By Secrets Reporters
Two different companies, the same amount, the same 20,000 litres of diesel, same building and just two weeks apart, documents seen by SecretsReporters have shown actions that betrays public office.
Between February and April 2024, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), under Executive Secretary Felix Omatsola Ogbe who’s alleged to be Nyesom Wike in-law bought diesel (AGO) five times for a combined N221,050,022. Every purchase was recorded with a single tenderer, meaning no competition was held for any of them.
The Board paid its own retail channel, NNPC Retail, N1,042 per litre on February 1 and N1,460 per litre on April 16. In the same quarter, it paid private vendors Landsworld Integrated and Logistics Services and Ebiatoru Global Services N2,126 per litre for the same commodity. The Board bought the same diesel at more than double its own price.
The Landsworld and Ebiatoru awards are identical: N42,525,000 each, 20,000 litres each, both for the Nigerian Content Tower, awarded on April 16 and April 30, 2024. A fifth award, N50,519,700 to Emily Oil and Gas Limited, covered six months of supply to three separate recipients and may include service elements, so the cleanest comparison is the Board’s own NNPC Retail channel against the two private vendors.
The companies behind the awards raise their own questions. Landsworld Integrated and Logistics Services Ltd, RC 7481780, was registered on May 7, 2024, which is three weeks after it won the N42.5 million contract on April 16. Ebiatoru Global Services is registered only as a business name, and its status on the Corporate Affairs Commission register reads inactive. Emily Oil and Gas Limited, RC 603680, is also inactive on the register.
The Public Procurement Act 2007 demands that every procurement deliver value for money and that awards be made through competition. Five single-bidder diesel purchases in one quarter, with the Board paying more than twice its own internal price and two vendors receiving identical awards, describe a procurement process in which neither competition nor price discipline played any part.
