Another Nigerian oil mogul named in ex-Minister Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption, UK property frozen

Benedict Peters bought this £2.8m luxury flat in Harley House, London, in March 2011, with the help of London-based estate agent Daniel Ford. The property is now frozen.

Aiteo Chief Executive Officer, Benedict Peters, is the latest Nigerian oil mogul to be named in the case surrounding the bribery allegations against former Nigerian Oil Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Three London properties linked to the alleged bribery of Mrs. Alison-Madueke have been frozen under the UK Proceeds of Crime Act, at least one of which is owned by Mr. Peters.

The order, issued in September 2016 and obtained by Africa Confidential, forbids defendants Benedict Peters, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, Atlantic Energy’s Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, Christopher Aire (a jeweller for Mrs. Alison-Madueke) and Donald Amamgbo (her cousin) from disposing of or dealing with the properties.

Messrs Alison-Madueke, Aluko and Omokore were named in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DoJ) asset forfeiture, which stated that the same London properties totaling more than £10m were bought for the oil minister in order to secure lucrative Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs), which saw prized Nigerian oil assets passed to the minister’s cronies for pittance.

Mr. Peters’ company Aiteo has been linked to the 2015 INEC bribery scheme that saw Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s son, Ugonna Madueke, distribute $115million to INEC officials via Fidelity Bank in 2015.

But the inclusion of Mr. Peters as a defendant in the London case, which relates to an attempt to influence the former Minister’s contracting decisions, suggests that international investigations could be more wide ranging than was previously known.

Mr. Peters’ company, Aiteo, did not directly benefit from the SAAs, but it flourished under Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s oil ministry. As well as term contracts from the NNPC, Aiteo benefitted from the oil swaps, and bought Shell’s prize asset, OML 29. With Peters now in the frame, these deals could face the same scrutiny from international law enforcement as the notorious Atlantic SAAs.

London, via Houston

Mr. Peters has admitted to being the owner of the Seychellois company, Rosewood Investments Limited, who until now has been known as “co-conspirator #2” in the DOJ’s case. Rosewood Investments bought the £2.8m luxury flat in Harley House, London, in March 2011, with the help of London-based estate agent Daniel Ford.

Mr. Peters later bought luxury furnishings for the flat from Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s favourite Houston store, according to the US documents. The DoJ affidavit says over the course of two days in May 2011, Mr. Peters bought over $107,000 of furniture – including a sideboard worth more than $10,000 – that was later shipped to the UK and installed at Harley House.

Construction workers renovating Harley House over the summer of 2011 were introduced to Mrs. Alison-Madueke as “the architect”, and Kola Aluko, who was co-ordinating the renovation of Harley House in the summer of 2011, forwarded the plans for the apartment to the former minister.

Mr. Peters could not be reached to comment for this story. All his known telephone lines were switched off the multiple times PREMIUM TIMES called in three days. He is yet to respond to an email inquiry sent to him.

An official of his Sigmund Group, who was contacted by telephone, said he could not speak for Mr. Peters, and would not provide his latest contact details.

Diezani’s deals: the swaps and the blocks

The Swaps

Mr. Peters ran tank farms under the aegis of Sigmund Communnecci Limited until 2008, when a “re-branding” exercise renamed the company to Aiteo. Its success under the Goodluck Jonathan government has made it perhaps Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil and gas company.

Aiteo entered into its first offshore processing agreement (OPA) contract with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s Duke Oil in 2010 which gave the company 30,000 barrels of oil a day. Under the contact terms, Aiteo was supposed to refine the crude and import a set value of oil products in return. That deal was periodically renewed, but it was not renewed in 2014.

In January 2015, Aiteo received another OPA deal (90,000 barrels per day) directly from NNPC, but the contract was cancelled by the Buhari administration. That same time, the company took over Duke Oil’s 30,000 barrels per day OPA. The deal was also cancelled shortly afterwards.

Former Governor of Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi, published an explosive memo in 2014 that pointed to possible NNPC losses of $20billion between January 2012 and July 2013, and listed the oil swaps as potential leakage points. Experts pointed to numerous loopholes in the contracts that could have cost NNPC millions – including a clause stating that records relating to the contract could be disposed of after a year.

President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled the swap contracts as soon as he assumed the Nigerian presidency in 2015, but it took until March 2017 for Aiteo to repay $202m in “reconciliation” charges – and there has been little transparency over how this figure was arrived at.

The blocks

By arguably the most lasting deal that Mrs. Alison-Madueke presided over during her time at the oil ministry was the sale of Shell’s onshore assets in the Eastern Niger Delta. The jewel in the Shell’s divestment portfolio was the Nembe Creek Trunkline, a critical crude oil pipeline that takes crude from the Delta to Bonny Export terminal – and the OML 29 oil block.

The Aiteo consortium was announced as the highest bidder for the most valuable block, OML 29, in March 2014, just a month after Sanusi’s memo was published.

Aiteo and its partners, Igho Sanomi’s Taleveras and a little known trader, Tempo Energy, bid $2.85m for the block, which commentators considered inflated. None of the companies had experience of production, and Shell encouraged the consortium to join up with a company that did.

It took over a year to for the deal to be completed, and in that time, Shell’s Chief Financial Officer warned investors that it was “difficult to predict” how the company would get approval of the sales from the government. Under the Petroleum Act the Minister has power of approval for the sale of oil licences in which NNPC has stake.

The purchase of the block was finally completed just days before the 2015 election, financed by Citi Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank, and Union Bank Nigeria. The CBN demanded the reclassification of the loan in summer 2016 – as the Nigerian banking sector reached near crisis because of its exposure to Jonathan era deals.

The transaction was also partly funded by $512m of “seller financing” from Shell – under which Shell retains the exclusive rights to market oil from the block for the first five years.

Gunmen attack EFCC headquarters in Abuja

Damaged vehicle after the attacked on the EFCC headquarters

Abuja - The offices of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been attacked by unknown gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday, August 16, 2017.

In what has been described as an unprecedented security breach, the still unknown gunmen attacked, the Abuja annex of the Headquarters of the Commission located at Wuse Zone 7, Abuja, EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren stated.

He said a group of heavily armed bandits invaded the office at about 05.00 hours and began shooting into the premises.

He explained that they damaged vehicles parked in the premises but were repelled by guards on duty.

He added that the gunmen escaped in a getaway vehicle but not without leaving a message in a white envelope dropped by the fleeing attackers.

He said the white envelop contained a death threat addressed to Ishaku Sharu, a senior investigator with the Commission.

Ishaku who heads the Foreign Exchange Malpractices Fraud Section is in charge of corruption investigation involving several politically exposed persons and retired military brass.

The attack on the Zone 7 office which houses the Commission’s AMCON Desk, Procurement Fraud and Foreign Exchange Malpractices Sections, is coming few weeks after another investigator, Austin Okwor was shot and wounded by unknown assailants in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The EFCC acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu in a recent interview told Daily Trust that corruption is fighting back and corrupt people were after him.

The Commission under his leadership has boasted of increasing the tempo of the fight against corruption more than ever before.

It has also bragged that illicit moneys recovered within the last two years have surpassed all recovered loot since the inception of the Commission.

The EFCC said the latest incident has already been reported to the police for investigation.

Source: Daily Trust

Air Force man to die by hanging for killing female colleague

The General Court Martial of the Nigerian Air Force has sentenced Air Craftsman Kalu Bernard of the Nigerian Air Force Ammament unit, to death by hanging for killing his girlfriend and colleague, Miss Oladipupo Sholape on March 12, 2017

Makurdi - A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel, Air Craft Man (ACM), Kalu Bernard Ayomide, has been convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for killing his lover, Air Craft Woman Solape Oladipupo at the Airforce base in Makurdi.

The 22-year-old Ayomide was convicted based on charges of murder, house breaking, attempt to murder one Samuel Onah Echo, failure to perform military duties, disobedient to standing order and loosing service property.

Delivering the judgement at 8:30 pm yesterday, the President of the 10-man General Court Martial, Group Captain Elisha Bindul, held that the accused was guilty of six out of eight-count charges levelled against him.

Bindul therefore sentenced the convict to death by hanging.

It will be recalled that the convict had gunned down his lover, a female colleague, Air Craft Woman (ACW)  Oladipo Dorcas Sholape, on March 12 this year over suspicion that she was cheating on him.

The convict, ACM Kalu Bernard Ayomide, being led out of the venue of the court-martial. PHOTO BY: Hope Abbah

He had also made an attempt to shoot a civilian, Samuel Onah Echo, said to be a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who he (Ayomide) suspected was having an affair with the deceased.

The court however acquitted the convict of two-count charges of impersonation and misconduct of drinking Izal with impression of poisoning himself based on the fact that the prosecution could not prove both charges beyond reasonable doubt.

Counsel to the convict, Abimiku Ewuga, of the Ebofuame-Nezam chambers in Makurdi, said the court had delivered its judgment but added that the decision would to be tested at the appellate court.

The Prosecution, Oluremi Ilori, on his part said justice had been done and that the deceased would be happy in her grave.

Meanwhile, the court held that the verdict would be subject to confirmation of the convening authority.

Source: Daily Trust

New video: Factional leaders fight over aims of Boko Haram

A video released on Tuesday by the factional leader of Boko Haram accused Abubakar Shekau of going against the objectives of insurgents.

The video was posted on YouTube by Abu Musad Al-Barnawi.

In the video, Al-Barnawi accused Shekau of using Boko Haram to perpetrate crime.

Al-Barnawi, has predicted that the Shekau’s faction will suffer defeat at the hands of the Nigerian army.

He said that the group was created by Muhammad Yusuf for the purpose of propagating good teachings and practice of Islam.

Instead, Shekau, he said, had turned Boko Haram to an avenue for perpetrating all forms of criminality.


The video showed gory actions of Shekau, instead of the compassion they were supposed to show.

A man purporting to be a Boko Haram fighter threatened in a video April that the group will bomb Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a statement that should serve as a wake up call for Nigeria’s security services.

Reuters said the suspected fighter for the terrorist group made the threat in a video obtained by Saharareporters and Dubai-based Nigerian journalist, Ahmad Salkida.

“More bombs attacks are on the way, including Abuja that you feel is secured,” said the man in the video in Hausa. As he spoke, he was flanked by four other armed men.

In April, Department of State Services (DSS) said it had thwarted plans by Boko Haram to attack the British and U.S. embassies in Abuja.

About 82 girls were freed last Saturday in exchange for Boko Haram commanders after being held captive for three years. They were among about 219 kidnapped by the jihadist group from the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria in April 2014.

In a second video seen by Reuters, one of a group of four females covered in full-length Muslim veils claiming to be among the abducted girls said she did not want to return home.

“We don’t want to reunite with our parents because they are not worshipping Allah, and I urge you to join us,” she said, holding a rifle and speaking in the Hausa. She added: “We have not been forcefully married to anybody. Marriage is based on your wish.” NAN

NASS members on a mission to crash the war against corruption?

Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (Rtd)

By Abubakar Dangiwa Umar

There are good reasons why Nigerians should take more than a passing interest in the controversy generated by the actions of members of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs and that of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). If the reports in the media are true, the matter goes beyond the victimisation of one organ of government by another. It is a possibility that members of the National Assembly might be on a mission to crash the Federal Government's war against corruption using the power of ‘oversight’ as cover. Two recent incidents would serve to illustrate the danger.

Sometime in October/November, 2016, a rice trading company, Master Energy Commodities Trading Limited, imported into Nigeria 1,200 metric tons of rice in 30, 40-foot containers. In their attempt to evade paying the correct custom duties, they declared the ‘rice’ consignment as ‘yeast.’ The goods were later intercepted and seized on the orders of the Controller-General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hamid Ali (rtd). Unfortunately, this seemingly patriotic action by a public officer was seen as an affront to one senior member of the National Assembly. A Senator, the leader of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise & Tariff, wrote the CGC demanding that the consignment be released forthwith, on the dubious claim that he had investigated the matter and had found the importer blameless. His findings? That it was the clearing agent not the importer that called the goods ‘yeast’ instead of ‘rice’!

The CGC brushed aside this incredible story; as any right thinking person would do. But to the shock of many Nigerians, all hell broke loose. The Senate Committee then summoned the CGC to appear before them in uniform, seeing that as a retired Army colonel, he had refrained from wearing the Customs uniform. He was also directed to answer a long list of queries by this same angry panel. In the end, he was dragged before the Senate at plenary, put through a cruel inquisition, publicly humiliated and dismissed as "not fit to hold public office."

Fast-forward to last week. This time, a dubious scheme was uncovered in which a subsidiary company of the NPA went into a joint venture with a private company to manage the Calabar Port. Both the NPA subsidiary, called Calabar Channel Management, and the private company, Niger Global Engineering & Technical Company Limited, were incorporated together in 2014 just for this deal. The purported JV partner was then awarded a contract to dredge the Calabar channel, a contract the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPE) was to condemn as violating all due processes. This did not discourage them from demanding and getting a whopping US$12.5 million upfront payment from the NPA, or asking for a purported balance of  US$22 million.

In the meantime, a rash of petitions and reports had inundated the NPA against this contract, with many alleging it to be a bogus scam to siphon public funds. BPE was the first to cry out, saying both the award of the dredging contract and the initial payment of over N4 billion to Messrs Niger Global Engineering & Technical Company Limited were done in violation of the law. Even worse, all efforts of the new management of the NPA under Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman to find evidence of the dredging work purported to have been done in the Calabar channel at the time the company claimed to have done so were unsuccessful.

That is not all. There was also the report by a consultant that advised against a joint venture partnership for the purpose of managing the Calabar Port. Their reason was simply that maritime activities in the Calabar Port were too low, and that a joint venture scheme as obtained in Lagos and Bony was unsustainable.

Faced with these negative outcomes, the NPA management decided that national interest would be better served if the JV scheme, as well as the so-called dredging project are terminated. On its part, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has moved in with a mission to “recover public funds collected for job not done.”

Now, the name of the person driving this scheme is quite instructive going by the very loud and sustained counter attacks being mounted against the public officers; officers that insist that right things are done. He is the leader of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff. He is the owner of both the Niger Global Engineering & Technical Company Limited as well as the rice smuggling giant, Master Energy Commodities Trading Limited.

Nigerians must not leave the likes of Hamid Ali, Ibrahim Magu, Hadiza Bala Usman, (former BPP DG) Emeka Nzeh et al at the mercy of these strange law makers; politicians that have demonstrated time and again that they are in politics to serve themselves and themselves alone.

The experience of Hadiza Usman, the new MD of the NPA, is particularly sad. The more she tries to fight to reduce graft and perfidy, the more determined they seem to mobilise against her, to neutralise her and see her back. They want her out because, they now claim, she is ‘too young’ to manage a complex organisation such as NPA – even though she is past 40 years of age. Unashamed, they question the wisdom of appointing a woman to such a post – her training and experience counting for nothing; apparently.

Incidents such as these are the reason the Nigerian public feels let down by our Parliament. They are the reasons why a whole lot of Nigerians take a dim view of members of the National Assembly. Some even believe the conduct of our legislators is a major factor holding Nigeria down; why it is a laughing stock among the nations of the world.

It is the duty of all Nigerians to demand correct conduct from all public officials, including from members of the National Assembly, especially the Senate. Senator Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, must enforce discipline among his colleagues. No member of a committee, much less a Chairman, should remain in his duty post once credible information about possible crime is received on the person. We need not remind our political leaders, most of all our legislators, that punishment always follow excess.

•Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), a former Military Governor of Kaduna State, writes from Kaduna

Source News Express

Archbishop of Canterbury Visits Buhari in London

President Buhari with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Revd. Justin Welby at the Abuja House in London today

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Friday, paid a personal visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at Abuja House, London.

The Archbishop and President Buhari are friends, who share deep respect for each other.

Archbishop Welby said he was delighted to see the rapid recovery President Buhari has made from his health challenges, noting that it was a testimony to the healing powers of God, and answer to prayers of millions of people round the world.

The cleric pledged to continue praying for both President Buhari and Nigeria.

In his response, the Nigerian President thanked Archbishop Welby, whom he noted had always stood by him at critical times, and wished him God’s continued grace in his spiritual duty of leading the Anglican Communion worldwide.

When former British Prime Minister, David Cameron described Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt” country ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016, Archbishop Welby had retorted: “But this particular President (Buhari) is actually not corrupt.”

The Archbishop later personally received the Nigerian President at Lambeth Palace, London, and had also paid a goodwill visit to President Buhari in March this year, during his medical vacation. NAN

Aso Villa set for Buhari's return

Buhari Receiving visiting Governors in Abuja House London, last week

Abuja - All is now set for President Muhammadu Buhari’s return from the United Kingdom as State House staff have been put on standby.

Daily Trust reports that some family members of the president and his wife’s security aides arrived Abuja yesterday.

An aide to the wife of the president hinted that Mrs Aisha Buhari might also return to Nigeria Wednesday.

President Buhari has been in the United Kingdom since May 7 undergoing treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Mrs Buhari’s aide said: “The information just reached me now from the wife of the president, that everything is set for the return of Mr President to Nigeria. Already, some of the president’s family members and security aides of madam (Aisha Buhari) have just returned from London.

“The wife of the president may either leave London on Wednesday or decide to come home with the president anytime soon. We have been told to be on standby because Mr President is returning any time soon this week.”

Some staff of the State House, including security operatives, also said they got a directive yesterday, asking them to be on standby for the president’s return.

The staff, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, however added that the directive did not contain any specific date for the president’s return.

“We were only instructed to be ready for the return of the president at any moment. No specific date has been mentioned to us,” one of the staff said.

Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, had last Tuesday quoted Buhari to have told the president of Guinea, Alpha Conde that he was making good progress and that he would return to his duties as soon as doctors advise.

Yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Buhari received a goodwill message from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

Shehu, in a statement, quoted the CAN President, Rev Samson Ayokunle, as describing the news of Buhari’s recovery as “a rejuvenation of hope” and congratulating Nigerians “on the joy of having their president back soon.”

Shehu said: “Such messages of goodwill from respected religious bodies like CAN meant so much at a time, when people with ill intentions were struggling to divide the country along religious lines. He also thanked the CAN for its continued prayers for the President’s health. 

“The Presidency looks forward to further collaborations with CAN to ensure that Nigerians of all ethnic and religious groups benefit from the policies of the President Buhari administration which are aimed at improving the welfare of every single citizen of our great country.”

Daily Trust