IN reaction to what it called “malicious and attempts to disturb its business,” Obat Oil and Petroleum Ltd yesterday denied reports that it diverted N1.2b subsidy and rumours that its tank farms had been sealed off by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

A statement by the Head of the Legal Department of the oil firm, Mr. Seun Bakare and made available to The Guardian said, “We take exceptions to any malicious publication and slander orchestrated by certain people in a bid to disrupt our business. For the avoidance of doubt, EFCC did not close our depot facility. We were only invited because of the petition and lies being spread by an oil company.

“We urge the public to disregard the misinformation peddled in the false and malicious publications as well as desist from propagating same, in their best interests.”

Bakare said it was unfortunate that some seemingly respectable entity could stoop so low as to feed the public with falsehood in an attempt to denigrate the personality of Oba Frederick Obateru Akinruntan, the Olugbo of Ugbo who was not part of the business transaction.

Bakare said while it is true that Obat Oil had business transactions with the oil trading company that failed to implement the transaction, according to the terms and agreement, Obat Oil will not succumb to blackmail when it had refused to allow the accountants of the two companies to reconcile their accounts.

According to the statement, “The transactions which gave rise to the false reports and the spurious claims from which they have sprung have already been submitted to the court for adjudication and ordinarily should not be the subject of discourse or advertorials.

“However, the company has gone out of its way to lodge false complaints against us and set in motion a sequence of events that have been wrongly interpreted in the report. We are therefore, constrained to protect our professional goodwill, integrity and reputation by putting out this publication.