REVIEW: HOW NNPC LOST AT THE U.S COURT

On Thursday 6 September 2007, Pointblanknews.com editors traveled to Louisiana to attend the hearing of a bribery allegation against the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation, NNPC by Gulf-Petrec at the United States 5 th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana.

At the all important hearing which might cause NNPC a whooping $7 Billion if allowed to go for trial, it was disappointing to note that neither Group General Manager Legal Division Chief Sena Anthony nor any other officials of the NNPC attended the hearing.

NNPC had seven lawyers in its entourage led by William Boyce a prominent Houston, Texas appellate attorney of the internationally famous law firm Fulbright & Jaworski. Professor David Bederman, a distinguished Professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia represented the Appellants, the U. S. Company, Gulf-Petro/Petrec with Mr. James Faulk, President of Gulf-Petrec leading several of its officers to the hearing.

The U.S. 5 th Circuit Court Hearing is yet another upshot of the corruption that has been festering at the NNPC since 1999. Breaking revelations about this corruption have been the focus of a series published by Pointblanknews.com over the past few weeks.

The hearing was number seven for Petrec in a long list of litigation beginning with an arbitration filed with the International Center for Settlement of International Disputes first in the US 1999. After provable corruption of the arbitral process, this was followed by court hearings and the entire saga now spans a period of over 8 years. It is an accumulation of botched attempts, by a members of the Nigerian hierarchy led by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Legal Division, Corporate Legal Secretariat, Sena Anthony and Ex-Minister of Justice and Ex-High Commissioner to the U.K., Prince Bola Ajibola to line their pockets by implementing a smokescreen of bribing three International Arbitrators in order to secure an arbitral award in favor of the NNPC. The conspirators used the ruse that the bribery of the arbitrators in a Swiss based arbitration was in the best interest of the country and that it would save the NNPC from paying billions of dollars in damages created by the NNPC breaching an environmentally sound contract with the U.S. company, Petrec, to reclaim waste oil from the three NNPC Refineries.

HISTORY

In 1992, the NNPC had been threatened with environmental sanctions by the United Nations for contaminating the atmosphere in Nigeria by burning its’, so called, “waste oil”.

The NNPC officials invited the US Company Gulf-Petro/Petrec to Nigeria to establish a joint venture reclamation company, Petrec Nigeria Limited, to remedy the problem. The initial breach of contract came immediately after Petrec discovered that a substantial amount losses that were claimed and billed as waste oil, by the NNPC, was being stolen from the refineries by truck and/or barge and sold outside of Nigeria to buyers at a refinery in Cameroon and other countries for a fraction of its market value.

It is now evident that the theft and sale of this oil was for the financial benefit of the employees of the NNPC who were in positions powerful enough to cause a breach of contract with Petrec and go to arbitration in compliance with the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA). This breach of contract caused two additional breach of contract by the NNPC. These two additional breach of contracts total $800 million dollars of damages.

Evidence further confirms that the Ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo approved approximately $50 million dollars to be allocated to fund the corruption and to “do what is necessary to stop the arbitration”. By doing so he appointed his trusted friend and henchman, Prince Bola Ajibola as the “stakeholder” of $25 million dollars. (Evidence is on file with PBN). Evidence further confirms that Ajibola lined his pockets and the pockets of Sena Anthony and others with a minimum of $19 million dollars. Evidence confirms that the arbitration panel received $6 million dollars instead of the entire $25 million dollars that was allocated to pay Arbitrators Andrew W.A. Berkeley, Ian Meakin and Professor Hans Van Houtte by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The balance of the $50 million dollars has not been accounted for at this time.

Front View of the U.S Court where NNPC’s Bribery case was heard

THE 6 SEPTEMBER 2007 HEARING

The hearing in New Orleans was concluded at 11:15 A.M., on Thursday but the story does not end here. Pointblanknews.com Editor’s observed the reactions of the Court to the pleadings introduced by both the NNPC and Petrec lawyers. Pointblanknews.com legal sources that have followed this case throughout the Swiss and US Legal Systems anticipates that the decision of the Fifth Circuit Court will be to send the case back to the U.S Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, for trial on the merits of the case, overruling the EDTX court’s previous dismissal of the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction which leaded to the appeal.

NNPC’s new acting GMD Engineer Abubakar Lawal Yar'Adua and the newly elected President Umaru Yar’Adua must make sound decisions in an effort to eradicate the criminal conduct of Ms Anthony and Bola Ajibola or the alternative will be very costly to the NNPC and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These questions are as follows:

1. Is the NNPC going to begin settlement negotiations immediately with Petrec or will it take the risk of the case being sent back to the EDTX for trial on the merits of the case and face the compelling US Federal Court Rules of Evidence and Discovery?

2. Is the NNPC going to stick its head in the sand like an Ostrich and hide from the possibility of an unfavorable decision by the court that could lead to a judgment of treble damages against the NNPC under the United States Government’s most threatening statute, the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)? The RICO Act was enacted by the US Legislature in 1970 to put a stop to the criminal activity of Mafia Chieftains and their corrupt companies and subsequent precedent has expanded the scope of RICO to pursue others acting corruptly. ;

3. Is the NNPC prepared to negotiate a settlement of damages of approximately $1.3 billion dollars proven by Petrec during the arbitration hearing of which has accrued interest that has presently raised the value of the damages to over $1.75 billion dollars?

4. Is the NNPC and the new Regime going to gamble with Nigeria’s oil money and risk losing $5.25 billion dollars in treble damages under the RICO prosecution and settle the pending arbitrations totaling $800 million dollars in damages?

5. Is the NNPC and the new Regime going to sack and prosecute the NNPC conspirators such as Ms Anthony and her co-conspirators? Is the New Regime going to prosecute the Ex-Minister of Justice and Ex-High Commissioner to the UK Prince Bola Ajibola who has left the country and is residing with one of his sons in the UK?

AND/OR:

6. Is the new Regime just going to follow the steps of the previous heads of state and just move the present criminals out so they can make room for their own henchmen to steal from their country?

This litigation provides President Umaru Yar’Adua with the opportunity to clean the rubbish out of his bin and start afresh with a clean bin and place the conspirators in Prison. Now the truth is in the action or lack of action taken by those in power in Nigeria.