By Sunday Ani
Labour group, Concerned Maritime Operators (CMO), has described linking Capt. Idahosa Wells Okunbo to corruption charges leveled 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.
“All the co-travellers with Diezani are either in exile or in court with her. There is no basis whatsoever to associate Capt. Okunbo with the alleged misappropriation of state funds by the former minister. Recall that Okunbo had said that he has never written a statement in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or any anti-corruption agency to date. And if, indeed, he was with Diezani, will he still be doing business in the NNPC where he is a champion for service delivery?”
The group challenged anyone whether in the NNPC, the media or anywhere else, to present evidence that could puncture its assertions, saying, “we implore cowards and mischief makers who are quick to broadcast unverified Whatsapp messages and the Nigerian media to be thorough, fair and objective in their journalistic responsibility.”
In the last couple of months, former minister’s alleged controversial offshore processing agreements (OPAs), popularly known as oil swap with her cronies has been in the news. She has been under investigations since the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in 2015. The U.S. Department of Justice had listed her alongside two businessmen, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, in a civil suit filed at a District Court in Houston, Texas. Aluko and Omokore were alleged to have laundered millions of dollars for her in return for oil contracts. The alleged stolen money was used to buy properties in the U.S. and the UK for the former minister.
Speaking glowingly about Okubo’s business integrity, the group further said: “His business and personal ethics are so firmly anchored on the steadfast rock of conscience and integrity. He would never use guile words to mask deceit, neither does he brandish fickle principles and statistics to conclude with a false truth. He is unlike many rabble-rousers, who flash documents to lock down evidence but never real facts to back their proof.”
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.”