By Dipo Olowookere
The N3.1 billion subsidy fraud case instituted against Eterna Plc; Managing Director of the firm, Mr Mahmud Tukur; Abdullahi Alao; Ochonoghor Alex; and Axenergy by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has been dropped.
Counsel to the EFCC informed Justice H. O Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja on Friday, February 14, 2020, that having reviewed the facts of the case, it will be extremely impossible to further lead evidence in the matter against Eterna and Mr Tukur.
In December 2015, the EFCC had arraigned the defendants before Justice Lawal Akapo for allegedly diverting the money obtained from the federal government for the purpose of importing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol. They were also accused of forging 30 documents to defraud government in fuel subsidy.
In November 2017, during hearing before Justice Oshodi, Eterna and others claimed they imported and discharged PMS sometime in September, 2011 at a tank farm in Lagos, First Deep Water Discovery Limited, for which they were paid the sum of N626 million subsidy.
They also said they received the sum of N595 million from the government after claiming to have imported and discharged PMS at the same tank farm in Lagos sometime in October, 2011.
However, the witness, in his testimony, told the court how the accused, without any fuel importation, allegedly forged over 30 documents and submitted same to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to obtain the subsidy for importation of PMS in 2011.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, the witness said: “The owner of the vessel, MT Deepwater EX MT Valle Di Castiglia, and the claimed tank farm of discharge, First Deep Water Discovery Limited, denied the usage of their vessel for the transaction and also confirmed forgery of documents submitted by Eterna to PPPRA.
“The EFCC had access to Lloyds List Intelligence and search conducted for the movement of MT Valle Di Castiglia revealed that the vessel was at the Republic of Turkey all through the period that Eternal claimed to have taken PMS from it with MT Deepwater. So, how can a vessel that was in Turkey give products to another vessel in offshore Cotonou?”
Giving further evidence on both MT Fulmar Ex MT Emirates Star and MT Panther EX MT Emirates Star, the witness said the modus operandi employed by the defendants to defraud the government was alteration of bills of loading dates resulting in higher costs of importation.
He said: “The claimed MT Emirates has a bill of lading dated 28 April, 2011 which gave Eterna a loading cost of about N151.
“However, investigation revealed that the actual mother vessel for the transaction is MT GonHild Kirk, which had a bill of loading with the date of April 3, 2011, with landing cost of about N141.
“The government, acting on forged importation documents indicating MT Emirates Star, paid Eternal about N3.3 billion instead of N2.9 billion. Thus, Eterna was overpaid about N300,000,000.”
He added that search on LLyods Intelligence on Emirates Star indicated that the vessel sailed out of Doven Strait, United Kingdom and arrived New York, USA within the period that the Eterna documents claimed that the vessel was discharging its products into MT Fuliman and MT Panthern.
But in a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) this week, Eterna confirmed that this case has been struck out by the court after the prosecuting team stopped pushing the matter.
“Eterna Plc is pleased to announce that the criminal case instituted in 2012 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Eterna Plc, Mahmud Tukur and several other persons has been struck out,” the disclosure said.
