FG owe my company – Capital Oil N11.9bn subsidy arrears – Ubah

THE Chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, has said the Federal Government owes his company about N11.9 billion in subsidy arrears.

Ubah stated this during an interactive session with Energy Editors in Lagos at the weekend. He said the continued in­vestigation of his company for perceived fraudulent act under the subsidy regime informed his decision to quit the idea of importation of petroleum products since 2011.

“We have this challenge, that is the investigation of our company. We were cleared like other people were cleared but because of the perceived persecution of me, they referred my case to the Director of Public Persecution (DPP), and twice, the police vindicated us through Solomon Arase who was then the DIG, Investiga­tion and Intelligence of the Nigerian Po­lice Force (NPF),” he said.

Based on the development, he said, he decided to exit importation to prove a point that the company does not depend on subsidy to survive, adding that Capital Oil now does local trading by sourcing products locally.

“The said N11.9 billion would defi­nitely be paid one day with interest. I don’t import anymore, rather I buy lo­cally,” he said.

On the allegation of N1.2trn crude oil fraud, Ubah described the allegation as spurious and unfounded that his compa­ny account was used by the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to siphon crude oil revenue totaling N1.2 trillion to fund former President Jona­than’s campaign.

Rather, Ubah explained that the cam­paign organization-Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) was his brainchild founded and funded by him for the purpose of raising political aware­ness and consciousness among Nigeri­ans.

The Capital Oil boss said for anyone to insinuate that TAN was an agency of government is the height of deliberate falsehood and propaganda.

On fuel scarcity, Ubah urged the Fed­eral Government to establish about 10 top-up refineries across the coasts of the country to compete with the existing ones. This, he said, will create a balance in oil refining, supply and in the long run, reduce the volume of foreign exchange expended on petroleum products impor­tation.

Ubah, while noting his company’s res­cue efforts to the nation’s oil industry and contribution to ensuring availability of petroleum products, explained that in the last six years, Capital Oil has been sup­plying about 60 per cent of the products in circulation.

Sun