Nigeria is categorized by the world business community as being “the most corrupt country in the world”. The Nigerian Criminal Code Section 419 is famous for its fax and email scams preying on the greed of millions of people throughout the world, but the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its corrupt officials are the primary contributors to this shameful image and make the 419 Scams look minuscule. These white collar criminals accept and pay bribes of tens of millions of dollars and pilfer oil by diverting it to selected covert end users.
This corruption is a cancer that is rapidly growing and is presently affecting outside investments in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If something is not done to stop it, immediately, it will end in financial chaos for Nigeria. The failure of the new government to investigate and prosecute these individuals for committing their crimes will further deter foreign companies from investing in Nigeria and will stop financial aid from G8 countries such as the United States and deter support by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which in conjunction are the primary benefactors of Nigeria.
Nigeria 's primary anti-corruption agencies, the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), have taken on corrupt government officials. They have identified and recovered ill-gotten gains from notable Nigerian officials, and their activities have contributed to the prosecution or removal of several officials, including five former ministers and two former governors. These are important and symbolic measures, even if much remains to be done. The United States support of the EFCC is part of a broader effort to work with Nigerian law enforcement agencies to combat corruption and international crime. The United States has helped the EFCC and ICPC in this effort with one million dollars in technical assistance.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria must have forgotten the US Government’s million dollars of generosity. As of this publication, the EFCC and the ICPC have neglected investigating the evidence of corruption by the NNPC officials, lawyers and arbitrators in the Gulf-Petro/Petrec International v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Bola Ajibola; Jackson Gaius-Obaseki: Sena Anthony; Andrew W.A. Berkeley; Ian Meakin; Hans Van Houtte case presently in litigation in the United States Court System. PointBlankNews has attended the US Court of Appeals hearing and reviewed the compelling evidence. Evidence that is so compelling that there is, absolutely, no defense by NNPC.
Gulf-Petro Trading Company, Inc, Petrec International and Gulf-PetroChem, Inc. are three US companies based in Dallas, Texas USA. Each company executed a separate, environmentally straight forward, joint venture agreement with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and each agreement was breached by the NNPC. The first JVA was to reclaim waste oil, The second JVA was established to build several, small 10,000 barrel per day refineries to aid in the perpetual Nigerian fuel shortages and the third JVA was to build a Urea Plant producing fertilizer to be used domestically in Nigeria by harnessing the natural gas being wasted by flaring (burning) it into the atmosphere. These were three very good projects that would have aided in cleaning up the environment and turned waste into profits for the NNPC.
The obvious question is why would the NNPC breach three agreements that were environmentally as well as economically beneficial to the country of Nigeria?
The most important thing to greedy and corrupt Nigerians is the lining of their pockets with money. The validity of the three projects that are “environmentally and economically beneficial to the country of Nigeria is inconsequential but the opportunity to convert them into dirty money machines is consequential and financially beneficial to them. If a Party to an NNPC Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) is not willing to bribe the corrupt officials of the NNPC or their constituents, then the project was not considered viable no matter how good it is for the country.
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In this instance, the group of greedy corrupt Nigerians was headed by ex- Minister of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola, former Nigerian High Commissioner to the U.K and international arbitrator among other things. Also included in this conspiracy is ex-President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Sena Anthony, the present Group General Manager, Corporate Secretariat & Legal Division Secretary to the Corporation NNPC, supported by Gaius-Obaseki the ex-Group Managing Director of NNPC. These corrupt individuals recognized that there was money to be made from the weaknesses in international arbitration. Since Prince Bola Ajibola was already an international arbitrator, and was a long time colleague and co-arbitrator with one of the panel of arbitrators, one with questionable integrity, this was a sure thing for him and others to steal some money from their corrupt country through the deep pockets of the NNPC.
The breach required the dispute to be arbitrated by a panel of three international arbitrators. Therefore the Nigerian criminals needed the aid of a corrupt arbitration panel. Since Ajibola’s long time friend and co-arbitrator was the infamously corrupt Andrew W.A. Berkeley of the UK, who had already been chosen by the Claimant Gulf-Petro/Petrec, all Ajibola needed was a little help from Andrew Berkeley to influence the selection of two additional arbitrators of questionable integrity or stupidity. This was a very easy task for the corrupt Berkeley who took over from here. The control of Berkeley was confirmed by the NNPC failing to respond to the summons. This allowed Berkeley to influence the arbitration administrative body, the Chamber of Commerce Industry Geneva (CCIG), to appoint Ian Meakin of the UK as NNPC’s ex parte choice of arbitrator. Meakin and Berkeley then chose Professor Hans Van Houtte of Belgium as Chairman, thus completing the selection of the panel.
Now Ajibola had his panel in place and was in control and Ajibola was, mysteriously, appointed High Commissioner to the UK by President Obasanjo shortly after the hearing on liability. The Partial Award on Liability deemed that the NNPC owed damages, if proven, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, to Gulf-Petro/Petrec. It was not necessary to have Ajibola involved in the case until there was a show of liability and millions of dollars in damages at stake. This would make Ajibola’s scheme more valuable. Obviously, Andrew Berkeley failed to disclose his relationship with Ajibola to Gulf-Petro/Petrec or the conspiracy would have been immediately stopped, before it began.
These seven individuals conspired, together, to use Swiss Arbitration No. 159 to line their pockets with $50 million dollars allocated by the former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo to be used as a war chest. $25 million dollars of it was to be used to pay bribes where necessary. $6 million was paid to the arbitrators to rule in favor of the NNPC. The balance was retained by the Nigerian conspirators with the High Commissioner to the UK, Prince Bola Ajibola as “stakeholder” to disburse the dirty money.
Are these Nigerian thieves above the law? Has the EFCC actually emerged as a formidable law enforcement agency or does it selectively prosecute particular Nigerians? This is a prime opportunity for the EFCC and the ICPC to prove its worth to the country or are these seven criminals too powerful to attack for their corruption. Berkeley, Meakin and Van Houtte also should be prosecuted for their crimes of bribery and collusion in Nigeria. .
The EFCC claims to have a broad mandate to investigate and prosecute all forms of financial crimes in Nigeria and the legal authority and resources to address Nigeria's corruption. While we congratulate the EFCC for these successes in combating political corruption, we also take note of the ones that the EFCC seems to turn a deaf ear to such as the Gulf-Petro/Petrec vs NNPC. It is obvious that the EFCC has a difficult balancing act; it must prosecute corrupt public officials while avoiding politically motivated prosecutions. The public must see the EFCC's operations as credible, impartial and fair. Otherwise, its hard work will fail in its major mission of creating a new culture of accountability and opposition to corruption. Is it failing? It is not even investigating the Gulf-Petro/Petrec vs NNPC case. PBN is confident that Gulf-Petro/Petrec would be pleased to cooperate with such an investigation. In October, PBN traveled to Dallas, Texas and reviewed the evidence against the NNPC and interviewed the President of Gulf-Petro/Petrec. The evidence against the NNPC and the other defendants was very compelling and would certainly support prosecution of the Nigerian conspirators by the EFCC and the ICPC in Nigeria.
The breach of three environmentally positive and very profitable agreements by the NNPC is evidence that the country is ridiculously corrupt. Now the question is how many times has this happened in the past? A list of the breaches of contract between the NNPC and any company that has executed an Joint Venture Agreement with the NNPC would confirm or disprove this perception. The Federal Republic of Nigeria should practice what it preaches and direct the EFCC and the ICPC to investigate the allegations made against the NNPC in the Gulf-Petro/Petrec vs NNPC and prosecute the guilty to the fullest extent of the law or turn them over to their own countries jurisdictions to be prosecuted under the appropriate long arm jurisdictional statutes.
Does the EFCC and the ICPC condone the conduct of criminals that are committing crimes in an effort to save the country of Nigeria of over $1.7 billion dollars in damages? Is it acceptable to earn a few extra millions of dollars for this service? PBN hopes the answer to these questions is absolutely no.
There are two pending breaches regarding the Urea Plant and the small Refineries that have created another $800 million dollars in damages for a total of damages of $2.5 billion dollars.
The President of Gulf-Petro/Petrec, confirmed in an interview that these two arbitrations are being prepared for filing as soon as a decision is rendered by the US 5 th Circuit Court of Appeal. This decision is expected shortly after 5 November 2007 which is the expiration of the 60 day goal of the court for rendering opinions on civil cases.
The NNPC is facing a minimum of $800 million dollars in damages, plus interest, for a breach of contract with the Gulf-Petro Companies and after the case is sent back to the US Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Texas the Federal Republic of Nigeria will face treble damages, under the US RICO Act, of as much as $6 billion dollars in return for failing in the bribery of a panel of international arbitrators. Add that to the pending arbitrations and the damages amount to $6.8 billion US dollars.
The corruption exemplified here is why Nigeria will never be accepted into the world business community. There is no remorse when one of their government officials is caught stealing from their government. There is also no prosecution of the perpetrators as long as they are well entrenched officials of the NNPC or Federal Republic of Nigeria. Also there is absolutely no recognition by the NNPC or the government of Nigeria of the damages proven by the company’s party to the breached agreements. Three agreements and three breaches and bribery personified with no offer to settle out of court.
It would be in the best interest of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to settle this case out of court, but the NNPC officials don’t care what it costs their country. Chief Sena Anthony, continues to hold her official position as Group General Manager, Corporate Secretariat & Legal Division Secretary to the Corporation. She should have been sacked for her orchestration of the bribery if nothing else. Why is Sena Anthony allowed to continue to function as an officer in the NNPC. Does Sena Anthony have some dirt on the President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar’Adua , and/or the GMD of the NNPC Abubaker Lawal Yar’Adua or possibly members of the EFCC and/or the ICPC or is she just above the law?
Nigeria is one of the top five largest oil producing countries in the world and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its corrupt officials are consistently destroying the already tarnished image of the country of Nigeria. The Federal Republic of Nigeria has failed to prosecute or in this instance pay the damages proven during an arbitration corrupted by the bribery of a panel of arbitrators perpetrated by NNPC officials and an ex-Nigerian statesman, Prince Bola Ajibola
Corruption by companies such as the NNPC destroys the trust necessary, in the world business community. Crimes committed by the officials of the NNPC are a reflection on the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The opportunities are obviously in Nigeria for those who are willing to risk everything, but for those who are honest and refuse to bribe officials, Nigeria is presently not the place to go. The government must strive to protect forthright foreign companies that are willing to take advantage of the opportunities in Nigeria such as Gulf-Petro/Petrec who risked everything to provide Nigeria with three excellent projects but was abused by the corruption. W hat will Nigeria do when the oil runs out and there's no more massive revenue stream? The Arabs are planning on this fateful day and are utilizing their revenues for massive projects that will benefit their country for generations to come, not Nigeria! Who cares?
Unfortunately, until the Nigerian government takes a stand against its citizens for corruption, the country will continue to suffer the consequences for being referred to by the world business community as “the most corrupt country in the world”.