Secret Reporters No place to hide
…His numerous attempts to kill the company Secretary
Fejiro Oliver
If there is any word to describe this bombshell; ‘masterstroke corporate fraud’ will be the name, as it reveals what the governor of Ondo State had breath a huge sigh of relief that all loopholes of it coming to the public has been blocked.
On March 2001 under late governor Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State, a world class business deal was reached between Ondo State and Integrated Mineral Development Company (IMDC), headed by Mr. Simon Kolajo. The agreement was for IMDC to prospect and drill oil in Ondo State, haven found out that there was crude oil in the state.
Haven reached a consensus, a Shell Petroleum Company known as Owena Oil and Gas was brought into the picture to serve as the corporate body to carry out the prospect. The then governor, Adefarati signed a document with Owena to cede the full ownership of the company, since Owena was solely responsible for the finances and logistic of the business, but however retained 30% so that the state will have a sense of belonging as well as enable it to provide Jobs and employment for its indigenes. The MOU made available to us revealed that the state will nominate directors to represent them on the board, which they did.
An oil mining bid which was carried out by the state saw Owena Oil and Gas winning the mining license and was given bloc OPL 95/OPL 241. However Adefarati defeat by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saw late Olusegun Agagu climb the governorship stool, but this never deterred Owena Oil from doing business in the state as it went further to acquire two refinery licenses to utilize the production of crude oil it was billed to produce from its acquired bloc of OPL 241, while Agagu graciously made a financial commitment on behalf of the state to the deal in a loan form to buyout a stakeholder in OPL 241 and the remaining funds was warehoused in an interest yielding account.
According to our sources, Olusegun Mimiko who had been part of the deal from day one came into power through the court in 2009 and turned the table upside down. We gathered that he made attempts to have an equity share in the deal for two years, but was rebuffed by the management of Owena, thus leading him to go for the deadly kick. Within three months, he connived with some employees of the Corporate Affairs Commission to register a pseudo company named OWENA ENERGY LIMITED, whose main focus was to acquire the deal earlier signed by OWENA OIL AND GAS LIMITED to himself and not Ondo State. His Senior Special Assistant on petroleum, Mr Goke Adeniyi was made the Managing director of the fraudulent company and charged with the sole responsibility of diverting all the funds earlier gotten by Owena Oil and Gas to their own company. The first strike according to documents made available to us was to connive with United Bank for Africa (UBA), Akure Branch to transfer a staggering sum of N750 Million which was the funds of the buyout by the Agagu government for Operations to their own Owena Energy Limited, listing OPL 95 and OPL 241 as their own bloc.
Aware that Governor Mimiko has planned to transfer over $2.5 million dollars from Owena Oil and Gas fraudulently, the company hurriedly went to court to obtain a court injunction to stop the State government from parading itself as a stakeholder in the business deal. After the court case, the two warring parties decided to sit down and agreed that Ondo State will now be represented in the board by its Commissioners, while IMDC will turn the business into a full corporation, considering the fact that they own the major stake in the joint deal. This led to the creation of an office of a legal adviser and company secretary. Mimiko however refused the arrangement offered by Owena Oil and Gas, but instead offered to buy the full stake of IMDC who owns 70% of the shares with a laughable sum of N67 million, which was immediately scorned at and rejected, thus drawing a battle line.
ATTEMPT TO KILL THE SECRETARY BEGINS
With things falling apart for Mimiko and seeing his coveted million dollars not coming to him, he made move to silence the newly employed company secretary, who had all the files and details of the proceeding from day one. The Ondo State government filed an application before a magistrate court accusing the secretary who was only employed in 2011 of forging and manipulating the shares belonging to the government and Owena Oil and Gas; a deal struck in 2001 when the Secretary had not dreamt of working there. A warrant of arrest which was not duly signed was brought before the secretary who was in Lagos State, by a squad of policemen, who never told the Commissioner of Police, Ondo State that they were leaving their domain to effect an arrest in Lagos State. The Secretary who is a lawyer we gathered told them to inform the Lagos State Police Command of their presence before he could follow them. It however became clear that the Police did not even come with a vehicle to convey him for ‘trial’ to Ondo State, hence he had to provide transportation for all of them, while secretly praying that he is not shot on the way.
Our findings revealed that the Ondo State Magistrate court has no jurisdiction to have heard the case in the first place as the issue of Company registration is a Federal Case, yet we have on good authority that the Magistrate agreed to hear the case, with government press corps covering it. Realizing that the case was not going to be a smooth one as orchestrated by Governor Mimiko, the Judge read out a printed sheet of paper some funny bail conditions which included; a serving permanent secretary under Ondo State employee (A situation which is not possible since it invovles the state government versus Owena Oil and Gas) and the accused having a surety who must be a lawyer with chamber in Akure (Another impossible case, since the accuse lives in Lagos and was ‘abducted’ to Ondo State). These were brought to the Magistrate hearing who quickly went into the Chamber to consult with the state government on the next line of bail action. On January 3rd 2014, there was another attempt to murder the Secretary by the Governor and his SA, Mr Goke Adeniyi, when he failed to reveal the documents following a meeting he had with Owena on December 24th 2013, before he flew to the United States for Christmas
Our source noted an online media based in New York had earlier gotten the story though did a shoddy job, as it never had a full grasp of it as well as lack of documents, but went ahead to publish it. Mimiko we gathered contacted the online media and after paying heavily for it; the story was brought down and killed.
