Jide Omokore, a business
associate of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum resources,
has denied stealing $3 billion in connivance with the minister.
Laolu Akande, spokesman of
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, had accused the trio of Omokore, Alison-Madueke
and Kola Aluko, another businessman, of stealing $3 billion from the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Akande had said: “The companies
of both Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko lifted Nigerian crude oil and kept the
proceeds. The total sums converted is in excess of three billion dollars
including royalties, taxes and fees unpaid for the asset from which the crude
was taken.”
But in a statement issued in
reaction to the allegation, Omokore said he never connived with anyone to steal
the money.
Speaking through R. A.
Lawal-Rabana, his counsel, he said his dealings with the NNPC were transparent.
“The relationship between Jide
Omokore’s company Atlantic Energy with NNPC/NPDC is well documented as a
commercial transaction of which there has been part performance. There is
nothing illegal or fraudulent about the transaction,” he said.
He added that while a case involving
him is before the court, he is yet to be pronounced guilty of corruption.
Omokore said: “The rule of law
requires that a man is presumed innocent until adjudged guilty through a fair
judicial process. Therefore, in this case, we wonder where the emphatic
conclusion from the office of the vice-president came from.
“In the best tradition of the
bar, when a matter is sub judice, as senior counsel, 1 will not delve into the
merit or otherwise of the ongoing trial except to say and caution against prejudicing
the public and the entire judicial process.
“We, therefore, urge the office
of the vice-president to exercise restraint in banding people as corrupt
without a judicial pronouncement to that effect. In conclusion, having regard
to the facts and circumstances of this particular case, we believe that the
office of the vice-president has been misinformed.”
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