REVEALED: Inside details of multi-billion naira subsidy fraud that got oil marketer 104-year jail term

When stories of the petrol subsidy fraud appeared on the pages of newspapers, they were told mostly with sketchy details, with the crux of the narrative centring on the trials and convictions of the indicted oil marketers. But little was known about the gravity and tricky details of the fraud that milked the nation’s treasury.

In his new book, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), reveals inside details of the massive fraud that marred the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) scheme.

Bawa served as the chairman of the anti-graft agency from February 2021 to June 2023.

In the book, he detailed how the petrol subsidy scheme was used to syphon public funds, drawing from his experience as a key investigator on the EFCC’s special team that probed the 2012 subsidy fraud.

The case of Rowaye Jubril, the managing director of Brila Energy Limited, is unusual and intriguing.

Just like Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, his fellow oil marketer and managing director of Fargo Petroleum and Gas Ltd, who was also indicted in the scam, Jubril was found to have forged several documents.

But what makes his case peculiar is how he orchestrated the fraud through ‘Remain on Board (RoB)’.

RoB is the material remaining in vessel tanks, void spaces, and/or pipelines after discharge. It includes water, oil, slops, oil residue, oil/water emulsions, sludge, and sediment.

WITH RoB, JUBRIL KILLED TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

Jubril did not import petrol, but used forged documents submitted to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to claim subsidy payment of N963.7 million.

The mother vessel, MT Overseas Limar, which he claimed to have used to import the product from Brazil in November 2010 was nowhere near the African coast at the time.

So, what did Jubril and his company do?

Brila Energy claimed to have imported and discharged 13,155 metric tons (equivalent to 17,700,573 liters) of PMS at Obat Oil Depot, Apapa, Lagos state, in March 2011.

The company alleged that MT Limar moved the product into its chartered vessel, MT Delphina (13,271 metric tons), offshore Cotonou and later transferred it into MT Dani (13,245 metric tons), and then discharged in Obat depot (13,155 metric tons).

Investigations, however, showed that MT Dani received 10,302 metric tons of PMS from three different vessels, with the following breakdown: MT Aidin 3,952 metric tons; MT Gavros: 3,119 metric tons; and MT Delphina: 3,234 metric tons.

Simply put, MT Dina only got 3,234 metric tons from MT Delphina as against Brila’s claim of 13,245.

Afterwards, MT Dina discharged its content to three other depots and Obat only got 6,911 metric tons as against Brila’s claim of 13,155.

“These findings indicate a complex set of transactions that directly contradicts the claims made by Brila Energy Limited regarding the discharge volumes and the sourcing of the product.” Bawa wrote in his book.

“The volume discharged was significantly lower than the claim made by Brila Energy Limited. The actual recorded discharge was 6,911.970 metric tons instead of the claimed 13,155.807 metric tons. The inquiries revealed other significant discrepancies.

“MT Delphina received Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from MT Gavros, rather than from MT Overseas Limar. It subsequently discharged the product into three different vessels.

“The investigation into the operations of Brila Energy Limited revealed that the activities were basically a purchase of Remain on Board (ROBs) as opposed to a mere inflation of volumes. According to the documentation submitted by Brila Energy Limited, there. There was no genuine importation that took place. The trader that was engaged in the transactions raised suspicions that the mother vessel was never present in Africa, and the claimed STS transfer was fraudulent.

“Unlike in other cases where companies purportedly imported a lesser volume, such as 5,000 metric tons, the forged documents indicated a larger import of 10,000 metric tons. ROBs were purchased to cover the stated import. The fraud, in this case, was multifaceted. It primarily involved the nefarious acquisition of ROBs without any legitimate import.”

Following EFCC’s prosecution, on March 16, 2017, a Lagos state high court sentenced Jubril to 10 years imprisonment and ordered the company to pay N963.7 million in restitution to the federal government.

BUT IT DIDN’T END THERE…

Jubril and his company also helped another company to defraud the federal government of N1.1 billion from the subsidy fund.

In 2011, the PPPRA gave Alminnur Resources Limited, owned by Saminu Rabiu, permit to import 10,000 metric tons of PMS, but the company asked Brila Energy Limited to carry out the importation on its behalf.

All the documents involved in the transaction of the alleged petrol import from Amsterdam were forged while the vessels claimed to have been used were “dead”.

On April 7, 2017, a federal capital territory high court convicted and sentenced Jubril to 104 years imprisonment over the N1.1 billion subsidy fraud. Rabiu died during the trial.

Published by Cable Books, an imprint of Cable Media and Publishing Ltd, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’ is now available for purchase online via Roving Heights and on Amazon.