A second prosecution witness in the on-going trial of Walter Wagbatsoma and four others implicated in a N1.9billion subsidy scam, on Tuesday, July 30, 2013, shed more light into how the accused persons fraudulently obtained the sum from the Petroleum Support Fund.
The witness, Muhammed Ala
Shehu who was cross examined by the three defence counsel, told a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja that
all information contained in his testimony before the court were derived from
documents sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and
interviews conducted with various parties at the inception of the investigation
of the case.
Wole Olanipekun, SAN,
asked the witness if he went through the Revised Guidelines for the
Administration of Petroleum Support Fund (PSF), the document which
outlines the modalities for fuel importation by oil marketing firms. Shehu
responded that he did and a copy of the Revised Guideline was handed to him for
identification before it was tendered and admitted as exhibit.
Olanipekun went
further to ask if Shehu, in the course of investigations, invited any expert to
check the amount of litres discharged by Ontario Oil and Gas, a company
belonging to Wagbatsoma, before arriving at the notion that the company
discharged less than it claimed subsidy for. The witness responded that he
relied on documents submitted to the EFCC and the information derived from
officials of the Integrated Oil and Gas Tank Farm and that of Obat Oil and Gas.
He said that letters were written to the two Tank farms to furnish the
Commission with detailed record of products discharged by Ontario Oil and Gas
and the amount of money paid by the company to the farms for storage. He
explained that all documents provided showed that the volume of products
discharged was different from the volume for which subsidy was paid.
Regarding an earlier
testimony made by Shehu on Monday, July 29, 2013 that the PPPRA Guidelines for
importation were not properly adhered to, Olanipekun asked Shehu how he arrived
at that notion. In response, the witness said that “the PPPRA visited the
EFCC in the course of investigations and the Revised Guidelines were given to us
by one Ndaliman Mohammed Ama, a staff of the PPPRA.”
J. A Badejo (SAN),
counsel to Babatunde Fakuade, a third defendant in the suit
who is also a staff of the PPPRA, asked the witness if his team
received any information in form of a petition from Integrated Oil and Gas
alleging a suspicious discrepancy in the products discharged. He also asked if
the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR issued any Certificate of Discharge
showing that the volume of products discharged was lower than what was claimed.
Shehu responded that the EFCC did not receive any petition from Integrated Oil
and Gas Tank Farm but petitions came from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources
and some Civil Society Organisations. He added that the DPR didn’t give
the EFCC any certificate. He also explained that the DPR did not even look into
the quantity of the products but the quality which they took for laboratory
tests to ascertain that the product met Standard Organisation of Nigeria
(SON)’s criteria for importation into the country.
Shehu had alleged in
his earlier testimony before the court that one Danjuma Adegbo, who is also a
staff of the PPPRA was at the product discharge point. According to the
witness, Danjuma told the EFCC during interview that he was called by Fakuade
to leave the discharge point before the product was discharged. When the
EFCC contacted PPPRA over the issue, Fakuade was sent to answer questions
relating to the query at that time. “And from interviews conducted with
the third defendant, he said he was not at the point of discharge.”
Taiwo Osipitan (SAN)
also cross examined the witness about his earlier testimony where he alleged
that the government-approved auditing firm, Akintola Williams Delloite, which
was supposed to be the eyes of the government, did not do its job before
recommending payment for subsidy to Ontario Oil and Gas. Shehu clarified the
issue by saying that the fourth defendant, Mr. Ezekiel Ejidele, the managing
partner at Akintola Williams Delloite, when invited by the EFCC said he didn’t
witness the discharge. Osipitan then put it to Shehu if his earlier
testimony suggested a conspiracy between the first, second and fourth
defendants or a mere negligence. Shehu responded that, “I wouldn’t know,
we have a shore tank carrying various numbers of litres, we have one for 19
million litres and another one for 12 million litres. The audit firm was
suppose to advise the Federal Government based on their audit since it
served as the eyes of the Government, but it never did. Its officials were not
present at the discharge point and they went ahead to make recommendations to
the government for subsidy to be paid”
Justice Lateefa Okunnu,
after listening to all the submissions, discharged the witness and adjourned
the case to July 31, 2013 for continuation of trial.
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