Sunday Ani
Labour group, Concerned Maritime Operators (CMO), has described linking Capt. Idahosa Wells Okunbo to corruption charges levelled against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, as a ploy to dent his reputation.
CMO chairman, Mr. Tunde Hamzat, in a statement, yesterday, said the sustained misrepresentation of the contract, which formed the basis of the misleading publication, was due to sheer laziness and unprofessional conduct of some bloggers who thrive on falsehood.
Hamzat, who noted that maintaining further silence on the matter would be misconstrued for consent, stressed that neither Okunbo nor any of his business entities had ever been engaged in any oil deal, whether crude or refined.
“He is not a trader. He has never submitted nor participated in any oil swap deal, neither does he own a company trading in any petroleum products,” he said.
The group said Okunbo, a former commercial pilot, and Chairman of the Ocean Marine Security Limited, an offshore asset protection company, rendering services to major oil companies in Nigeria, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, had never stood before any administrative, judicial or legislative panel to answer any questions related to any shady deal. CMO, however, appealed to mischief makers not to destroy Okunba’s over four decades of integrity in business, spanning engineering and technology, energy, integrated service in the petroleum sector, maritime, security, agriculture and others, insisting that “Okunbo is a globally-certified ambassador of peace who has been decorated, home and abroad, as a citizen of humanity.”