Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Uba, the chairman of Capital Oil and Gas, on Tuesday lamented what he described as the arm twisting of the federal government-owned
Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to intimidate and frustrate his
company into liquidation.
He also lamented of the political angle to the
alleged arm-twisting in order to abandon his political party, the Young
Progressive Party (YPP), and join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Uba further lamented that the actions of the
regulatory body, AMCON, has rendered 1,463 Nigerians jobless.
The senator, who is the Vice Chairman of the ninth
Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, spoke to select journalists yesterday
in preparation for Wednesday's mediation
talks brokered between AMCON and Capital
Oil and Gas by Olisa Agbakoba (SAN).
According to Uba, the government regulatory body, "AMCON,
is abusing powers vested on it in trust by the parliament to criminalise
commercial disputes with a view to overreaching, blackmailing and subduing him
whilst exposing them to unwarranted media opprobrium. He explained that AMCON
has continued to consciously or otherwise present itself as a tool for fighting
economic and political wars against Senator Ubah.
He said at the meeting with journalists that "as
you may be aware, Capital Oil and Gas was at all material time a company with
assets of strategic national importance in the downstream sector of Nigeria,"
and that his company woes started from the reclassification of obligor limits
by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the aborted deregulation policy of the
Federal Government of Nigeria in 2011 that Capital Oil and Gas invested close
to 150million dollars in acquiring vessels, dredging and others.
Uba stated that in 2012, the Capital and Gas was
shocked to realise that AMCON secretly went to the Federal High Court in suit no:
FHC/ABJ/CS/714/2012 and obtained freezing orders to take possession of Capital
Oil and Gas assets, including its depot at Ibafon.
"We (Capital
Oil and Gas) approached the same Federal High Court vide a motion on notice,
and sought orders to set aside the earlier ex parte orders obtained by AMCON.
The court in a considered ruling set aside the baseless and reckless orders
obtained by AMCON and noted that the purpose for which AMCON was established
was to assist Nigerian companies to recovery and not to drive them to
insolvency," he said.
The senator added: "Thereafter, Capital Oil
and Gas and AMCON held negotiations and executed a Terms of Settlement and a
Restructuring and Facility agreement, and these were entered as judgment of the
court on June 21, 2013. The consent judgment stated inter alia that the
Restructured Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) would be repaid over a nine-year period
while AMCON was required to inject funds to boost liquidity thereby enabling Capital
Oil and Gas meet its funding requirements without disposing off key assets. It
is important to note that at all material times, the assets of Capital Oil and
Gas were far above its obligations to AMCON."
The embattled senator noted that Capital Oil and
Gas had an obligation to provide transferred assets which it believed had a
value of N78.55billion to AMCON by the consent judgment, adding that AMCON and Capital
Oil and Gas at all times agreed that the aggregate market value of the assets given
to AMCON was up to N78.55billion.
“However, AMCON had an obligation under the consent
judgment to appoint an independent valuer who was to within 90 days from the
date of the consent judgment, value the said assets and determine that their
forced sale value was up to N.55billion, but AMCON never did.
Uba said it was after Capital Oil and Gas had
fulfilled its obligation under the consent judgment to provide assets worth
N78.55billion to AMCON, explaining that AMCON approached Capital Oil and Gas with
a request for additional assets, with an alleged shortfall of N15billion
without disclosing their independent valuation report.
According to him, "In a bid to arm-twist Capital
Oil and Gas and its then Managing Director, Mr. Mustapha Chike Obi, AMCON wrote
a petition to the then Inspector General of Police (IG) aimed at coercing Capital
Oil and Gas and its managing director to accede to its earlier request. In the
petition to the then IG, AMCON stated that a shortfall of N15billion existed in
assets provided by Capital Oil and Gas. In other words, AMCON’s position was
that the properties listed in the schedule to the consent judgment and the
R&FA had a forced sale value of N63billion.
"Despite Capital Oil and Gas’s vehement
objection to AMCON’s unjustified request for additional assets valued at N15billion,
Capital Oil and Gas in good faith went ahead to provide more assets to AMCON in
excess of the N15billion requested. The issue of valuation and Capital Oil and
Gas’s compliance with its obligation to provide assets with a forced sale value
of N78.55 billion was thereby resolved and laid to rest. This fact is confirmed
by the implementation roadmap issued by AMCON and their lawyer, Olaniwun Ajayi."
No comments:
Post a Comment