Just when Nigerians are still groaning under the hardship the sudden removal of fuel subsidy has brought upon the people, two of the major actors in the whole issue seem to be aiming for each other’s jugular. It all started when Wale Tinubu-led Oando Plc accused the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) of being responsible for the increase of funds paid as subsidy to the marketers.
Wale Tinubu alleged that PPRA top officials were the reason the government expenditure on subsidy increased to N1.3 trillion.
A recent statement by Oando, one of the leading oil companies in the country and a company that was paid the highest of the subsidy windfall, pointed accusing fingers at the PPPRA’s top officials as being responsible for the hike in the amount paid as subsidy by the government. but the PPPRA in their response accused Tinubu-led Oando of being fraudulent and that the company actually soiled its hands by engaging in issues relating to bribes and other unscrupulous acts to make sure the subsidy sharing favours them.
Insiders revealed that some top officials of PPPRA, in their response to the accusation from Oando, are set to take the leader of the company to the cleaners by revealing his fraudulent acts in the scheme of things as regarding the subsidy and other issues that have to do with the downstream of the industry.
Information according to sources within the PPPRA claimed that the Wale Tinubu-led Oando manipulated policy makers to its sole advantage, through bribe and maintenance of chummy relationship with top officials in the agency, as they were said to have become notorious in manipulating policies in their favor. One of such scheme, according to the sources, was when the company allegedly offered an officer in the reconciliation team a bribe to turn things in their favour, a situation that caused the involved staff to be sanctioned when information of such transaction was exposed to the management of the agency.
Oando was also said to have written many secret petitions against other marketers in 2011 so as have a monopoly of things in the industry. The company was also said to have resorted to threatening many top officials of the PPPRA who were cowed into consequently giving the company ridiculous allocation in the third quarter of 2011, which was the reason the subsidy they got in 2011 alone was N110 billion, an amount about the same as their allocations for five years added together, which is the reason they rank top among the beneficiaries of the fuel subsidy with a total of N228 billion.
Another source within the regulating agency stated that the relationship between Oando and the pioneer General Manager (Operations) of the PPPRA contributed immensely to the success of the company over the years, which is common knowledge in the industry, and is the reason the company tried unsuccessfully to install the GM Operations as the executive secretary of the Agency in order to perpetuate its selfish interest.
Oando was accused of using the model of 30 days moving average with an inclusion of standard deviation to defraud the country of billions. The implication of 30 days model in a highly volatile market is that there is heavy disparity between the 30 days moving average on the pricing template and the actual plate quotation on daily basis. Through this policy, the company was alleged to have defrauded the nation of billions of naira on each cargo transaction.
Many more of the company’s shady transactions, we gathered, the agency is set to reveal, particularly regarding kerosene and other products. Also, it has been exposed that Oando also manipulated the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) set up to remove logistic jam encountered in cost of transporting fuel to other parts of the country so that the price of fuel could still be uniform. Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana told the House of Representatives during the subsidy probe of the potential fraud going on at PEF. Interestingly, Oando, according to PPPRA, was the key player in perpetrating this fraudulent transaction by manipulating PEF claims when they did not deserve such claims or subsidy; but they were able to claim such money through the use of Oando Supply and Trading Company, one of the subsidiaries of Oando Group PLC.
Another sore point in the life of Wale Tinubu who Global News gathered treat his workers like a slave. Learnt that he hires and fires his workers on a flimsy excuse and use abusive and uncouth language against them irrespective of their age.
Not only this, the Oando boss is alleged to be so mean and crooked in business using so many ways to raise money. He is accused of raising money in the capital market with Oando name diverts it into private business.
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