Also, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Sunday, justified his last year’s auctioning approval to some operators in the oil industry to sell five sea vessels holding crude oil and diesel forfeited to the Federal Government.
The statement by Malami’s Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Umar Gwandu, was reacting to Saturday PUNCH’s story of how the AGF directed Omoh-Jay Nigeria Ltd. to dispose of the crude oil and diesel in four sea vessels through an open bid.
The story which Sahara Reporters published with credit to Saturday PUNCH, disclosed that in another approval, the AGF mandated the firm to sell five vessels despite the fact that the firm and its Managing Director, Mr Jerome Itepu, stood trial at the Delta State High Court, Asaba, for allegedly stealing about 12,000 metric tonnes of crude oil loaded in a vessel, MT Akuada a.k.a. MT Kua.
The allegedly stolen crude oil was valued at N384m in 2009.
The auctioneer was to get three per cent of the sale.
But Malami said on Sunday said he committed no infraction by granting the auctioning approval to Omo-Jay and its officials even if they were being prosecuted for alleged theft of crude oil.
He also said the firm having not been convicted, was presumed to be innocent of criminal allegations that might have been levelled against them.
He added the firm being duly registered, could not be denied an opportunity to participate in the auction bidding process.
His statement read in part, “The issue of interest to the public, of which a serious journalist needs to support the general public to know is whether Omoh-Jay being a duly registered company can be denied an opportunity to participate in the auction bidding process on a purported account that the company is standing trial (not convicted) by a competent court of the land if indeed as claimed by Sahara Reporters, the company is being criminally tried.”
