FRAUD AND FORGERY: NNPC MOVES TO DESTROY INCREAMINATING DOCUMENTS

Mr. Yaradua

The allegations of forgery and fraud being leveled against the principal operatives of the Nigerian National Corporation, (NNPC) have assumed more serious dimension as there are reports of on-going destructions of relevant vital documents that could help the Government of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to determine the extent of decadence in the Nigerian oil industry. Documents relating to the inflated Chevron Texaco’s Escravos Gas-To-Liquid project from $570 Million to $1.708 Billion are involved in the felonious destruction as well as evidence in pending litigation against the NNPC with alleged damages in the billions of dollars.

The documents being destroyed are said to have very strong implications for on-going reforms and international litigations against the NNPC.

Specifically, inside sources told pointblanknews.com last week that the corporate papers in respect of the unilateral dissolution of Petrec ( Nigeria) Limited (PNL), the joint venture company of Gulf-Petro Trading Company’s Division Petrec International Inc, (Petrec International) of Dallas, Texas, and the NNPC may have been destroyed by NNPC in the process to unlawfully eradicate the existence of PNL. In a Joint Venture Agreement dated 10 June 1993, the NNPC and Petrec International, Inc., agreed to form a Nigerian Joint Venture Company to reclaim waste oil from the three NNPC refineries. The NNPC was disposing this waste oil by burning it into the atmosphere.

Records retrieved by pointblanknews.com’s investigative team indicate that on 22 June 1993, the Nigerian joint venture company Petrec (Nigeria) Limited was formed, by the NNPC and Petrec International in compliance with 10 June 1993 Joint Venture Agreement and the Nigerian Companies and Allied Mattes Act of 1990. The NNPC was issued 250,000 shares of the stock in the company (25%) of the stock and Petrec International, was issued 750,000 shares of the stock (75%) and the NNPC illegally and unilaterally without any prior notification to its expatriate partner, Petrec International NNPC decided to dissolve the venture.

The NNPC appointed Messrs. Robert Clarke, of Clarke & Paiko, Nigerian international Attorneys at Law to handle the amorphous dissolution process and on 23 September 2004, Petrec (Nigeria) Limited was illegally dissolved, without notification of the 75 percent owner of PNL by the Federal High Court presided by the Honorable Justice Abdullah Mustapha .

Robert Clarke is the outside counsel for the NNPC and is allegedly linked in the $50 Million bribery allegation presently waiting on a decision in the US 5 th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans along with Group General Manager in charge of Corporate and Legal affairs NNPC, Sena Anthony and the Ex-Minister of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola.

Now that Gulf-Petro and Petrec International have instituted this landmark legal actions against NNPC and its officials, the corporation is said to be destroying documents in an effort of hide the fact that the companies actually existed relating to the venture and cooking up new ones in a bid to scuttle “the well laid out litigation strategy” of Gulf-Petrec and committing fraud in the process.

It is said that Ms. Sena Anthony, the Group General Manager in charge of Corporate and Legal affairs and Secretary to the Corporation is said to be “the smart Alec” who is originating all the “phony documents” that would remove the present legal migraine headache that is tormenting the NNPC and its principal operatives. According to sources Ms. Anthony is the strong link between various generations of successive leaderships at the NNPC. She is the one that is allegedly springing forth “fake new documents” that would not only put the spanner in the work for Gulf-Petrec, she is also working to undermine possible investigations into the deals negotiated by her former boss, Mr. Gaius Obaseki and his successor, Mr. Funso Kupolokun on the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG projects.

Sources hinted that Anthony is purportedly rewiring the core elements of the contracts on engineering , procurement and construction (EPC) such as Olokola LNG and Ofon Phase II Transportation and Installation, among others to Crestville and Technip allegedly owned by Kupolokun.

The Chevron Texaco’s Escravos-To-Liquid project initially estimated to cost $570 Million was later jerked up to $1.708 Billion. It is believed that the project cost may have been upwardly reviewed to cost as much as $2.4 billion. The Secretariat of the NNPC is said to be taking care of all the loose end that could raise possible eyebrows at a possible investigation.

The cleaning of the Augean stable also includes efforts at hiding the duplicitous vouchers on black market operations between NNPC’s officials and Mac Rich’s Glencore International, an oil Trading Company notorious for buying huge volumes of Nigeria’s crude at rock bottom prices.