Capital oil exonerates self from alleged N1.2 trillion frauds

Makes case for deregulation of downstream sector 
Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited has refuted claims by a Nigerian newspaper (not The Guardian), that about N1.2 trillion was allegedly siphoned from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accounts to its account to fund presidential campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Reacting to the story titled: “Fall out of Diezani’s arrest: EFCC hunts for Anyim, Ifeanyi Ubah, others, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, told journalists in Lagos, that the allegation was spurious and fallacious ploy to rope him and Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) into a phantom issue in order to canvass for his persecution.
Besides, Ubah made a case for the deregulation of the downstream sector in order to halt importation of Premium Motor Spirit in the country.

According to him, TAN is a duly registered non-governmental organisation with a strategic drive to raise the tempo of political awareness among Nigerians.

He stated: “I started TAN from cradle with my personal money. TAN’s programmatic emblem was to galvanise political opinion in support of what it believed to be the laudable development strides of government. For anyone to now insinuate that TAN was an agency of the government is the height of deliberate falsehood and propaganda.
“We are putting the records straight in order for Nigerians not to swallow hook, line and sinker stories written by questionable characters who parade themselves as investigative journalists but are actually pursuing political vendetta and professional blackmail”.

Ubah said that TAN’s connection to the travail of the former minister of petroleum resources, Alison-Madueke could be easily seen as the figment of the imagination of the author and his sponsors and exposes their arcane banality and fallowness.
He described TAN as a non-governmental organisation that had a transparent outing which elevated political discourse and activities in Nigeria to another level. “I want to make it loud and clear at different fora that no money from government was used in running TAN activities.

But those who is one way or another are intimidated by the achievement of the public advocacy group have been trying to drag it into an unnecessary controversy. I do not need to secure the order of a court to enforce his fundamental rights, unless it is under threat as provided in our constitution”, he added.

He argued that the basic prerequisite for the media is to submit itself to a robust self-regulation in order to serve as a credible arbiter and veritable conscience of the society. “The Nigerian journalism, which has been a force to be reckoned with, must robustly resist the temptation to diminish the society. It must always elevate it for the good of all Nigerians”, he added.

Making case for deregulation, Ubah said that the prevailing massive importation of petroleum prod­ucts was sapping the lean for­eign exchange earnings of the country at a time of steep fall in the prices of crude oil in the in­ternational market.

He pointed at huge subsidy debt overhang in the market as key stress index in the subsidy arrangement and warned that the efficient deregulation of the market has become inevitable.

According to him, Capital Oil alone is still owed N11.9 billion subsidy debt since 2012 while other marketers in the country are also owed different sums of money under the subsidy scheme.
He made it clear that the government debt profile in the market might continue to rise if early plans are not ac­tivated to replace importation with locally refined petroleum products.