Omisore Olumuyiwa Adebanjo of Bono Energy allegedly paid over $300k on the orders of Mele Kyari, the current MD of the Nigeria National Petroleum Limited, to whistleblowers who discovered the over $2.4billion Nigerian crude stolen and illegally sold off in China in 2015.
Adebanjo’s Bono Energy was in turn compensated with crude allocations to cover his expenses, according to sources already speaking with the House of Representatives Committee probing the illegal deal.
The deal was carried out in 2015 by state officials, led by a former chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, the late Abba Kyari following revelations by a Mexican businessman and two of his Nigerian counterparts whose names were not disclosed that the nation’s crude was been hidden in a Chinese port.
The Nigerian counterparts were said to have been paid several thousands of dollars by some oil companies in what was then dubbed “relief” for them to keep quiet.
Bono Energy was listed as some of the oil companies used by Mele Kyari to move cash to the whistleblowers in Nigeria.
The house of representatives is currently probing into the alleged theft of $2.4 billion in oil revenue from 84 billion barrels of illicit sale of crude oil in China.
As part of the probe, those linked to the shady deals are being invited by the Adhoc Committee to be grilled on what they know about the illegal sales of the Nigerian crude.
Consequently, the Committee chaired by Hon Mark Gbilah, invited and drilled the inspector general of police, Baba Alkali over allegations of intimidating the whistle-blowers of the illicit deal to conceal information and shield the personalities involved.
Investigations by the committee further revealed that those involved used the police to intimidate the whistle-blowers to conceal the information hence the IGP’s invitation
The committee found out that before its investigation, the whistle-blowers were intimidated by a retired DIG, Michael Obeazi of the Force Criminal Investigative Department, FCID who forced them at gunpoint to sign an undertaken not to reveal details of the deal.
[media-credit name=”apples bite ” width=”300″ align=”none”][/media-credit] Mele Kyari
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
