Abia State Crooks Refinery: How a New Start Up Corporation with $2,000 Share Capital won a Contract to Build a $100 Million Refinery in Abia State.

Last View on Wed 8th October, 2008
Last Modified on Sun 28th September, 2008 1:01:07 am
Author: Posted by Admin Sahara
SaharaReporters, New York.
See Details of "Nevada Petroleum Resources, INc Registration informationa d a "Desista and Refrain Order" place on its operators.>> Registration required


SaharaReporters have uncovered a high-level scam perpetrated by the Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State in the award of a contract for “Abia Refinery” to the tune of $100 million. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between a delegation of Abia State officials led by the governor and a group known as “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.” in Tampa, Florida early September 2008.

According to newspaper reports, the Abia state government had agreed to build a refinery in the state at the cost of $100 million, with a capacity to refine 20,000 barrels per day. The reports had claimed that Governor Orji signed the MOU on behalf of the state government while a certain Kalu Onyioha signed in his capacity as the “Executive Vice-President” of Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.

SaharaReporters investigation reveals that the Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc., was a new start-up company registered in the US state of Nevada as recently as March 12 2008, as a domestic corporation with corporation number E159802008-8. It had at its registered agent, United States Corporations Agent Inc in Las Vegas. The company had a share count of 2 million shares and a capital amount of $2,000, which means that its share is valued at $0.001. The list of its officers included Van Monnets, listed as “treasurer”, Onyioha Kalu “Onyihoa” as “Director”, and Edwin W Sano serving as both President and Secretary of the corporation. The three officers listed 1337 3rd Street Suite 200, Santa Monica, California as their address.

There were other suspicious actions on the company's registration. The registration process was fast-tracked through a FEDEX Overnight Package delievered on the date of its execution. At the MOU signing ceremony, where Governor Orji promised that the company would commence work on the refinery in April 2008 no explanations were offered for the hurried registration of the phony company.

Saharareporters' investigations further reveal that the governor might have used Kalu Onyioha as a front to execute a major heist of Abia State resources, using a shell company to execute a project for which the company had no visible expertise or skill. Further investigations show that another individual engaged in the phony transaction, 60–year old Edwin Sano, had once tried to pull a scam in the state of California by setting up two phony oil corporations. The corporation known as Reserve Petroleum California, Inc., and progressive California Oil & Gas Income Fund, LP with the same address used in registering the “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc” was slammed with a “Desist and Refrain Order” for violations of section 25110 of the California Corporation code.

The order which was handed to Mr. Sano on June 18 2008 was granted to effectively stop him and his companies from selling to unsuspecting investors securities to be sold at $20, 000 per unit. The securities would have raised $20 million for Mr. Sano for the purported purpose of acquiring working interests in existing oil wells, drilling additional wells and acquiring the rights to other sites within Kern County in California. Sano and Onyioha apparently rushed to set up another company in Nevada with the hope of scamming Abia State of $100 million with the full knowledge and collaboration of the governor because they could no longer use the California based corporations owned by Mr. Sano.
The level of corruption in Abia State over the last one year has taken another dimension; going by the way the Abia State funds were being looted in this kind of phony transaction, by those in charge of the state. While the whole state is being impoverished, the looters led by T. A Orji are having a field day with the various scams, the latest being this bogus ‘Refinery Project’.

SaharaReporters investigations Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) reveal no records Nevada Petroleum Resources Limited, the Nigeria counterpart of a so-called Nevada Group. Curiously, the supposedly thorough process undertaken by the Abia State government to ascertain the authenticity of the company and its ability and capacity to embark on a huge refinery project, failed to establish that the company had no pre-existing records of building refineries or engaging in petroleum business of any kind.

Not only was an MOU signed between the Abia State government-once in April in Nigeria and later on Tampa, Florida with the governor’s 23-man delegation, but monies were also released to Nevada Petroleum Resources to the tune of $60 million, according to sources knowledgeable about the deal. Prof. Joshua Ogbonnaya, the Pro-Chancellor of the Abia State University, and one Emeka Ezeogo, a commissioner, the Governor’s deputy Chief of Staff and the LGA Chairman of Isialangwa LGA made the questionable remittances.

For a supposed “big time business man”, like Kalu Onyioha, nothing could be found on him except that his name featured prominently in EFCC charges filed against the former Governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu. Onyioha is not listed in any known businesses in the US or as a professional petroleum businessman or professional in California or Nevada. Before going to press, Saharareporters contacted Mr. Sano at his home in San Marco, California; a female voice answered the call and said that he was not home. Though we left him a message requesting his comments about the refinery business, he did not respond before we went to press. Also, SaharaReporters reached the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State governor, Kalu Ukoha, he told our reporter Abia State government does not work on Saturdays and as such he could not respond to our request for a copy of the MOU signed between the state and the phony corporation. Even though he admitted that monies were already paid to Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc, he said the details were contained in the MOU, which he said could not be produced until after the public holidays.
From available records, close to one billion has been expended on the refinery issue using various fronts, and several millions more have been lodged into offshore accounts.

A anonymous source at the state government said that the whole refinery scandal is just the tip of the iceberg in a state where the official governmental structure has collapsed and the place is being run by greedy individuals, a state where the budget for the function of the local governments are channeled to questionable sources.
There has been no audit of the state finances; while that is not peculiar to Abia, the refinery issue raises a lot of new questions, from who owns Nevada; to who got the Nevada Refinery project money; which refinery has Nevada Petroleum Resources built anywhere in world; how much has been paid and to whom?
Only last week, a deal similar to Nevada was sealed on Abia Palm Company to an Italy based company that deals in energy, to resuscitate the agricultural sector of the State.

http://www.saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/?id=738

What an answer!!!

The barren Saharareporters.com report on Abia state, A rejoinder.

Last View on Wed 8th October, 2008
Last Modified on Fri 03rd October, 2008 6:44:44 am
Author: Posted by Admin Sahara


By Ukoha KALU

Locus classiscus is a Latin expression that connotes exceptional circumstances or an unassailable fact used to prove the incontrovertibility of a case. Lawyers, especially those in litigation or in practice as they say, usually deploy this special type of instance in winning cases for their clients or in knocking the lid off of a case that is unusually knotty and sometimes shrouded in controversy.

In journalism, especially in reporting occurrences, writing news reports, articles or features; experienced news hounds are very mindful not to blatantly fall into the trap of misrepresenting facts or quotes emanating from the source(s) used in their reportage. When they accidentally fall, as is human; those who are aware of the implication of not abiding by the ethics, rules and dictates of the journalism profession, usually retract the very offending piece of information; misrepresented fact(s),news item or article and even proceed to offer their unreserved apologies to the wronged party(ies).

My colleagues at Saharareporters.com, most of whom I cannot sincerely refer to as professional colleagues, in the quest of disseminating their self imposed and always malicious, ill motivated and many at times cheaply crafted articles through the internet have never for once toed the professional line of responsibly spreading news to especially the gullible and undiscerning public. This is a tragedy that has befallen our noble pen profession.

Characteristic of them, these shameless and jobless Naughty Boys chose possibly, for the credibility of the trash they called news item, to drag my humble name into their jaundiced report on the purportedly signed contract by Abia State Government to allegedly build refineries in the state rated in several billions. According to them, monies have been paid which I allegedly confirmed in a non-distinct telephone conversation that did not last more than 10 seconds with a reporter that asked whether my name was not Ukoha Kalu? I respond to phone calls of different categories because it falls under my schedule not to refuse calls. But unfortunately those given to mischief making as the Naughty Boys at Saharareporters.com have done their normal destructive work of discrediting the good intentions of the administration of Dr. T.A. Orji.

For the avoidance of doubt, I got a call from this number 014405825 on the evening of Saturday, September 27,2008 from a not too clear male voice asking questions about the availability of a document on the exploratory memorandum of understanding signed by the Abia State Government with the Nevada Petroleum Development Incorporated recently in the United States of America.

I bluntly told him that he should realize that the day was already far gone and that the coming few days were public holidays and as such the obvious choice for him was to call back on Thursday when what he was looking for could be sourced for him. Since what they were looking for was the document and not a confirmation. The next question he threw at me was whether I was at the ceremony in the US, where the MoU was signed. And my terse reply was "no". From the above explanation of what transpired, I wonder where they got the impression of my alleged confirmation of a transaction that is still at its exploratory stages. Just as the lawyers would say, this is my locus classiscus.

It is therefore inconceivable to write via the largely discredited saharareporters.com that I, Ukoha Kalu, former Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Abia State and who had been reassigned as Special Assistant to the Governor on Media Matters would furnish or confirm by telephone, figures that I have never set my eyes on and such a figure purportedly running into billions on a matter that remains at the exploratory level. It is pertinent to state here that if I had an idea of where to physically get hold of these charlatans that I would sue them for every kobo of their indiscretion.

By way of further reiterating what my colleague, Mr. Sam Hart, the current Chief Press Secretary, had written as retraction which have also been published in the popular media to the education of the largely illiterate Naughty Boys at Saharareporters.com, who are always in a hurry to rush in their half baked reports. What the government of Abia State signed was just an exploratory MoU with clear cut clauses reminding the parties involved that they were still at the negotiating stages.

· Ukoha Kalu, former Chief Press Secretary, is the Special Assistant to the Abia State Governor on Media Matters.


http://saharareporters.com/www/letters/detail/?id=524

The said scam is just a tip of the iceberg if the development in the said state is anything to go by.Noting new in the state.The state of roads there is noting to write home about.I was in the state,so i know what am taking about

@Kabo,
You are not far from the truth. Abia state is in a BIG mess. The government actually thinks the masses are fools.They "put together roads" with no drainage sometime around July, now everywhere is a mess. The Governor talks about beautification. I serious believe he knows nothing about beauty or else he mocks God.

Who is T. A Orji ?