The full details of the $3 million bribery scandal involving members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Fuel Subsidy probe were revealed yesterday, as one of the major actors in the scandal has opened up on what transpired.


In an exclusive interview with THISDAY, chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, who hitherto was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery scandal, blew the lid on what transpired and how chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the secretary of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by the security agencies.


The amount was part payment for the $3 million, which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon Oil from the ad-hoc committee’s report.


As the scandal unfolds, it was learnt that operatives of the State Security Services have sent a video recording of the incident to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further scrutiny and action.


Otedola, who was opening up on the issue for the first time, narrated how Lawan at the outset of the probe had approached him to get some insight into the workings of the downstream oil and gas sector.


Otedola said he obliged him and ensured that his managing directors of Forte Oil Plc and Zenon Oil appeared at the subsidy probe during its public hearing after both companies had been invited by the committee.


During the probe, he said the committee was informed in no uncertain terms that Zenon does not and has never made claims for subsidy payments from the federal government, as the company was engaged solely in the importation of diesel, a product that is not subsidised.
Zenon’s managing director, Mr. Kanmi Kareem Otaru, during the probe had denied that the company had anything to do with the subsidy regime. He told the committee, “For the avoidance of doubt Zenon never participated or benefited from the subsidy scheme or Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).”


According to him, going by the Act which established the PSF scheme, “Zenon couldn’t participate in it because we don’t have a network of PMS retail outlets which was one of the key criteria beneficiaries must meet and as such we are not qualified to participate to draw from subsidy payments on PMS. So we never collected as records will show.”


Irrespective of the clarification made at the hearing, Otedola said Lawan still approached him a few days before the report was to be tabled on April 18, 2012 before the House of Representatives, demanding money so that Zenon’s name will be kept out of the report.
“When this happened, I was very angry and reminded him that Zenon has never participated in the subsidy scheme and that it would be criminal to rope in the company for something it did not do.


“But Lawan responded, stating that several other marketers were playing ball and had offered the members of the committee large sums of money to ensure that their companies’ names were not published in the report,” he added.


Otedola, said initially he balked at Lawan’s attempt to extort money from him and told the legislator that he would not pay up, as Zenon had not committed any crime.


“Then a day before the report was to be submitted, Lawan called again, informing me that Zenon’s name had been included in the report.
“I, of course, was very angry and asked him to desist from his course of action, but Lawan insisted that I must pay up as other oil marketers had done before me.”


Otedola said he could not believe his eyes the next day when the report came out and Zenon’s name had been listed under the category of companies that had bought foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but had not imported petrol.


The amount ascribed to Zenon in the report was $232,975,385.13. The report had recommended that Zenon and 14 other marketers that had bought the foreign exchange be referred to the anti-corruption agencies to determine what they used the monies for.
Otedola said at this point he again called Lawan demanding that Zenon’s name be removed from the list, as there was no way his company could have bought that volume of foreign exchange without importing products.


“I reminded him that the amount ascribed to Zenon was wrong as what the company bought was over $400 million for importation of products through the banks – Zenith, UBA and GTB – and that under Sanusi (CBN governor) there was no way anyone could have bought that quantity of foreign exchange and not imported the products having filled the Form M.


“Sanusi will simply clamp down on anyone who tries to pull that kind of stunt,” he said.
In spite of this, Otedola said Lawan still demanded that the members of the committee be given money in exchange for removing Zenon’s name from the report before it is considered in plenary by the entire House.


Otedola said he then asked how much would be required to make the committee happy, to which Lawan responded $3 million.
“I screamed at him, demanding to know why he was doing this to me. All he said was other marketers were paying up to keep their names out of the report so I should do likewise,” he said.


Otedola revealed that it was this point he decided to involve the security agencies to catch Lawan and his committee with their hands in the till.


According to him, “As a law-abiding citizen, I decided to involve the security agencies and they advised me to play along, which prompted me to offer to pay part of the money with the promise that I would pay the balance when my company’s name had been removed from the report."


The security agencies, he disclosed, gave him serialised dollar bills for the sting job and there are call logs, video and audio recordings in the possession of the agencies to confirm all that had transpired between himself and Lawan.


He said on April 21, the Saturday before the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected $250,000 in cash, as the first instalment, “then the next Monday night he came and collected another $250,000.


“On Tuesday, at 9am, just before the House commenced seating, Boniface came and collected another $120,000.”
Otedola confirmed that during the sting, Lawan and Boniface collected a total of $620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3 million demanded from him.


He added that with the $620,000 that had been extorted by Lawan and the committee, during the plenary, Zenon’s name was removed from the list of companies that had bought foreign exchange but did not import products.


Otedola continued: “He (Lawan) now asked for the balance of $2.5 million, but when I told him that I had no money now that the money was in Lagos, he suggested that I should charter a plane to fly the money from Lagos to Abuja.”


Otedola stressed that his decision to get the law enforcement and security agencies involved stemmed from the fact that he had not broken any law, maintaining that as a law-abiding citizen, he was saddened by the fact that he was being blackmailed by of all people, members of the legislature.


“If you have information that an armed robber is come to raid your home, won’t you notify the police? So, that was the purpose of the sting operation.


“Besides, my integrity is paramount to me. I started selling petroleum products 14 years ago in drums and somebody who has never run a petrol station is trying to blackmail and extort money from me.
“If others (marketers) have paid money, maybe they are guilty. But I did not do anything wrong, so why should they extort money from me? As a law-abiding citizen, I had to involve the security agencies. Indeed, I’m very disappointed because I have worked hard to build my business.”


Insisting that he had nothing to hide or fear over what had happened, Otedola maintained if he was in the wrong he would not have involved the security agencies in the first instance.


In a reference to the strong denials made by Lawan since the scandal became public, Otedola stated, “When he (Lawan) demanded the bribe, I called the agencies. That is because I had nothing to hide. When the bribe was paid, why did he not call and report it to the agencies if he had nothing to.”

Meanwhile, THISDAY gathered that the videotape of the illicit transaction had been sent to the EFCC to investigate the incident.
When contacted, the EFCC, however, said it had neither received the videotape nor had it commenced investigations into the bribery scandal.

EFCC Head of the Media Unit, Mr. Wilson Uwugiaren, said the allegation had not been brought to the knowledge of the commission.
According to him, the only related matter currently being handled by the EFCC was the report of the ad-hoc committee that the commission was studying to establish the facts and track down anyone found culpable for the alleged mismanagement of the PSF.

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Check out d "Wicked & Devilish" act Airtel mgt (majorly indians) is proposing to implement for its Call Center Agents in Abuja come Oct 1st 2011. .

1. Annual Leave: Just 6days out of 365days. Slavery@its peak!

2. Working Hrs:
6 workdays, 48hrs per week, 8hr per day. U can only appreciate ds if U work in a call centre & knw wat it takes to work 48hrs in a week! Wt ds after 3months, U wl be a walking corpse awaiting d undertakers pastime >=)

3. Staff Strength to be reduced by 50% of d present work force. Jus imagine d families, dependant & attachments of dos pple dat wl lose deir job going hungry! Not to mention d multiplier effect on d already battered 9ja economy, wat abot the increase in crime rate:/

4. New people will be recruited based on d current market prices i.e the
dedire McGisanrin: the remaining 50% "fortunate" workers not sacked would be re-employed & deir salary slashed by almost 70% (current market price so dey say) Check oda telecom operators & U knw d current market price isnt wat dey are planing to be paying going forward.

Breakdown of deir wicked act:
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this must not be condoned.

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personally, i think our government is responsible for the unruly treatment metted out to prospective tourists/visitors to the United States. i think the ways the interviews are conducted does not give cognisance to the issue of privacy, why would you expose personal information when conducting interviews, because the way the process is, is that many others waiting for their turn get to listen in to the coversation between the interviewer and prospective travellers,

i guess its because a lot of the topshots get their visas via their protocol offices so they dont feel the pinch, those americans are just out there to collect our hard earned money, refusing us visas for not tangible excuse but for vague reasons of not being sure if you are coming back and financial situation, with no recourse to appeal also, thats absolutely rubbish, at least the UK gives you an opportunity to appeal, imagine refusing an applicant because he is single, wtf? Is he not going there to spend his money? kmt

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i am suprised that no one has mentioned Gini, the guy who directed Dagrin's Pon pon pon, as well JJC aka Skillz of the BigBoiz ent, many of these guys videos are topclass.

The on going controversy involving Ruggedman and 9ice has taken a new dimension this week as Ruggedman has released a recorded conversation between himself and 9ice, where he asked that 9ice should come out in the open and reveal to the whole world who he was referring to in one of the tracks (Once beaten Twice shy) in his latest album (Tradition), as rumours have it that he (9ice) caught his girl(Tony Payne) giving his guy (Ruggedman) noddin (Mouth Gig) as the lyrics of the song suggest.

this is the statement issued by Rugedman on this issue:

“It started as a rumour that 9ice caught his wife Toni Payne giving Ruggedman a Mouth Action.I wondered where such a terrible rumour emanated from only to find out it was from 9ices song titled ”once bitten twice shy”.In the song done by my own friend,he sang that he saw his ”girl” (Not his wife Toni Payne) giving his ”friend”(Not Ruggedman) a Mouth Action.Since 9ice himself did not mention anybodys name in the said song I thought nothing of the evil,wicked rumour,but it spread wider and i heard a lot of people started assuming a lot and i have been called so many things by people over something i did not do.

Even some shameless soft sells unproffessionally published the rumour based on heresay, without talking to the partys involved,but i dont blame them.Some will publish anything just to sell.

I expected 9ice as a friend to come out and clear it up by announcing to people that it was not me he sang about in his song but till date he has not done so to reasons best known to him i guess.I called 9ice to talk about it and clear it up and he said so many things including that he will not come out and clear my name that has been dragged into a maliscous rumour.
I did not want to believe that 9ice has refused to clear it up because it is helping his album sales like some people have said.I did not want to believe it but I am happy i recorded the conversation and I want you all to hear for urselves what he said to me so that this rumour can stop once and for all.

Hear 9ice himself now and know that NOTHING OF THAT NATURE EVER HAPPENED BETWEEN TONI PAYNE AND RUGGEDMAN.

Pls after this,if anybody dares to mention my name in such a thing again its only God that will deal with such a person. ”
Ruggedman

also find for your use the link for the conversation:

http://www.notjustok.com/2010/05/11/notjustok-exclusive-rugged-man-9ices-private-phone-conversation-toni-payne-leaked/

Seriously, this is becoming so embarassing? Former Intercontinental bank CEO who has been accused of stealing a whooping sum of N346 billion is is puported to be living a largese life in the United Kingdom. A friend of mine said he spotted him in a bar in Manchester a few months ago casually having a meeting with a black guy and two other whites; apparently executives of the London branch of Intercontinental bank.

This aftermath goes to show that Nigeria is only good at ''starting'' but poor at ''finishing''. This could send a wrong message to prospective looters who'd be encouraged to follow suit. Please Interpol should be involved and extradite this fake pastor back to Nigeria to pay for his sins.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that not even “Jesus Christ” can conduct an acceptable election in Nigeria and that the nation would continue to have disputed election results except politicians are reformed.

The former president who appointed the outgoing INEC boss said, “with all due respect, if Jesus Christ could come to the world and be the chairman of INEC, any election he would conduct will be disputed.”
Obasanjo said what was required was the urgent need to reform Nigerian politicians for the nation to have acceptable elections in 2011

“Since I got here three days ago, I understand that the chairman of INEC has been asked to go on leave. People have also talked about electoral reform.
“Quite honestly, I have said that I don’t understand in detail what this electoral reform is. One thing that we need to reform in our own society is the politician. We need to reform politicians,” Obasanjo stressed.
He said he first participated in elections in Nigeria in 1959 and since then, there has been no election conducted that has not been disputed.


“It will be difficult to have a perfect election. What is important is that the result of an election should reflect the will of the people,” he said.The former president also said he was optimistic about the role of the Nigerian youth in the future of the nation.
“One thing that is very bright and makes me happy in Nigeria is that the generation that is coming behind is very bright.
“The other day, I was saying that the generation before my generation gave us independence. Whatever may be their inadequacies, at least they gave us independence.


“Somebody asked me what can be credited to our generation and I said our generation fought for the unity of Nigeria and our generation laid the foundation of democracy in Nigeria.
“There is this up and coming generation, I will not be mentioning names, but they are good and I have seen them,” he said.

culled from ThisDay Online.

But seriously? what is the bad representation, are these artistes not potraying the police force the way it is? Cos if we are talking of rebranding, then the police should put its house in order, In fact, i dare to say that the actors are not even doing justice to truly depicting the evils the Nigerian police do in their police stations as well as on Nigerian roads.

The Nigeria Police Force has warned that henceforth any abusive or unlawful use of the police uniform will be resisted, while the users will be arrested, prosecuted and the offensive material impounded.
The Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, who gave the warning Monday noted with dismay that despite several overtures, many artistes have continued to use the uniforms of the police and other security agencies to dramatize their trade, and is largely done without due authorization and in flagrant disobedience of the law.


According to him, “of recent, movie producers, actors actresses, musicians and comedians have resorted to the use of these uniforms and accoutrements in manners that are lewd, immoral and offensive contrary to the discipline expected of the police and other security agencies”.


The IGP, warned that the Nigeria Police seriously frown at the tendencies of these producers, actors, actresses, musicians and comedians to ridicule and scandalize the organization, as if they have no stake in the law enforcement agencies.
He advised these groups that the Nigeria Police Force is the police of Nigeria for Nigeria and by Nigerians, and as such, any minus on the organisation is a minus on everyone.


Onovo added that in this era of national rebranding, it is advisable for all and sundry to join in the effort to project a positive image of the country, its agencies and peoples.

culled form ThisDay Online

Pls, who is Lola Omotayo? What does she do?

Truth is, it is totally absurd that the leader of a natio would be incommunicado with the people he leads for so much as a 100 dayz. Its not even possible that Obama would be AWOL for 5 days without the American public knowin bout his status!

what is the pricing like?

could someone pls tell me where to buy the forms im ready to resign if it comes to that. jokes here say we should stick to naija dat has done nothn 4 me rATHER MAKN IT DIFFCULT FOR ME 2 SURVIVE . A NATION DAT SEES ME AS A threat, abeg ude where can i get da forms

lets start by knowing ourselves and identyfyn members of dat old generation

@el prinz, i seriously think that the issue at hand is way beyond tribal sentiments, if the akingbolas and ibrus had not mismanaged the public funds left in their care, sanusi would probably have taken a different approach if "he wants to get rid of south own banks", what i am saying is that there is a rot in the system, and if proactive measures wasnt taken, then the fire brigade approach is all we've got.

Seriously, its about time that neccesary steps are taken to forestall a looming crisis in that sector, customers' confidence in the ailing banks have already been eroded, as too much damages have been done by the erstwhile CEOs, i'd rather see those banks put up for sale than see a lot more bankers loose their jobs.

it is quite astonishing to see that a so called pastor CEO had amassed so much wealth and he's yet to be arrested. This clearly is sending wrong signals to future ceos as well as the outside world. The government should not hesitate to confiscate properties belonging to the directors of the ailing banks and use proceeds from it's sales to bail out some of the banks before selling them, but then again, selling those banks is not the ultimate solution, as lessons should have been learnt and culprits punnished, while corporate governence should be instilled back into the system by adequate monitoring by the regulatory bodies.

@ poster: this is such a boring topic, where is the intellectual creativity in nairaland? poof,

@ Ops E, u are damn right, that girl is an absolute waste of time, and disgrace to this country, she just pisses me off, my tv automatically changes to cartoon network anytime the cameras are on her, just to tell u how bad it is. I can't wait to see her get outta the program