A former Assistant Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, Tarique Ghaffur, has commenced investigations into the contract award of cargo and crude oil tracking note scheme to a Belgian firm, Antaser BV, by the Federal Government.
Donnington Nigeria Ltd and its technical partner, Vortexa UK, the companies that were allegedly shortchanged in the wrongful award, had been at legal loggerheads with the Federal Government.
The firm is also in legal tussle with Antaser Belgium and Antaser Nig Ltd, Velocity Logistics and Maritime Services, Winslow Logistics, Equal Logistics and Saham Crystal Investment Nig Ltd and individuals, the purported beneficiaries of the project to implement the Advanced Cargo Declaration/Cargo Tracking Note Scheme.
Donnington, which alleges wrongdoing and breach of extant laws in the contract award, engaged the services of Ghaffur to dig into the contract award, as it alleges that the award was in breach of relevant provision of the Public Procurement Act.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Managing Director of the company, Mohammed Sani, who stated, “We have some compelling information which leads us to suspect that wrongdoing within the high levels of the Federal Government, its ministries and agencies, has taken place.
“Accordingly, we have engaged Tarique Ghaffur, a former Assistant Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, and his team of public corruption and economic crime experts, to investigate such wrongdoing, which appears to have its foundations in the continuation of thefts of crude oil.”
It is widely believed by a cross-section of Nigerians that government officials and top brass of the military are complicit in the crude oil theft.
Donnington alleged that the award to Antaser Bv Belgium and the other companies was because those in government were looking for a smokescreen for their allies in the organised crime of oil theft.
It stated that as of January 2024, the Federal Government had unilaterally appointed six other companies to implement the cargo tracking scheme, instead of Donnington Nigeria Ltd, which had complied with all the requirements, including gaining Presidential approval on May 4, 2021, for the re-introduction of the scheme.
The company said it had also secured other relevant approvals from the various ministries and agencies.
It states that Ghaffur, who has successfully led many high-profile international investigations, both while with the police as head of Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate, and as the head of an international security consultancy, had already commenced his pre-investigation review.
He was quoted in the statement as saying, “My team and I shall explore all legal means to robustly gather evidence to prove criminal intentions and related acts.
“We know from our previous work that criminals permeate the highest levels of many governments, and their ultimate victims are the citizens they are supposed to serve.
“Organised crime takes many forms, and it is in this case our mission to expose such criminality wherever we find it, and Nigeria is no exception.”
Sani added that the investigation would be far reaching and extend both domestically and internationally, to jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and the United States, including known repositories for criminal assets and laundered money.
Meanwhile, the firm stated that the certified documents obtained from the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria showed that appointees of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government might have used proxy companies to hijack the cargo tracking scheme contract, which triggered the legal tussle between Donnington Ltd and the Federal Government.
“Intriguing, is the fact that they secured the contract, worth billions of naira, without due diligence, as investigations reveal that four out of the five companies used were not registered with the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC.
“This tends to suggest that the government officials involved unduly influenced the Bureau of Public Procurement, whose duty it is to carry out due diligence.
“Only Velocity Nigeria Ltd was duly registered, according to checks. The four others companies, which were not endorsed by SCUML, as required, are Antasar Nigeria Ltd, Equal Logistics Ltd, Winslow Logistics Ltd and Sahams Crystal Investment Ltd.
“This was confirmed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a letter to solicitors of Donnington Nigeria Ltd, which was dated March 30, 2023. It was in response to their inquiry after they had gone to court to challenge the sham award of the said CTN contract,” the company stated.
This aside, it stated that Antaser BV Belgium and Antaser Nig Ltd were both indicted alongside Transport and Port Management System Ltd by the EFCC in 2011 in a case involving financial crime.
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently said that one of the reasons why Nigeria’s economy is in ruins is that while other oil-producing countries have records of their oil production, Nigeria cannot account for hers due to theft.
“And this investigation by ex-Scotland Yard’s crime chief would be welcomed by commonplace Nigerians, who are currently lumbering through a historic hardship, amid soaring prices and high cost of living,” it stated.
The statement stated that Kroll Associates UK, a financial investigation company, was also engaged to investigate and expose the beneficial owners of the six companies favoured by the Nigerian government – using money trail to link the real owners and it was based on their preliminary report that a criminal investigation became necessary.
The firm stated that its efforts to get the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to react to the issue were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources could not be reached for comments on Monday, as they did not respond to enquiries on the matter.
