Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
Money moves and when it does, it breaks even the hardest of barrier, paying the price for even those who boast that no amount of money can buy them over.
For a bank that is struggling to stay afloat the Nigerian financial market, the lure to do dirty business for Pastor Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs was too much to resist, that they had to dare the money laundering act and proceeded with the illegal deal, as exclusively seen by Secret Reporters in a water tight petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) calling on the agency to immediately commence investigation into the bank and Lulu-Briggs activities.
For a supposedly friendly deal that was meant to yield life time benefits to all parties, this medium gathered that Seinye Lulu-Briggs and others illegally converted the interests of Late Mr. Dan Obuekwe in oil block OPL 230 (now OML 114) which birthed two new oil blocks OPL 234 in Abia State and OPL 231 in Cross River State.
The Federal Government acting through the Minister of Petroleum Resources granted an Oil Processing Licence (OPL) No. 230 to Moni Pulo Limited vide OPL Deed Document for a term of 5 (Five) years commencing on 8th May, 1992. The said OPL Deed Document was witnessed and collected by Late Mr. Dan Obuekwe who at all material times was a Technical Director, Shareholder with 30% Shares in Moni Pulo Limited as well as one of the Ultimate Beneficial Owners of OPL 230 (now OML 114). In the petition to EFCC, an attachment known as SCHEDULE “E” was attached where the role of Obuekwe as part of the Joint Venture Agreement dated 5th March, 1996 between Moni Pulo Limited and Brass Exploration Unlimited was analyzed.
Going by the shareholding structure as contained in the only valid Memorandum and Articles of Association of Moni Pulo Limited (which hitherto was registered at Corporate Affairs Commission as Sombreiro Oil Ltd with R.C 183333), the initial subscribers took the following shares:
Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs 40%
Kio Okpukiri 30%
Dan Obuekwe 30%.
Similarly, the beneficial ownership structure of OML 114 as contained in the Joint Venture Agreement of 5th March, 1996 between Moni Pulo Limited and Brass Exploration Unlimited translates to:
Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs 24%
Kio Okpukiri 18%
Dan Obuekwe 18%
Brass Exploration 40%.
It therefore presupposes that Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs cannot transfer more than his 24% beneficial interest to Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs and others. Being that as it may, the beneficial interests of Kio Okpukiri and Dan Obuekwe being a total of 36% cannot be validly transferred to any person without their approval in writing followed by another Ministerial consent. This was confirmed in the celebrated case of MONI PULO LIMITED vs. BRASS EXPLORATION UNLIMITED & 7 Others- Suite No: FHC/L/CS/H/835/2011 wherein judgment was delivered by Honourable Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on 7th May, 2012 and the purport of Paragraph 14 of the First Schedule to the Petroleum Act 1969 and Regulation 4 of the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations were settled.
In that case, Moni Pulo Limited was able to convince the Court that the share transfer and consequential ceding of 40% participating interest in OML 114 held by Petroleum Oil & Gas Company of South Africa (Nigeria) Ltd to Camac Energy Services Limited and Camac Energy Resources Limited did not receive the prior consent of the Minister of Petroleum Resources. His Lordship held emphatically that Camac Energy Services Limited and Camac Energy Resources Limited were restrained from exercising any rights and/or taking any benefits from and under the lease being that same was invalid, illegal, null and void.
This medium learnt that there truly exist a Deed of Settlement dated 27th February, 2008 entered into between Moni Pulo Limited, Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, Mr. Dan Obuekwe and Dr. Benoni Briggs whereupon the sum of N366,900,000 (Three Hundred and Sixty Six Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) was paid to the duo of Dan Obuekwe and Benoni Briggs as compensation for “services rendered” to Moni Pulo Limited before their Joint Venture Partners took over the 100% financing.
According to the petition “This does not mean that Dan Obuekwe has been settled in respect of his participating interests both in OML 114 and Moni Pulo Limited. Those interests are for perpetuity and they entitle Dan Obuekwe to continuous dividends and share of profits made from the oil produced until he expressly relinquishes his interests in writing for an acceptable consideration”.
To funnel this money totaling over $800,000,000 (Eight Hundred Million US Dollars) due and accruable to Mr. Dan Obuekwe, Lulu-Briggs secured accounts with three Nigerian banks which include Skye Bank to help in moving the money to JP Morgan and other yet to be verified banks in Ghana contrary to Section 15 (3) and 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
In the course of the five months investigation into the details of the account, we reliably gathered that Moni Pulo Limited has two dollar accounts with Skye Bank allegedly used for money laundering and three Naira accounts for same purpose.
The Dollar accounts are 1771502902 and has a balance of $20,462, while 1771502893 has a balance of $17,979.02. The three Naira accounts are 1771228089 which has N32,920, whereas 1771228649 read N193,014 and 1771211351 was N792,910.
Another company also owned by Lulu-Briggs with account in Skye Bank is Soliyama Limited which maintains one Naira account with the balance sheet as N4, 919,274.06. All these accounts stand as the balance when we last investigated in March 2017 but a reliable source revealed that more money in it, but currently under serious monitoring by Skye Bank to avoid prying eyes.
Attempts to get across to Skye Bank Communication Head were not successful as his phone line was switched off, while the office line of Moni Pulo never connected. They never responded to the mail we sent to them as well.
To be continued
