Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested three fake crude oil sellers in Port Harcourt for allegedly defrauding a Ghanaian to the sum of N20millon( Twenty Million Naira only).
The suspects: Otuma Firstborn, Stephen Okonkwo and Aniekan Udoh, were arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Trouble started for them when a petitioner, Solomon Lamptey, a Ghanaian, accused them of presenting themselves as genuine crude oil sellers from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
Lamptey allegedly came to Nigeria in November 2017 seeking authentic suppliers of crude oil. In his quest, he met Firstborn who demanded and collected an initial sum of $1,800 and an additional sum of N500,000.00 for “Notice of Readiness for two vessels”: MT Skamandras and MT Toledo Spirit. The vessels were to deliver the crude oil to Lamptey in Ghana.
Aside the initial money Lamptey allegedly made a further payment of $56,000.00( N20,000,000.00) as logistics to move the vessels from Nigeria to Ghana.
Otuma acted as a link to Okonkwo, who allegedly used his company, Rextronics Nigeria Limited to collect a sum of N13,000,000.00( Thirteen Million Naira only) out of the money Lamptey paid for the crude oil. Udoh also took his own share of the money.
Some documents purportedly issued by NNPC were handed over to the petitioner and they include: Notice of Readiness( NOR); Authority to Board Vessel( ATB), Sales Purchase Agreement. All the documents were confirmed to be fake.
The suspects are in the custody of the EFCC and would soon be charged to court the commission said.
