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N1.5bn Subsidy Scam: Ship In Brazil Discharged Products In Nigeria – Witness

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Justice Lawal Akapo of the Federal High Court in Ikeja,  Lagos, was yesterday told how Ifeanyi Anosike and his company, Anosyke  Group of Companies, refused to carry out any Ship-to-Ship transfer of  15,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) contrary to claims to  that effect.
A statement by the spokesman of Economic and Financial Crimes  Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, yesterday in Abuja said Anosike and  his company are being prosecuted by the commission on charges bordering  on forgery and conspiracy to obtain by false pretence the sum of  N1,537,278,880.82 from the Petroleum Support Fund.
According to the prosecution witness, Oghare Ebunu, who is an  operative of the EFCC, investigations revealed that there was no  transfer of petroleum product from the mother vessel, MT KLARA, to a  first daughter vessel, MT MARITINA, at Offshore Cotonou, where the  content was claimed to have been transferred into SP Boston and Emocean  by Anosyke.
Ebunu told the court that it was discovered during investigation that  Anosyke Group of Companies was licensed to import 15,000 metric tonnes  of PMS, and which Anosyke claimed was actually imported and transferred  under the watchful eyes of SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited from a  mother vessel MT KLARA to MT MARITINA and again to SP BOSTON and  EMOCEAN.
Ebunu further told the court that SGS never witnessed the  Ship-to-Ship transfer from MT Klara to MT Maritina and that the  certificate of quantity transfer usually issued by the inspectorate to  certify that they witnessed the Ship-to-Ship transfer presented by  Anosyke did not emanate from SGS Inspection Services Nigeria Limited.
Ebunu also told the court that a letter from Mercuria Trading NV,  where the marketer was said to have procured the product, clearly stated  that the marketer was not known to them and that the claimed transfer  of petroleum product from MT Klara to MT Maritina was not verified by  them as claimed by Anosyke.
The accused also claimed that SP Boston and Emocean discharged their  contents at Master Energy storage facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers  State, and Rain Oil facility at Oghara in Delta State respectively.
When asked by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) to further  explain the findings of the anti-graft agency as regards the location of  the vessel on the said date of Ship- to-Ship transfer, the witness   told the court that “according to Lloyd List Intelligence (LLI) which is  saddled with the responsibility of giving the location of vessels at  any point in time, on the date Anosike purportedly claimed the   Ship-to-Ship transfer took place,  MT Klara was in Brazil  and nowhere  near the Nigerian waters.
Bode Gbadebo

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