Justice Lawal Akapo of the Federal High Court in Ikeja, Lagos, was
yesterday told how Ifeanyi Anosike and his company, Anosyke Group of
Companies, refused to carry out any Ship-to-Ship transfer of 15,000
metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) contrary to claims to that
effect.
A statement by the spokesman of Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, yesterday in Abuja said Anosike and
his company are being prosecuted by the commission on charges bordering
on forgery and conspiracy to obtain by false pretence the sum of
N1,537,278,880.82 from the Petroleum Support Fund.
According to the prosecution witness, Oghare Ebunu, who is an
operative of the EFCC, investigations revealed that there was no
transfer of petroleum product from the mother vessel, MT KLARA, to a
first daughter vessel, MT MARITINA, at Offshore Cotonou, where the
content was claimed to have been transferred into SP Boston and Emocean
by Anosyke.
Ebunu told the court that it was discovered during investigation that
Anosyke Group of Companies was licensed to import 15,000 metric tonnes
of PMS, and which Anosyke claimed was actually imported and transferred
under the watchful eyes of SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited from a
mother vessel MT KLARA to MT MARITINA and again to SP BOSTON and
EMOCEAN.
Ebunu further told the court that SGS never witnessed the
Ship-to-Ship transfer from MT Klara to MT Maritina and that the
certificate of quantity transfer usually issued by the inspectorate to
certify that they witnessed the Ship-to-Ship transfer presented by
Anosyke did not emanate from SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited.
Ebunu also told the court that a letter from Mercuria Trading NV,
where the marketer was said to have procured the product, clearly stated
that the marketer was not known to them and that the claimed transfer
of petroleum product from MT Klara to MT Maritina was not verified by
them as claimed by Anosyke.
The accused also claimed that SP Boston and Emocean discharged their
contents at Master Energy storage facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State, and Rain Oil facility at Oghara in Delta State respectively.
When asked by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) to further
explain the findings of the anti-graft agency as regards the location of
the vessel on the said date of Ship- to-Ship transfer, the witness
told the court that “according to Lloyd List Intelligence (LLI) which is
saddled with the responsibility of giving the location of vessels at
any point in time, on the date Anosike purportedly claimed the
Ship-to-Ship transfer took place, MT Klara was in Brazil and nowhere
near the Nigerian waters.
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