Femi Otedola’s Dirty Deals


Femi Otedola needs to stop regaling the public with cock and bull stories. If we are to believe him, then in the past few months, his life has become an intriguing Nollywood movie. After he claimed that a mysterious Alhaji tried to convince his butler to poison him, he fled to the United Kingdom and promised to remain there till the police solved the case. When I first heard that remarkable story, I wondered why the newly named “Forbes” billionaire did not simply arm his butler with a surveillance device and instruct him to get some evidence of the conspiracy on tape. That way, Otedola would have been able to back his incredible tale with some proof.

Otedola did not stop there. He cooked up another creative ploy to tarnish the image of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a towering industrialist whose philanthropy and dedication to Nigeria has added great value to the Nigerian economy. Through African Petroleum, the oil company which he controls, Otedola placed some advertisements in leading Nigerian newspapers claiming that Dangote and Nova securities were responsible for the steep fall of AP’s share price on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The company supported its claim with CSCS statements purportedly belonging to Dangote and Nova Securities and asked the SEC to launch an investigation.

The SEC investigated the allegations and concluded that there was no proof that Dangote instructed his stockbroker to manipulate AP’s shares. It also concluded that the CSCS statements were fraudulently obtained and fined AP and NOVA for their respective offences. They also barred NOVA Securities from operating in the stock market for a certain period of time. Since then, Otedola has allowed his odium for Dangote drive him into a maniacal rage that could eventually result in self-immolation.

The truth is that Otedola is Nigeria’s greatest manipulator and economic saboteur. With the backing of some powerful government officials, he singlehandedly bullied Peter Okocha’s Sadiq Petroleum into selling its stake in AP and then manipulated the company’s stock to abnormal heights prompting an SEC investigation. He the colluded with Afribank Registrars to withhold share certificates from investors who wanted to sell their shares. When the stock market collapse sparked a run on the stock exchange, shares of companies like AP were the first to fall.

Instead of admitting that AP’s shares were manipulated, Otedola decided to accuse Dangote of being behind the fall simply because his plan to buy Chevron Texaco’s marketing arm had been thwarted by Sayyu Dantata, a relative of Dangote. Femi Otedola’s willingness to destroy Dangote at all cost is becoming a matter of national security. We understand that he has threatened to do everything within his power to destroy Dangote’s businesses. Otedola should remember that the Dangote Group is one of the major pillars of the Nigerian economy and that any attack on Alhaji Aliko Dangote is an attack on Nigeria.

Unlike Otedola, whose shameless racketeering and price-fixing is destroying the economy, Dangote has invested a lot of money in the real sector and is a role model for future generations. We are worried that Otedola’s envy could soon blow over and propel him to do something that he would forever regret. Last year, he announced a much publicized 2 billion naira investment in the sugar and cement sectors ostensibly to crash the prices and make life easier for the common man. He then launched an intensive advertising campaign promoting Otedola Portland Cement. Dangote did not try to stop him because as a true capitalist, he believes in healthy competition. However, Otedola is yet to produce a single bag of cement or one cube of sugar.

In order to understand Otedola’s animosity towards Dangote, it is pertinent to examine the cause of this crisis. Sometime last year, Chevron Global Holdings announced that it had sold 60% of its Nigerian subsidiary to Corlay Global SA and Petrocci Holdings, companies controlled by Sayyu Dantata, a nephew of Dangote who is a billionaire in his own right. When Otedola heard the news, he went ballistic and claimed that Dangote had stabbed him in the back by using Sayyu Danatata as a front to clinch the deal. He claimed that he had discussed his strategy with Dangote and that they had a gentleman’s agreement that they wouldn’t encroach on each other’s business.

Since then Otedola has launched a war against Dangote by sponsoring media attacks against him and generally impugning his character. Otedola does not understand that Aliko Dangote and Sayyu Dantata are two different people. Sayyu Dantata is an independent and successful businessman who takes his own decisions. Even if he wanted to, Dangote cannot stop him from buying something that he wants. He does not need Dangote’s support to obtain financing from Nigerian banks. According to industry insiders, his turnover for last year was almost 200 billion naira.

Otedola on the other hand is a crooked businessman who has gained a reputation for selling adulterated diesel products and sabotaging Nigeria’s power plants. His main reason for attempting to buy Chevron Texaco was to keep the price of diesel unnaturally high thereby increasing the operating costs of Nigeria’s struggling industries. Nigerians should be grateful to Sayyu Dantata for saving them from this incorrigible monopolist. He should leave Aliko Dangote alone. Dangote has distinguished himself as a great Nigerian who has provided employment for numerous Nigerians.

Otedola parlayed the money that his father took from Lagos. We remember when Otedola was a printing consultant hanging around Global Excellence’s offices and begging Mayor Akinpelu to get jobs for him. Now that he is wealthy, he has become a monster who routinely arrests his workers and once beat up a reporter for daring to take photographs of his house. He is also a known pervert who has subjected his wife to years of abuse and even sleeps with Zenon’s married company secretary, Yewande Giwa.


Source:

Chido Williams

Public Affairs Analyst.

chido.williams@gmail.com




Watch Out for Part 2 of this article.

DayoCoker:

Femi Otedola’s Dirty Deals


Femi Otedola needs to stop regaling the public with cock and bull stories. If we are to believe him, then in the past few months, his life has become an intriguing Nollywood movie. After he claimed that a mysterious Alhaji tried to convince his butler to poison him, he fled to the United Kingdom and promised to remain there till the police solved the case. When I first heard that remarkable story, I wondered why the newly named “Forbes” billionaire did not simply arm his butler with a surveillance device and instruct him to get some evidence of the conspiracy on tape. That way, Otedola would have been able to back his incredible tale with some proof.

Otedola did not stop there. He cooked up another creative ploy to tarnish the image of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a towering industrialist whose philanthropy and dedication to Nigeria has added great value to the Nigerian economy. Through African Petroleum, the oil company which he controls, Otedola placed some advertisements in leading Nigerian newspapers claiming that Dangote and Nova securities were responsible for the steep fall of AP’s share price on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The company supported its claim with CSCS statements purportedly belonging to Dangote and Nova Securities and asked the SEC to launch an investigation.

The SEC investigated the allegations and concluded that there was no proof that Dangote instructed his stockbroker to manipulate AP’s shares. It also concluded that the CSCS statements were fraudulently obtained and fined AP and NOVA for their respective offences. They also barred NOVA Securities from operating in the stock market for a certain period of time. Since then, Otedola has allowed his odium for Dangote drive him into a maniacal rage that could eventually result in self-immolation.

The truth is that Otedola is Nigeria’s greatest manipulator and economic saboteur. With the backing of some powerful government officials, he singlehandedly bullied Peter Okocha’s Sadiq Petroleum into selling its stake in AP and then manipulated the company’s stock to abnormal heights prompting an SEC investigation. He the colluded with Afribank Registrars to withhold share certificates from investors who wanted to sell their shares. When the stock market collapse sparked a run on the stock exchange, shares of companies like AP were the first to fall.

Instead of admitting that AP’s shares were manipulated, Otedola decided to accuse Dangote of being behind the fall simply because his plan to buy Chevron Texaco’s marketing arm had been thwarted by Sayyu Dantata, a relative of Dangote. Femi Otedola’s willingness to destroy Dangote at all cost is becoming a matter of national security. We understand that he has threatened to do everything within his power to destroy Dangote’s businesses. Otedola should remember that the Dangote Group is one of the major pillars of the Nigerian economy and that any attack on Alhaji Aliko Dangote is an attack on Nigeria.

Unlike Otedola, whose shameless racketeering and price-fixing is destroying the economy, Dangote has invested a lot of money in the real sector and is a role model for future generations. We are worried that Otedola’s envy could soon blow over and propel him to do something that he would forever regret. Last year, he announced a much publicized 2 billion naira investment in the sugar and cement sectors ostensibly to crash the prices and make life easier for the common man. He then launched an intensive advertising campaign promoting Otedola Portland Cement. Dangote did not try to stop him because as a true capitalist, he believes in healthy competition. However, Otedola is yet to produce a single bag of cement or one cube of sugar.

In order to understand Otedola’s animosity towards Dangote, it is pertinent to examine the cause of this crisis. Sometime last year, Chevron Global Holdings announced that it had sold 60% of its Nigerian subsidiary to Corlay Global SA and Petrocci Holdings, companies controlled by Sayyu Dantata, a nephew of Dangote who is a billionaire in his own right. When Otedola heard the news, he went ballistic and claimed that Dangote had stabbed him in the back by using Sayyu Danatata as a front to clinch the deal. He claimed that he had discussed his strategy with Dangote and that they had a gentleman’s agreement that they wouldn’t encroach on each other’s business.

Since then Otedola has launched a war against Dangote by sponsoring media attacks against him and generally impugning his character. Otedola does not understand that Aliko Dangote and Sayyu Dantata are two different people. Sayyu Dantata is an independent and successful businessman who takes his own decisions. Even if he wanted to, Dangote cannot stop him from buying something that he wants. He does not need Dangote’s support to obtain financing from Nigerian banks. According to industry insiders, his turnover for last year was almost 200 billion naira.

Otedola on the other hand is a crooked businessman who has gained a reputation for selling adulterated diesel products and sabotaging Nigeria’s power plants. His main reason for attempting to buy Chevron Texaco was to keep the price of diesel unnaturally high thereby increasing the operating costs of Nigeria’s struggling industries. Nigerians should be grateful to Sayyu Dantata for saving them from this incorrigible monopolist. He should leave Aliko Dangote alone. Dangote has distinguished himself as a great Nigerian who has provided employment for numerous Nigerians.

Otedola parlayed the money that his father took from Lagos. We remember when Otedola was a printing consultant hanging around Global Excellence’s offices and begging Mayor Akinpelu to get jobs for him. Now that he is wealthy, he has become a monster who routinely arrests his workers and once beat up a reporter for daring to take photographs of his house. He is also a known pervert who has subjected his wife to years of abuse and even sleeps with Zenon’s married company secretary, Yewande Giwa.


Source:

Chido Williams

Public Affairs Analyst.

chido.williams@gmail.com




Watch Out for Part 2 of this article.

seems like the writer harbours personal grudges against that Otedola guy. 

Why are you so callous, want to give Mr Giwa heartache?

A deep cleansing is going on, those two alikootedola are the true enemies of nigeria and the common folks.
Those they were birds of a feather until karma got between.
Ka sa ma se re re!
we all are answerable to the divine protocol, reap what you sow, being one of them

Abeg, abeg! what do you mean by they want to give Mr. Giwa heart attack?! Abeg there is no smoke without fire! Is it our fault that his uncontrollable "olojukokoro" wife is nyashing/fucking/caning/chucking/hammering Mr. Femi Otedola? Aka Ote-Dollar himself. Maybe Mr. Giwa needs to check himself fast, fast! He should thank God its been brought to his notice and act fast before the matter gets out of hand! But him be real mumu sha! How could he not have known??

lol
@ Ekiti
You do you know
make una no kill me,

otedola might be a dirty businessman(not sure), but in the maritime industry where they both make majority of their money, we know who is dirtier.

Don't know much about Otedola but I have absolutely no respect for Aliko Dangote. Someone made his money from the monopolistic practice of securing a stranglehold in the nations most lucrative businesses, became rich and is now celebrated? Even the dumbest person in the world can become wealthy doing that! Please lets not celebrate Dangote at all. Not an asset to Nigeria and certainly not someone who should look like a clean guy in a thread accusing Otedola of "dirty deals." These 2 MF's disgust me as they do Jimoh Ibrahim of Global Fleet.
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2007/july/29/national-29-07-2007-001.htm

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2007/july/29/national-29-07-2007-001.htm


‘ Jimoh Ibrahim fires Atomic Bomb on refinery sale mess:
How Dangote, Otedola sinned
By LOUIS ODION
Sunday, July 29, 2007


•Ibrahim
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section

The chairman, National Insurance Corporation (NICON), Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, has sensationally opened another flank in the controversy that attended the sale of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries to Bluester Oil Services, a consortium promoted by businessmen, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola of Zenon Oil and Gas among others.

Although the consortium announced last week that it was withdrawing interest in the refineries, Ibrahim is unimpressed, saying that by its conduct during its controversial purchase of the refineries, Bluester elevated personal interest over that of the country.

While insisting that he had expected "strategic thinking" on the part of Bluester as soon as the deal got mired in controversy, it was his view that the consortium “should have pulled out before the labour crisis. The nation did not need to go into strike for one week because of one individual or two. You know that national interest overrides personal interest.”

Ibrahim, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Fleet, an oil servicing company, dismissed claims by Dangote in a recent interview with our sister publication, Saturday Sun that he (Dangote) is a billionaire, saying no Nigerian businessman is a billionaire in the true sense of the word.
In the first of the two part serial in Saturday Sun, Dangote had said: “ I wouldn’t call myself the richest man in Africa. I would allow Forbes magazine to say so. But I have seen them saying that Oprah Winfrey is the richest black person in the world, and she is worth $1.5 billion. I think by the grace of God, I am much, much richer than her.”
But reacting to this claim, the NICON boss said: “Which billionaires? Myself? Femi? Aliko? There’s no billionaire among all of us. We owe banks. Have we finished paying our debts? If you have not finished paying your debts and you are celebrating that you are a billionaire, what useless billionaire? We borrow money from the banks to trade. We created this heavy debt portfolio in the banks and we’ve got to pay this money back to the banks so that the young entrepreneurs can come and borrow too.
“Let’s stop embarrassing the public. Nobody is a billionaire. You borrow money, you have not finished paying and you’re looking at you assets vis-à-vis your debts. You’re having assets that are not producing anything. Some people have assets that are worth N100 billion that have not produced anything in the last ten years. What useless asset is that one? Honestly, with due respect, apart from the old people - the Ibrus, the Dantatas and all these old elderly people - we haven’t got billionaires in our generation yet.”
The Ondo State-born business mogul also revealed the high-wire intrigues that saw him lose out in his bid to acquire shares of African Petroleum (AP) despite having 53 filling stations to Otedola of Zenon Oil and Gas who owns only four stations.

Excerpts:

A lot has been said and written in the last few days about the fiasco that attended your bid for African Petroleum shares. Some people are alleging there’s more to it than meets the eye?
It’s not every thing that you bid for that you get and I think we must appreciate that as a principle of life. Yes we bided for it. There was merit in our case. The arrangement was that as at the time we applied to buy 28% shares from NNPC, we had about 150 stations in AP; our own stations branded in AP colours. Our trading with AP dated back to about four years. So, we’d been together for a long time. This is not the first time we ever attempted to buy AP shares. When my good friend, Peter Okocha, was there, we attempted to buy shares that were eventually sold to another party.
It is not as if AP was dying. The MD was doing a good job but our fear was that we could no longer continue to put our stations in AP without branding our own. Having invested over N80 billion in stations across the nation, we felt we must brand.
We reasoned that if we have to take all these stations out, there might be some feasibility challenges. So, we wrote to the Petroleum Minister and he made a case to the Federal Executive Council. Market price then was N63. We accepted because we felt that we could add value to the business of AP that could take the share value to that price. At that time too, the current management of AP was working assiduously well to ensure that the price got there. We got the approval. Mr. President signed. We got the letter from the Minister.
As at the time I called the Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, she said she was in Dubai. One morning, I picked up the papers and read that (President Olusegun) Obasanjo had cancelled sales of shares of AP to Jimoh Ibrahim. I called Mr. President and he explained to me that it was just a little problem. In his usual language, he said ‘it had a K-leg’ but that he would try and straighten it. Money had been collected from us at that time and I thought that was all. The next thing I heard was that it had been sold to another party. The amount we paid then was N17.5 billion only to learn it had been sold. We don’t engage in do-or-die in business. We are intellectuals, so we took it from there and we also don’t want to create problems for AP. We had a smooth transition of taking our stations and branding them in our own colours and move on. The young man (Mr. Femi Otedola) that bought it has only four petrol stations. We have 53. So, we are not mates and cannot be mates in that industry. He has a depot and we have a depot.

Some observers are of the opinion that the whole deal reeks of favouritism. Is that a correct reading?
Whatever is there, whether it is favouritism or illiteracy or stupidity, the important thing is that it is an error of judgment on the part of those who are involved. What we needed AP for was not to run A.P in fairness but we felt that we could also develop our own brand with time and then use AP as a master that Global Fleet was going to take tutelage from and then come out with our own brand network. So, we weren’t going to change management as such because oil is different from insurance. You know how many litres come in, you know how many litres go out but we would have managed the crisis among the shareholders. All we need to say to the shareholder is that ‘Look, this is the number of stations that we have and they add value so we want to do more again.’ That would have been good news and they would be happy with that because 33% doesn’t give you control of any company knowing fully well that AfriBank has 20 or 23%. So, there was no way we were going to assume duties there because we know that we have 28%, AfriBank has 23% and definitely, I know that the management of AP would want to do public offer later. I believe that if they do public offer and offer that would mean that you need to get more money but one good thing that gives me comfort in the transaction is that as soon as NNPC returned our draft to us, we returned it to our bank the next day and you know there’s a lot involved for N17.5 billion to be borrowed from a bank. So, the money was returned to the bank and the bank was very delighted and pleased with us. In fact, I must tell you that they were so generous that they reverted the interest that was earlier charged. That is how good our bankers can be to us and a demonstration of the kind of goodwill we enjoy.

Still on the sale of public assets, the sale of Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries equally generated so much controversy such that the buyers had to vacate their interest. What lesson has that taught us?
I expected strategic thinking. Immediately that controversy came up, they should have pulled out before the labour crisis. The nation did not need to go into strike for one week because of one individual or two. You know that national interest overrides personal interest. In fact, with the cancellation of the refinery sale by the authorities as widely reported by the media, it shows that the problem is not with the refineries but the privatisation process. Quite frankly, the reported pull-out by Bluestar is what I would call a post-motem withdrawal, medicine after death, an embarrassment to strategic thinking. One would have expected that the withdrawal should have been before the labour strike. That would have spared the nation the trauma of a four-day strike and also saved the fledgling Yar'Adua administration a lot of discomfort.

The other argument by the labour against the sale was that they were grossly undervalued. You are an insider in the industry. Honestly, what is your take?
Honestly, with due respect, I don’t know much about devaluation but what I know is that we have bought only two items from BPE since privatization commenced. In those two items, we bided in the takeover of NICON Insurance, for instance. The reserve price was $20 million. We bought it for $46.8 million. The next bid to our offer was IGI with $19 million. The next to that was $17 million by Zenith. If you add the bid of those gentlemen, they are not up to the price we offered and today, I can tell you one thing, if government will audit the place and return my money back to us, we will gladly relinquish ownership. That is to tell you that there is nothing like any under-head deal or under-valuation in our case. People must understand the rationale behind privatization. Let’s take the case of NICON. Under the 2005 account, it was in the red to the tune of N6 billion. One year after we came in, we have brought it down to N3 billion positive and shareholders deposit of over N11 billion.
Now, you have pension to pay, about N11 billion. So, your purchase price plus the price of insolvency plus the liability in pension plus the recapitalisation is the price you are offering to buy NICON Insurance and all the core assets of NICON Insurance were not part of the sales traded like NICON Hilton Hotel. They are not part. They were stripped from the baggage handed us. BPE are the technocrats in this matter and the employed valuer in the case of the refinery almost put the price at negative. That I think has to do with the data submitted to the valuer from NNPC. So, these are technical issues that must be well handled. But the issue of price? Yes, if you look at what government has said in recent times, how do you buy the refinery at the price that was offered? $160 million for Kaduna refinery? For what reason? It is not right. If you put NICON plus the Le’Meridien Hotel together it is about $130 million.
By and large, the issue, I think, is that we must be fair to our conscience when we take on public assets and I think that’s the reason why Nigerians don’t have the patience to understand the merits. I think that if they had pulled out before the labour crisis, they would have even saved their names. The asset is not a do-or-die affair. Anything I buy from government body and they want it back tomorrow, no problem. Once they pay me my money plus interest, you can come and audit the place. If I’ve not sold any asset, let’s discuss it and then you give me my money back and I’ll go and put it in another place. Government asset is not the only place where you can practise entrepreneurship. You can also create new companies and then start and grow them. We started Global Fleet here. When we were buying petrol stations from individuals, nobody wrote any article to condemn us. We were buying stations and renovating them; bringing them back to life, and so were able to employ about 4,800 people in one year and then move the employment to about 6,000 before we started buying any government assets.

The media also reported a sharp exchange between you and the president of Dangote Group the other day over his allegation that NNPC is a haven of corruption?
My comment is that I don’t see it that way. I don’t see NNPC as a corrupt institution not because I do business. I don’t have a cargo with NNPC. On the contrary, it is Aliko Dangote who does business with NNPC with his Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO). When I say NNPC is run by technocrats and intellectuals, I mean. Engineer Funso Kupolokun, for instance, has a deep knowledge of the industry. These are intellectuals. It is against this backdrop that I speak.

When you mention intellectuals, people with knowledge, people are bound to read meanings to that,
NNPC is run by intellectuals. Is kupolokun not an intellectual? Is Idris not an intellectual? Is the operation man not an intellectual? These are learned people. You just don’t come around and slam people. With due respect, I don’t agree with Aliko that they are a bunch of criminals. Aliko does business with them. Can he deny that? He takes LPFO from NNPC, so, maybe he knows better. I’ve not done any business with NNPC apart from the AP deal. I don’t buy my petrol bloc products from them. I buy from Total but with my little interaction with them, they are the best of brains that this country can ever produce. Business is done with intellectual capacity. Because they do not support your getting the refineries, they are now corrupt but before, when you were getting LPFO, then they were not corrupt. You need to give further and better particulars about those corrupt practices.

Still on the controversy, there is this growing feeling or thinking that Obasanjo has created a clan of billionaires who as it were, made their money from unfair competition. When the list is drawn, people like Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim are listed. How do you see this?
I’m disappointed sometimes when they put my name on the list of illiterates who claim to be billionaires because I appreciate it if you put my picture along with my colleagues from the universities who may not have anything today, but tomorrow belongs to them. So, I don’t like seeing my picture with people who have diploma and all this type of rubbish.

So, you feel diminished when you are listed along Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola et al?
I feel heavily diminished. What is the basis? One of them said his father was very rich, his grandfather was very rich. My father is not rich. My father is a bricklayer. My mother is a food seller. So, why are you putting my picture among them? Aren’t you embarrassing me? I had my L.L.B. from Ife, have my BL in Nigeria. I attended Harvard where I studied Taxation for one year and I came out with some good results. Why are you putting my picture among illiterates? I have been conferred with some doctorate degrees; about three of them from various universities. I’m not saying that I am the best but at least, I’ve not disappointed my generation because I went to school. So, why are you putting my picture along all these people with diploma in printing? The argument the other time was that I didn’t join (Lagos) Boat Club. What is boat club? I’m from the riverine area (Ondo State) so what am I going to do with boat? My house in VGC is waterfront. We’ve been living there for over 11 years. So, how can I go and buy boat now and be riding it at a time when I’m supposed to be employing more university graduates?
I am turning my attention to the academic industry. People that work with us here are like professors. So, don’t come and compare them with people who don’t even have education. Now, coming to the Obasanjo billionaires club, Obasanjo did economic reforms, that was good. In the first instance, the press is wrong to say that we are billionaires. Which billionaires? Myself? Femi? Aliko? There’s no billionaire among all of us.

How do you mean?
We owe banks. Have we finished paying our debts? If you have not finished paying your debts and you are celebrating that you are a billionaire, what useless billionaire? We borrow money from the banks to trade. We created this heavy debt portfolio in the banks and we’ve got to pay this money back to the banks so that the young entrepreneurs can come and borrow too. And, how can you go and be buying boat with overdraft? Are you not a mad man? This money is borrowed from the bank. Let’s stop embarrassing the public. Nobody is a billionaire. You borrow money, you have not finished paying and you’re looking at you assets vis-à-vis your debts. You’re having assets that are not producing anything. Some people have assets that are worth N100 billion that have not produced anything in the last ten years. What useless asset is that one? Honestly, with due respect, apart from the old people - the Ibrus, the Dantatas and all these old elderly people - we haven’t got billionaires in our generation yet.

Some say that you guys are also rent-seekers whose strategy is to cultivate people in government?
I’ve never been to the Presidential Villa except when I bought NICON. I decided to appear in the Villa for the first time six months after the purchase. We thought that, as the insurer of the presidential jet, we should talk to them at the Villa.

But Alhaji Dangote postulated that it is impossible for a business man to completely isolate himself from people in power?
In fact, the joy of a good businessman is to isolate himself from power. Allow those who are running government to run their government, you go and run your business. Out of respect and courtesy, they will write and invite you. This is when you are celebrated. You don’t go there and be loitering around. For what reason? I read in the interview Dangote saying in that interview that you cannot even sue government let alone fight it. Maybe, Dangote took a strange coffee that morning to have said that. Is the government above the law? It depends on who the president is. If the president is a garrulous president, then you can have problems but look at the person of Yar’Adua who is a university graduate and read Applied Chemistry. Did he say you should not take him to court? Even after taking him (Yar'Adua) to court, he still described Buhari as his elder brother. Did he go around arresting those who took him to court? He said I’m a servant leader. He said I have to obey the rule of law. When Andy Uba’s judgment was delivered, how many minutes did he take him to execute it? We all saw how quickly he executed the judgment. If you take him to court he won’t stop you. You just prove your point in court. Now, this man is saying I want to do things in accordance with the law. So, if, for instance, government didn’t treat you rightly in an activity, you take government to court and get judgment because government will also have its own lawyer to defend it in court. That is when government becomes interesting. Didn’t America take Bill Gates to court over anti-trust law? Was there any disaster or problem there? It’s only in developing countries that government and businessmen cannot go to court. Why can they not go to court?

You also said that some of the billionaires who used to feature prominently in the media are lately withdrawing. Are you suggesting, therefore, that the order has changed?
Under this government, it is not business as usual, I can tell you.

Are you then foreseeing a situation whereby those who, may be, made their money from speculation under the last order fizzling out?
I’ve said it before that there’s a storm around business whose survival depends on intellectual capacity. It’s a big storm.

You’re also described as Obasanjo boy. Do you see that as a complement or an insult?
I don’t regard being called an Obasanjo boy an insult. Yes, you can call me an Obasanjo boy. I can’t deny Obasanjo because of any other president. I’ve told you the good thing I like about Obasanjo; the economic reform that led to the consolidation of banks in Nigeria. And we must give a lot of praise to Soludo for consolidating the banks.
If the bank doesn’t give us money to trade, there is no way you can make the money. You can’t be whoever you’re claiming to be now. We borrow the money of the poor people to trade and it would be suicidal if we refuse to return the money to the banks so that they can lend to other people. Now, people say what about collateral? It all has to be in investment class. I don’t see any collateral you require to borrow money from the bank. That’s why I’m happy that I have pushed some of my friends and colleagues to be in the multi-million column now. I told them. ‘What are you doing?’ If they are bidding for any thing, go and bid even if it’s not a government asset. Even if it is a private asset, go and bid. The moment they give you the letter that you are successful in the offer, give it to the bank, the bank will fund it. Use the property as collateral for what you are buying, you’ll be okay and you join the club but it’s not a club of billionaires. So, you have to understand it. Until you return the money from the bank, you cannot celebrate any billion. For you to now come around and say they’re billionaires or that one is the richest in Africa, I don’t understand what you are saying. Maybe, they’re drunk or took unusual coffee, I don’t know. I can’t imagine somebody saying he is sheik in the oil industry and he has only four filling stations. Isn’t that an embarrassment for God’s sake? Do you expect the international community to be reading this kind of thing in the paper? I’m not saying they’re not doing well or criticising them. All I’m saying is that let’s do things in the right way, in a way that will not deceive the public. That’s all I’m saying. Again, nobody can say ‘I’m the king of money in Nigeria.’ How can you be the king of money? Some people say that they are powerful; their forefathers were billionaires and all that and then you still go and borrow money from the bank.
This explains why someone will say he is a billionaire, yet he gives little or nothing back to the society in terms of charity. See what Bill Gates is doing today in America with the billions he gives to charity. See what Opra Winfrey did the other day in South Africa when he showered millions of dollar on a school for the under-privileged. The so-called billionaires in Nigeria cannot do that because his billions are actually bank loans.
So, if your forefather had all the money, why should you go and borrow our people’s money from the bank? Why are you looking for stock market to get money by selling shares? These are not what Nigerians want to hear at this critical time in our national history.

From what you are saying, there seems to be a lot of distortions and make-believe in corporate Nigeria today and you are, therefore, going to invite the EFCC?
EFCC has the right to pounce on any body’s business and ask for his source of wealth. Under the law, EFCC has the right. I don’t see any reason why EFCC should not visit the private business people. They should visit anybody. They have the right. The law gives them the power. They should beam their search-lights on all these so-called billionaires and in the next few years from now, they should force them to return the borrowed money to the banks because if they don’t pay back those banks, the banks could die and EFCC is to prevent economic crime. Borrowing from the bank and not paying back is an economic crime. So, we must pay back. After we have finished paying, then we can celebrate, have a dinner. What happens is that because they give that false impression, the public is now blaming them for not giving more to charity and giving to the needy yet they can’t explain why. The reason is that it is overdraft. You can’t give overdraft to the needy. Bill Gates can give a lot of money to charity in America because Bill Gates has finished paying his loans. Instead of us to tell the public the truth so that they’ll have sympathy for us, we are deceiving the public everyday that we are billionaires, which useless billionaire? We are just people who borrow money.
The important thing as far as I’m concerned is that, you must pay the debt back. I am paying and I’m about to finish paying my own next year. Walahi, nobody among these so-called billionaires will still owe banks in Nigeria. I will set up a special task force. They must pay because the problem is that there are lots of young people who want the money. You talk about people who left the university and have ideas. You have people who left the universities and have ideas and yet the banks say they don’t have money. But you have somebody who owes banks about N170 billion. If you give N1 billion to each person, that’s a lot of people. If you give this money to young entrepreneurs to work with, you’ll be stunned at the number of employment they’ll generate. How can somebody sit over N170 billion as debt and he’s still claiming he’s a billionaire, thatd he’s almighty, the richest and in a garrulous manner? Education is very good. In the olden days, it was never like this. Late Chief Moshood Abiola was a chartered accountant. You could see entrepreneuralship in total display. In the news business, he was running Concord. He owned Abiola Bookshop, oil and gas. He took government to court and government took him to court also. Remember the Ibru days? Mike put his brothers in various businesses all over the place, hotels here and there. Look at Sunbomi Balogun who created a lot of opportunities for people and was not making this kind of noise. None of them ever came out to say I’m the richest. Let’s fear God. God is the owner of money, power and land. When did we claim authority or jurisdiction?

By your submission, you’re trying to be modest. By all standards, you’re a successful young man, (cuts in)
Anybody who has a university degree is a successful person if he worked for his degree. Any illiterate that is holding billion of naira today is only holding it in blind trust for the educated youths. They’re coming very soon to collect that money from them because they have ideas. How? By buying off the assets from them. You see the way young people are developing in entrepreneuralship and in governance? Look at governance today, you celebrate people like El-Rufai. You go to the East and you pick people like Oby Ezekwesili. These guys that use their brains for government, when they start businesses of their own, it will be so competitive that if you lack the intellectual capacity, then you know that you have to sell.

On a final note, if you were to set priorities for the new government in terms of how to jumpstart the economy, what would you say?
I’ve said it severally that Mr. President has started very well. I’ve never been to Yar’Adua. I can’t say I don’t know him. I had a handshake with him once. Then, we crossed each other. He doesn’t know me as a person. He has started well but one thing that is important to me is that he must convert the Board of Inland Revenue to a full-fledged Ministry of Tax. You can call it Ministry of Revenue and Taxation. If you say you are the richest billionaire, you also have to tell us how much you pay in taxes. You must tell us. Bill Gates once said "I am ready to pay $1 million to America if they will not go further to talk about this anti-trust law". $1 million per day as special tax. He defined a tax for himself. So, there’s a need to have the Board of Inland Revenue converted to full-fledged Ministry of Taxation. If not because Nuhu Ribadu is occupied in EFCC, he would have been a good candidate for the Ministry of Taxation. He would now go to each of these companies and open their books for the last six years and see their level of tax compliance and if you have not complied, pay what is charged against you and you’ll see how rich our nation is. There’ll be no need to look for money to do legitimate business once people are asked to pay their taxes. This is the area where I think Obasanjo didn’t do enough. I’m not particularly happy that he did not talk about taxation throughout. You must have the capacity to generate domestic income to finance domestic expenses.

Now, our domestic income is about 20% of our domestic expenses. That means we depend on the international community for 80% of our spending. This is an unacceptable standard. So, the earlier we realised that we need to enhance our domestic income to finance our domestic expenses, the better it is for us. The president should send an executive bill to the National Assembly. Use these unemployed graduates as revenue policing officers who would be posted to various companies. So, if First Bank has 500 branches, we have 500 tax officers there in each of the branches. That’s another set of people employed. This will reduce the problem of unemployment. We must involve ourselves in welfare economic programmes.

I think it is very easy to solve unemployment. Mr. President can say to the entrepreneurs 'If you employ up to 20,000 I will give you a waiver on your company contracts". This is an incentive. We should create jobs and the only way to create jobs is to make the ministers work assiduously on welfarist programmes.
We entrepreneurs should allow the president to do his own job. The bankers who loiter the corridor of Aso Rock should go back to their banks and run their business and allow the president to concentrate. N25 billion capital base for banks is good. But the president must set up another set of banks.

This set of banks can be called Category B which should be dedicated to artisans and not the complicated micro-finance banks we have now. In fact, it should not end with Category B, we should also have Category C to cater for people like my mother who will not be able to use the ATM card. (Professor Charles) Soludo must do this. We must be able to accommodate the common man in our

http://www.huhuonline.com/news391.html



Aliko Dangote, Oando in N29 Billion oil refining scandal


Inordinate ambition to maintain permanent membership on the list of world billionaires is what is being blamed for alleged connivance of Lagos businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and other notable oil moguls like Mr. Wale Tinubu and Mr. Jite Koloko to cripple Nigeria’s oil refining capacity through elaborate bribery scheme which earned them a staggering N29 Billion profit. According to Huhuonline investigations, an honest approval said to have been given by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to three leading indigenous oil companies owned by Dangote, Tinubu and Koloko was said to have become the lunch pad for wide spread bribery of officials of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) leading to tampering with the nations oil refining capacity.

Huhuonline was told that Obasanjo saw enough justification in a proposal allegedly drawn by MRS Oil group and submitted by its owner, Dangote. Obasanjo during his presidency allegedly allowed exclusive refining contract for Dangote to handle and supply Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) believed to be crucial in petrochemical industrial dye for Nigeria’s once bumming textile manufacturing holdings.



Aliko Dangote
It was said that no sooner had Dangote got approval for the critical and juicy downstream supplies of the product, he was said to have acted in concept with the two other beneficiaries of the contract to purportedly bribe relevant NNPC operatives. Needed sizeable diesel meant for national consumption was diverted and used to mix HPO in other to get LFPO and also to practically shut down the installed domestic refining components.

Sources who elected anonymity said “Aliko Dangote in cahoots with owners of Oando group, ensured that the oil refineries in Nigeria operate epileptically. This they achieved by making sure that an important element of the refinery, the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit, which s breaks down the heavy hydrocarbon molecules that make up crude oil act malfunction all the year round.

In the process, all the refineries in the country are limited to producing just heavy fuel oils such as LPFO and HPFO which are the first bye-products from the fractional distillation (refining) process. Continuing the source said had NNPC not being the heavily induced, they would have ensured that the fluid crackers in all its refineries were functioning”

Huhuonline.com checks revealed that Obasanjo had intended that Dangote would make the LPFO available internally at ?8:30K per liter this did not happen. All the products were taken outside Nigeria and sold at $250 per tonne. While Dangote and co smiled to the banks Nigerians groaned under pains of unavailable refined petroleum products. Because the important product was not available for textile operations, factories were closed and workers were sacked. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, the former group managing director of NNPC, admitted as much two Fridays ago when he told the ad-hoc committee investigating the operations of the corporation that companies like MRS Oil and Gas, Noel Energy, Haske Enterprises and Ocean & Oil Limited (the company that acquired the now defunct Unipetrol and Agip before rebranding into the Oando Group), have all been beneficiaries of the regime.

Since NNPC officials were allegedly bribed by Dangote and his associates that have now been identified as a "dangerous cartel," the fluid crackers in the refineries were removed to create the impression that the refineries have been completely grounded. They therefore export Nigerian crude and make huge foreign currencies.

An oil industry insider explained that Dangote and the others realized huge dividends of close to N29 Billion and that Nigerian law makers and the President must act with dispatch and honesty to make them refund nothing less than N25 Billion. The Insider who preferred anonymity because of recent notoriety of Aliko Dangote "as chemical Ali" said that Dangote and his friends remain the worst threats to the economic stability of Nigeria and they must be stopped

http://www.huhuonline.com/news385.html

The Many Sins Of Aliko Dangote



Perhaps many people don't know that the man Aliko Dangote alias “Chemical Ali” is a crude and wicked businessman obsessed with power and control .His track record is such that the notorious German warlord Adolf Hitler would grin with envy.

He operates behind the scene, but his finger prints are very visible and the damage he has done to so many people is unquantifiable leaving tears and sorrows which has made many people to fear him.

His former bossom friend Femi Otedola who he planned to send to his early grave here disclosed the kind of man “Chemical Ali” is and analysis the many wicked deeds that he has done to his fellow human beings.



Otedola hesitant to Shake Aliko
PLOTTED EXILE OF ADENUGA BECAUSE OF ENVY

The problem that the billionaire Chairman of Globacom, Otunba Mike Adenuga had with former President Olusegun Obasanjo was masterminded by Alhaji Aliko Dangote. And the cause was mere envy of the ever rising status of the silent but meticulous multi- billionaire, Mike Adenuga.

It all started when Adenuga acquired the old National Oil which he transformed to Conoil.

Chemical Ali went to town claiming that Adenuga used funds from Bureau of Public Enterprise.

Same thing reared its ugly head when Adenuga acquired the second National Carrier Licence which enabled him to join the world mega business of telecommunication. He smeared the names of Adenuga and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. He claimed that Atiku who oversaw the then Petroleum Trust Fund helped pay for the licence from the Fund's cover.

This was the final straw that brokes the camels back of camaraderie between Atiku and his former boss Obasanjo.



These incidents made the guru as Adenuga is fondly called to go on voluntary exile.

Adenuga's sins according to Dangote's gospel is due to his unapproachability. He claimed that the guru was too arrogant, taciturn and always elusive to the extent that 'Adenuga could not be asked for favours like using his private jet because his own jet, a rickety 14 year old NS 125 old cargo which he bought from the Federal Government always breakdown constantly without notice and also because Adenuga is richer than him.

The hatred for Adenuga got worse few years ago during one of the editions of Nduka Obaigbena’s This Day Awards.In that year’s edition of the award despite the fact that the Globacom boss was not present physically as against Aliko who was there live, Adenuga was the cynosure of all eyes as his representatives were busy collecting awards after another on his behalf whilst Dangote with all his pride and ego was just there looking at the glory of Adenuga without a single award .Since then the attempt to ruin Adenuga started because he didn't want anybody to surpass him. To further humiliate Adenuga after he had succeeded in setting EFCC after him, “Chemical Ali” was always dramatising how Adenuga was behaving when he was to be arrested by EFCC operatives and during this time one will always see him holding white handkerchief and waving it at the EFCC operatives which signals peace as Adenuga was pleading.





HIS PLOT TO CRIPPLE SAMAD RABIU'S BUSINESSES

The household of popular Kano billionaire Isyaku Rabiu also have bad tales to tell from the wickedness of “Chemical Ali”,

Like Adenuga, he simply plot to ruin and destroy Samad Rabiu one of the sons of Isyaku Rabiu.

It was Aliko Dangote that used his connection in government circle to stop Samad's importation of vegetable oil into the country all because his fellow businessman from Kano started the construction of his own sugar and flour factories which Dangote considered as his birth right.

In his greediness, he asked Samad to give him 51 percent in Samad’s private refineries, imagine that!.

To further humiliate Samad, in the presence of former EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu, former FCT minister, El-Rufai and the man he plots to send to his untimely grave Femi Otedola, he vowed not to forgive Samad despite the fact that Samad was prostrating and begging him. However, Femi in his gentlemanly manner pleaded with him in the name of God to let Samad be.But like the biblical Pharaoh whose heart has been hardened by God for destruction, to the consternation of those present at the meeting, Dangote simply said that “anybody that enter his line of business has to be buried alive”.Same as he did to DOHAGRO (Deji Doherty).

In his bid to bury Samad alive, when information got to him that Samad has bought ship for his BUA cement, Aliko Dangote invited him to his office in Lagos and warned him sternly to immediately take the ship out of Nigeria as if he is the Commander- in- Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Not yet done with Samad,Aliko in conjunction with Deputy Comptroller of Immigration in charge of Investigation, Dr. Brown sent officers to the floating factory of BUA on Friday March 27, 2009 arrested and whisked away 26 crew members to Lagos with the mandate to expel them out of the country.

In his usual nature, Aliko Dangote has already bought the tickets to ensure that the 26 crew members were deported.





THE CALLOUS AND WICKED BUSINESSMAN THAT HATES NIGERIANS

Despite his claims that he loves Nigerians, he is nothing but a wicked soul who is sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government to reduce the cost of essential commodities especially cement. Aliko has brought untold hardship on Nigerians, he builds factories for his Dangote Cement, Dangote Flour, Dangote Salt, Dangote sugar at the port while at the same time generating profits at the expense of the public utilities and causing congestion at the port blocking everywhere with his vessels preventing other people’s vessels from bringing in imported cement all in his bid to monopolize the cement business and exploits Nigerians of their hard earned money through cut throat prices of his cement. To further show his hatred for the helpless Nigerians despite making huge amount of money from them, when AP came out with N50 per liter kerosine, he was telling Otedola who mooted the bright idea, to leave the populace to continue to suffer telling him not sell at such a ridiculous price.





WHY HE IS AFTER FEMI OTEDOLA

Aliko Dangote is after the young billionaire boss of Zenon Oil Femi Otedola simply because since Otedola joined the business circle few years ago, he came, he saw and conquered. Because of his midas touch, everything that he touches usually turns to gold and within few years he has done more than what Aliko Dangote has been able to achieve since he started business over 30 years ago.

What many people don't know is that Dangote despite his claim to fame likes to climb on people’s back .During the bid for the purchase of the refineries, Otedola was set to bid, but Otedola after much persuasion from his friend had to succumb to the pressure of joint partnership. Even though Otedola was initially skeptical about the partnership he kept his cool. But in his characteristic manner Dangote displayed his greediness when he asked to be allowed fifty one percent of stake in the Bluestar consortium, which Otedola because of his meekness agreed to.

But unknown to Otedola, Aliko had another thing in mind and that is to destroy the young Epe billionaire having seen his meteoric rise both within the business and political circle that he will in no short time practically leave him behind, hence he resorted to blackmail and plot to kill him. Part of his plot to ruin Otedola is the manipulation of AP shares.

Was Aliko Dangote “Chemical Ali” not named by Mr. Eugene Anenih, MD of Nova Finance and Securities Limited, as the one behind the manipulation? Yes, he was named by Mr. Eugene Anenih as the mastermind of the manipulation before he shamefully recanted. He also confessed that he manipulated the AP share over 30 times from February 11 to March 20 when AP management raised alarm. Eugene Anenih also confessed that he always briefed Aliko Dangote on phone after carrying out the heinous financial crime.

To show that he has no shame despite his claims that he is rich, Chemical Ali lived in Femi Otedola's house in Abuja from May 2002 till August 2008 (6 solid years) without paying a dime, ate his food, used his domestic staff, understudied him and then turn around to plot his downfall.





HOW HE DEALT WITH ALHAJI USMAN DANTATA, HIS BENEFACTOR

If there is anybody that will continue to regret his kind gesture to uplift his niece from the grip of poverty, it will be no other person than Alhaji Usman Dantata, Aliko Dangote's uncle who gave him N100,000 then for him to travel to South-West to come and try his luck in business.

In a twist of fate, rather for Aliko Dangote who came to Lagos by train to reciprocate Usman's kind gesture, he instead opted to deal a heavy blow to the man who helped him to be what he is today.

If you don't know, Usman Dantata is currently bedridden with an ailment. Dangote, rather than help him to recover from the ailment, dealt him what sources say is the 'knell that may aid Dantata's death”. He had wanted to purchase one of Dantata's properties in Apapa, “Polo House” without success before the man took ill.

He seized the opportunity of his uncle's sickness and his influence in government circle to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of the property and took over the title. That was two years ago.





HOW HE GOT HIS FRIEND OF 22 YEARS SAM IWAJIOKU ARRESTED BY EFCC

Like the devil that he is, Aliko Dangote plotted with EFCC to arrest Sam Iwajioku, his friend of over 22 years.

Having perfected everything he asked the EFCC's operatives to tarry a while before arresting Iwajioku simply because he wanted to collect the N50 million that Sam Iwajioku was owing him.

Eventually, his bosom friend was arrested and was detained for one month, but like Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ, he was spreading and given the security operatives false information about Sam while at the same time he visits him in the cell at least three times a week, all in his bid to cover his bad deeds.

While Iwajioku was in prison, he tried to talk him into to convert his almost 80 million shares in Dangote Sugar to his own which failed woefully.









QUESTIONS! QUESTIONS!! QUESTIONS!!!

There are several questions that “Chemical Ali needs to answer and tell the whole world especially Nigerians.



-WHO PLANNED THE POISON ATTEMPT ON FEMI OTEDOLA?



-WHY HAS HE DECIDED NOT TO ISSUE A STATEMENT TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM THE ALLEGATION OF MANIPULATING AP SHARES?



-HOW DID HE ACQUIRE BENUE CEMENT COMPANY?



-WHO IS BEHIND THE KILLER INDOMIE?



-WHO RUINED IBETO?



-WHO BURNT FIVE ALIVE BENIN PLANT, IS IT NOT A PLOY TO HAVE DANSA

JUICE TO DOMINATE THE MARKET?



WHO IS BEHIND THE THIRD TERM PLOT?



HOW HE ENGAGED FEMI OTEDOLA TO BEG OBASANJO TO

MAKE HIM PRESIDENT



84 POSERS TO GO



AND MANY MORE WOULD BE REVEALED.



WATCH OUT FOR ACT 1. SCENE 3 NEXT WEEK.

http://www.huhuonline.com/news338.html


SEC Wades in as Aliko Dangote Seize Femi Otedola `s Petrol Station


Like the lava of an active volcano, the on-going personal feud between Nigeria`s richest duo, Ahaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola has taken a dangerous turn with no visible end in sight. The schism between the two men assumed melodramatic proportions on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, when Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote group of companies, led a team of armed police men to forcefully take over a TOTAL petrol station in Lagos, owned by Femi Otedola. The reasons for the action was not immediately discernible but keen observers claim it might not be unconnected to major differences within the Blue Star Oil Services Limited; a consortium floated by Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola under whose name they bought the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, in circumstances described as shady.

No one knows how messy it will get between the two men, listed by Forbes magazine as amongst the world’s richest people, but Huhuonline.com learnt that Dangote’s seizure of the petrol station was in violation of a court injunction, highlighting prospects that the bad blood might eventually degenerate and precipitate an unfortunate legal fracas.


Aliko Dangote & Femi Otedola

The lingering animosity between the two billionaires came to the public glare last week, when Femi Otedola took full page advertorials in some national dailies accusing Aliko Dangote and one of his subsidiaries, Nova Finance and Securities of unethical practices, which he said caused the share price of his AP Plc holdings to plummet in the Nigerian capital market. At its peak, Huhuonline.com learnt that Otedola’s AP shares sold for N239, but has plummeted to below N60; a development he blames on Dangote.

The Otedola advertorials read: “Our investigations have revealed that Messrs Nova Finance and Securities Limited, acting under the instruction of, and with the active support and connivance of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, has been primarily responsible for the steep decline in the value of the shares of AP Plc on the floor of the NSE. “Indeed, our investigations revealed that in the last eight weeks, there had been premeditated and orchestrated ‘crossing’ of AP Plc shares among other entities owned and controlled by either Alhaji Aliko Dangote or Nova Finance and Securities Limited.”

Otedola was said to have voiced his resolve and determination to use all machinery and available avenues to pay back Dangote in his own coin. Peeved and embarrassed by Otedola’s public accusations which he interpreted to mean a personal affront, Huhuonline.com was told by sources who elected anonymity, that Dangote too has vowed that he will do everything within his power to instigate frustrations for and make Otedola’s financial misfortunes worse.

There seems to be unanimity of opinion that price fixing and insider trading has been the stock in trade in the Nigerian capital market. Keen observers therefore see Otedola’s accusations as purely a case of the kettle calling the pot black. It is worth recalling that in February 2008, the Security and Exchange Commission accused Femi Otedola and AP Plc of price manipulation, but took no action against him.

The seeds for the rupture of the once cozy relationship between the two men were said to have been planted during the former administration through a series of orchestrated transactions with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo acting as canon fodder. Sources close to the former president told Huhuonline.com that Dangote felt irritated and short changed by OBJ’s tacit support that enabled Otedola to covertly acquire major shares in Dangote’s cement conglomerate using proxies. The alleged manipulation by Dangote and Nova Finance and Securities and the resulting financial woes of AP Plc was a means of nailing Otedola to the cross; encroaching into his territory, in preparation for a hostile corporate take over.

Huhuonline.com investigations revealed that the cat-and-mouse relationship between Aliko Dangote and ex-president Obasanjo hit a snag when the Bureau of Public Enterprise led by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (presently a Mason Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government) sold the Benue Cement Company to the Dangote Group. The former president was so angry that he was not inform and reportedly ordered the privatization agency to cancel the deal. However, relations between Dangote and OBJ warmed up when then vice-president and principal financier, Atiku Abubakar refused to bankroll OBJ’s re-election campaign. Dangote is said to have come to Obasanjo`s rescue with a two billion naira cash donation that helped guaranteed the president’s re-election. And Dangote believes that between him and Otedola, OBJ who acted as “Godfather” to the two men gave him the short end of the stick. That was then. With OBJ no longer in power, the chicken has come home to roost, resulting in a free for all melee, as both men and their proxies are seriously engaged in undoing each other.

As Huhuonline.com reported, in 2007, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola floated a consortium, called Blue Star oil Services Limited, with which they bought the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, under shady circumstances. In a consortium, each participant retains its separate legal status and the consortium's control over each participant is generally limited to activities involving the joint endeavor. A consortium is formed by contract, which delineates the rights and obligations of each member. However, the official Blue Star Oil Services tender to purchase the refineries; signed by Aliko Dangote lists only Aliko Dangote and Sanni Dangote of Dangote Group as directors. Femi Otedola or Zenon Oil was not listed. Nevertheless, Nigerians were told by the Bureau of Public Enterprise that Blue Star Oil Services was a consortium of Dangote Groups and Zenon Oil. The KRPC sale, which poses more questions, than answers, has since been annulled, thanks to the citizens of Nigeria.

Last year, after Huhuonline.com broke the story on Aliko Dangote shady deals in the Bureau of Public Enterprises, one Jonathan Ango, ostensibly an Aliko Dangote proxy wrote to us: “Don’t know what your stake is in the Dangote saga. I also do not know Dangote apart from what I hear and read in the media. What I know is we cannot pretend to be a capitalist democracy, if the government must continue to run commercial ventures. I do not see anything wrong in Dangote having his candidate in the BPE or his buying up the refineries, if he can pay for it and it runs efficiently on a profit basis and he dutifully pays his taxes. At least, he will guarantee employment and hence boost the Nigerian economy. At least he has proven himself in the sugar and cement companies he has bought over. Or would you rather have the refineries run by incompetent bureaucrats and civil servants causing a drain pipe in the economy? Capitalism the world over has its short comings, but it is far better than socialism (state controlled business), that is why it collapsed in the countries that practiced it. Except if you have a personal grudge against Dangote as a person. What of Otedola buying up AP”?

With the SEC now wading into the crisis, the question now begging for an answer is: are we actually at the beginning of the end, as Wilson Churchill, one time British Prime Minister once asked - or the end of the beginning? It’s a wait and see game which only time will tell.

Full Text of Femi Otedola`s Advertorial.

Na God Na im dey catch those two criminals who ve fleeced d country dry with thier criminal business antics.No thanks to dat idiot they call OBJ,these re d products of his recklessness.they shall continue d hostile take over each other's in Jesus name.Breeze don blow foul yansh don open.I ve always said dat these two blokes re criminals,their biz module is to use thier political connection to kill dier competitors,Dat stupid illitrate mallam did it to ibeto,eagles cement and many in dat line of biz,2day wat do we ve a skyrocket prize hike of cement,our refineries wont work 2day because of d lykz of dangote,Otedola,Adenuga,IBB and d likes.I mean what can possibly xplain d enormous wealth of these criminals in a space of 5yrz if not unfair biz practice,all of dem cant survive in a fair competitive Mkt like d US or europe,dier biz re 80% oil dependent,they aint in d other sectorz lyk Manufacturing which is stil dominated by real biz men 4rm d middle east.Billionz my ass,bunch of crimial desperadoes.

Honestly i don't really understand what this Dayo Coker want to achieve by painting
The person of Otedola black when we all know that Aliko is dirtier in every transactions
he ventured into as Aboki concern

Dayo you need to get a life and stop abusing the tabloid for professionalism sake

Non of them is clean because they are all beneficiary/custodian of the stolen billions from our
treasury.

Stop taking side and face the facts

Kai DayoCoker !!!!
U dey vex !!!!!!

thank God, femi otedola and aliko dangote r friends again, apparently the guy that owns THISDAY was the peace maker, Bless him