Subsidy Scam: EFCC Declares German Citizen Wanted

…Secures Conviction of Two Indians for Oil Theft

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has declared wanted one Amzat Mohmood for his alleged involvement in petroleum subsidy scam. Mohmood a German citizen of Pakistani-extraction is an international petroleum trader, whose company, Nimex Petroleum Limited is involved in a case for which ASB Investment, Aro Samuel Bamidele and Abiodun Kayode Bankole are already standing trial before a Lagos State High Court, Ikeja. 

Briefing journalists at the Commission office, Wilson Uwujaren, head, Media and Publicity, stated that  Nimex Petroleum Limited is the company that allegedly sold and shipped 38,010,413 litres of Premium Motor Spirit to the defendants – ASB Investment, Aro Samuel Bamidele and Abiodun Kayode Bankole -  for which they allegedly received N1,341,471,735.67 as subsidy for products that were never supplied.

Uwujaren also told the journalists that two Indian nationals, Sailesh Kumar Singh and Chadrashekar Sharma were successfully prosecuted by the Commission and convicted by the court. He said the duo were among oil thieves arrested in Brass, Bayelsa State in 2012 by the Joint Task Force with 157,822 litres of stolen crude oil.  The convicts were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each. Uwujaren said the Commission from January 2013 to date investigated 21 cases of crude oil theft, arrested 81 suspects, while 11 tanker vessels, 16 tanker trucks were recovered. 

On internet fraud, Uwujaren said the Commission is as determined as ever to stamp out the social malaise as it continues to clamp down on fraudsters.  “One Daniel Okpara who defrauded people through a facebook account he opened in the name of the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde. He lured his victims by promising them jobs with the Commission. As we speak, he is in prison, serving a three year jail term,” he said.  

Uwujaren seized the opportunity to inform members of the public that the Commission was not recruiting staff and so should not be hoodwinked by fraudsters who go about deceiving people in the name of securing jobs for them in government parastatals. “Recruitment by the EFCC is conducted in the most transparent manner. Usually, such exercise is heralded with advertisement in major national newspapers and there are no fees or charges for prospective employees,” he said.

He also informed the journalists that Lamorde does not have a private facebook account and that the Commission’s presence in facebook is through its official facebook page: http//www.facebook.com/page/official-efcc.

On the Commission cooperation with sister agencies, Uwujaren said it has been very robust both locally and internationally. He said it was such cooperation that led to the arrest of one Jesse Omokoh, an internet fraudster who allegedly obtained the sum of $90,000 from a 67-year-old Australian woman, Jette Jacobs in a romance scam. “Omokoh, 28, allegedly met the lady in an online dating site and struck a relationship with a promise to marry the woman. The lady relocated from Australia to South Africa in November and the accused person left Nigeria to meet her in Johannesburg on February 4, 2013. Unfortunately, five days later she was found dead in her apartment.”

He said the accused person fled South Africa but was arrested by the EFCC because of the collaboration it has with the Australian police.  Also he said, officers of the Commission were recently in Australia and Spain, where they worked with their counterparts at the West Australia and Spanish National Police. “Such engagements enable us to assist the host Agencies in pending trans-national investigations, while exposing our staff to international best practices”, he said. 

 He said the Commission has also played host to investigators and prosecutors from Zambia, United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Niger, World Bank and Africa Development Bank; and signed international memorandum of understanding or joint working agreements other international partners such as British Serious Fraud Office, Economic Crimes Network (New Zealand) the Global Fund, United States Trade Commission, World Bank and a host of others.