Embattled owner of Capital Oil and Gas and Anambra State Governorship hopeful, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba currently in police custody did not only defraud the Federal Government of N22.4 Billion in oil subsidy, he equally scammed Coscharis Motors of $289.517 Million, approximately N45 Billion.
According to a petition currently before the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police signed by Dr. Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Motors, the auto dealer wants the embattled oil subsidy fraudster investigated over the $289.517 Million deal entered into between the two companies. Maduka in the petition dated October 9, 2012 accused Capital Oil of reneging on an agreement between the two companies in which the auto firm would finance the importation and sale of petrol.
The Coscharis boss said his company entered into a joint venture agreement with Capital Oil in July 2011 to import petrol.
According to him, under the terms of the agreement signed by both companies, Coscharis is to provide the funds while Capital Oil is to provide the logistics for the importation and sale of the petrol.
Capital Oil was also to provide its import permits from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for the execution of the agreement.
Maduka disclosed that, it took a $180 million import facility from a bank to fund the transaction and 10 letters of credit (LCs) for $289,517,680 were opened. It said out of the 10 LCs, product were received for six shipment while the product for the remaining four LCs, established to be 130,000 metric tonnes of petrol were not delivered.
According to the petition, the four LCs, valued at $133,084,980, were negotiated, while the suppliers paid for the full value and the bill of lading issued by the shippers were consigned to the financing bank.
However, Coscharis said contrary to expectations, it did not receive the product, billed to have started arriving in Nigeria from October 25, 2011 and discharged into Capital Oil tank farm at Ibafon, Lagos.
It added that its enquiries on the status of the product from Capital Oil yielded no positive result. “We have strong reasons to believe that Capital Oil in collusion with the shippers must have diverted the products given the dates on the Bills of Lading and the facts that the original Bills of Lading are still with the bank, the lawful owners (consignee) of the products. Under the Bills of Lading, the products were expected to be delivered within three weeks from
the date on the Bill of Lading (i.e. on or before January 10, 2012)”, it said.
The petitioner added that the diversion of the product by Capital Oil with the connivance of the shippers had exposed it unduly as the repayment of the facility was to have been done from the sales proceeds of the product. “This has led to our inability to meet our repayment obligations to the bank. The outstanding balance on the account presently stands at
N20,949,147,956.16 while interests continue to accrue,” Coscharis explained.
It also accused Capital Oil of refusing to release 56,568,587.11 litres of petrol in its tank farm so that it could sell the product to enable it to settle part of its obligation to the bank.
Coscharis, therefore, urged the police to probe the whereabouts of the product to safeguard the ongoing reforms in the banking and petroleum sectors.