The Nation Newspaper

Tag: marketers

  • Tough bail conditions for eight oil marketers

    Tough bail conditions for eight oil marketers

    Eight of the 13 oil marketers arraigned for the alleged N4.6 billion fuel subsidy fraud have been granted bail by a Lagos High Court, Ikeja.

    Justices Lateefa Okunnu and Habeeb Abiru yesterday granted bail to eight of the indicted marketers in the fuel subsidy scam probe, who were on Friday arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    All the eight accused were given tough bail conditions by the court.

    Justice Abiru granted bail to six of them.

    The first three, Ifeanyi Anosike, Emeka Chukwu and Ngozi Ikeoma, were each granted bail for N75 million and two sureties.

    Abiru ordered that the sureties must have landed property in Lagos and they must be employed.

    He ordered that the sureties must show evidence of tax payment for the last three years and that all the documents must be verified by an EFCC operative while their international passports must be deposited with the court.

    The oil marketers were arraigned by the EFCC on charges bordering on conspiracy to obtain by false pretence; forgery and altering false documents to the tune of N1,537,278,880.82, being payments fraudulently received from the Petroleum Support Fund.

    The judge also granted bail to Adamu Aliyu Maula, George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah for N50 million with two sureties.

    He stated that the sureties must be resident in Lagos, show evidence for tax payment for the last three years and must have landed property not less than N50 million.

    These second set of oil marketers were arraigned by the EFCC on an eight count charge also bordering on conspiracy to obtain property by false pretence; conspiracy to forge documents, forgery and altering false documents to the tune of N789,648,329.25 from Petroleum subsidy fund.

    Justice Abiru adjourned hearing till November 26.

    On the other hand, Justice Okunnu granted Aro Samuel Bamidele and Abiodun Kayode Bankole bail for N100 million each with three sureties.

    This followed an application by the defence counsel, Anthony Idigbe (SAN).

    Justice Okunnu ordered that the sureties must swear an affidavit indicating their financial details and that they can pay the bail bond.

    The sureties, she said, must be resident in Lagos and that two of them must have landed property in Lagos while the third must be a director in a public or private registered company operating in Nigeria.

    The three sureties must show evidence of tax payment for three years preceding the year of trial.

    She further ordered that an official of the EFCC shall within 72 hours of submission verify all particulars and thereafter swear to an affidavit to this while the court registrar must also verify all particulars.

     

  • PPMC not supplying us fuel, say marketers

    PPMC not supplying us fuel, say marketers

    •DPR: They are on their own

    Oil marketers have condemned lack of petroleum products supply to them by the Products and Pipeline Management Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    The marketers bared their mind to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) during their annual general meeting with the oil industry regulator in Lagos and asked the DPR to intervene on the issue so that PPMC could supply products to them.

    The marketers opened up on the issue when the DPR said it was worried over the alarming rate of abandoned filling stations in the country, accusing the independent marketers (IPMAN) as the culprit. It threatened to revoke the licence of any abandoned filling station, saying when the owner is ready to commence business, it would start afresh the process of recertification.

    The marketers said nobody would like to invest millions of naira in a project and wilfully abandon it. They stressed that abandonment arises when there is no product to feed the filling station and appealed to DPR to intervene in the matter.

    But the Operations Controller of DPR, Gbenga Koku, told The Nation that the marketers are on their own in terms of sourcing of petroleum products for their filling stations. He noted that the DPR’s terms of agreement with the marketers when they were being issued licences, did not include sourcing of products for them.

    Koku, explained that the marketers, after being issued licences, go to the PPMC with the licence to seek allocation. Therefore, after they had entered into agreement with PPMC for products supply, the marketers would go and build another new station in order to use the licence to secure a fresh allocation, but currently, things don’t work like that. There are many private depots that sell products and besides, most of PPMC’s depots are not functional. Instead of the marketers buying from the private depots, they shut down their stations and wait for PPMC’s allocation, he stated.

    Koku said: “This is business. The marketers have license to run filling stations, and in the approval we give them to construct, it is written there that where they source their products from is not our business. The marketer can go anywhere to get it. Before now, except for Lagos and few places, most marketers are dependent on PPMC to give them products from their depots.

    “Currently most of the depots are not functioning. Previously, when we give them licence, they go to PPMC with their license and they will sign allocation agreement for certain quantity of products for certain period. Based on this arrangement, the marketers go and build another filling station to use it as a platform to ask for an increment in the allocation from PPMC.

    “But we have moved beyond that because depots are springing up everywhere. For instance, if PPMC doesn’t give you, you can go to Folawiyo, Capital Oil or any other depot to get your products. You are not restricted to PPMC. PPMC is in business like the other companies and the marketers know exactly when these other depots are bringing in the products and when they are not.

    The reason PPMC was chosen as preferred source in that arrangement is because PPMC, being an arm of NNPC, is the only one that own its own refinery.