil and gas sector’s donation of N5billion to the Jonathan campaign. Meanwhile, these are people, like the power sector owners, who are complaining that they have problems accessing funds for their operations and that banks are not granting them loans again. I wonder which responsible bank would give loans to such unserious characters who can only be successful business men in Nigeria because of our warped sense of doing business.

    So, contrary to the newspaper report that Ubah wept over President Jonathan’s loss in the election, it is possible that the man was weeping over his personal loss arising from the president’s defeat at the polls, and more importantly, over the questions he may, including others like him, have to answer regarding oil subsidy, which only a complicit government like President Jonathan’s could have treated with kid gloves. Add to his long list of woes, his ambition to become Governor of Anambra State is now gone with the winds.  It is possible that was one reason he was so close to the president.

    Otherwise, why would he be the one to weep over the president’s loss? What is his own? Why would he weep louder than the bereaved? Even President Jonathan who lost the election is not weeping; at least not publicly. Not even our own ‘Mama Peace’, his wife. Not even those close aides of the president.

    So, I must be dead right when in my piece immediately after President Jonathan conceded defeat, I wrote that he must have consulted no one or only a few persons before taking that decision. President Jonathan confirmed that much when receiving the campaign organisation’s report. “Yes, I did not consult anybody before I made that phone call (conceding defeat to Gen Buhari) but I made that phone call on behalf of all of you and on behalf of the PDP”, he said. You can imagine what would have happened if the president had sought the opinions of the likes of Ubah on the matter! So, the question again, what is Ifeanyi Ubah’s own? I won’t want to speculate far into why the emergency oil mogul wept, but I am sure President Jonathan is not deceived that he was weeping for him (Jonathan). The man must be weeping for himself. The newspaper got it wrong when it said Ubah wept because he “could not contain his emotions”.

    My people will say ‘owo jona’ (money goes down the drain!) If Ubah and his fellow money-miss-road who donated more than generously to the PDP campaign made their money through a dint of hard work alone, they would have been cautious in the way they gave cheerfully, even if subversively. There are thousands of their fellow Nigerians out there who cannot boast of where the next meal would come from, their own generosity does not extend to such people. Apparently, Ubah must have been thinking of where to recoup the investment he made into the president’s failed reelection bid. He must have been weeping internally for long only for him to weep in the open when he could no longer contain it. There are many like him who are in such tears now. And they will weep for long because it is the ordinary Nigerian that they are putting in pains to have their comfort. Some of them will soon start to visit hospitals abroad to have their blood pressure examined. Some of them will, like our Andrew, check out of the country to seek asylum abroad. And there is every cause for them to worry when a new government that is not likely to condone granting them access to the kind of easy money that they stumbled on is about coming to power.

    Ubah cannot imagine that he would now be an outcast at the Villa that he used to enter and exit at will because the day the incoming president is seen with people like Ubah, that is the end of Nigerians’ trust in him. And I am sure General Muhammadu Buhari knows that. “Show me your friends, and I will tell who you are”.