It is the prayer of everybody to have loyal subordinates while controlling the affairs of ones country.
The major problem of the people in power is their kitchen cabinets. I mean, the aides and family. Most of these aides are from low-class background and their thinking is that stealing or monopolizing the resources of the leaders they are serving will make them rich, even richer than their friends.
This is quite contrary to their erroneous beliefs.
One can only be rich and powerful through the help one renders while in office.
The story, of Haruna Momoh, the former MD of Petroleum Product Marketing Company, PPMC is pathetic. He single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Mrs Deziani Madueke.
How he met Deziani
Haruna Mommoh was a manager in one of the subsidiaries of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC in Porthacourt while Mrs Deziani Madueke was working with Shell Petroleum in Port Harcourt. When Deziani became the minister of petroleum, She invited Momoh to join her.
Unknown to her, Momoh is well known among his colleague as an arrogant empty barrel.
He was once accused at his office in Port Harcourt of being a kleptomania.
Immediately Deziani appointed him as a managing director in NNPC, the Auchi born Momoh went back home and consulted his marabout on how to take total control of Madueke. Not too long after, Madueke fell for Momoh’s antics.
The composition of things changed such that nobody, not even the staff of NNPC could see Madueke without first seeing Momoh. Infact, one of the insiders privy to the whole situation quoted Madueke as always complaining to one of her family members about feeling jittery and uncomposed each time Momoh comes to her office. It became so bad that Deziani’s children had to pass through Momoh if they needed anything from their mother.
The N25 per liter bribe on Project Finance International allocation to marketers were being collected by Momoh’s girl friend without Deziani’s knowledge.
It got to a stage that Momoh began thinking of contesting the gubernatorial election in Edo State where he comes from.
What money can not do, more money will do it. That was Momoh’s slogan.
Recently, The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFFC began fresh moves to seize nine Dubai properties worth about $1.6b, traced to Momoh. Already, the EFCC has obtained an interim forfeiture order from a Federal High Court in Lagos to seize the properties.
According to our source who prefers to remain anonymous, Momoh’s high taste and greed for worldly things made him acquire many properties in many countries. Among his listed properties in Dubai are as follows: Unit 1402 PS 14th Floor, located at Metro Central, Tecom, near Internet City Metro Station, Dubai, UAE; Unit 712 ES, 7th Floor, located at First Central, off Sheikh Zayed, Tecom, Al Barsha 3 Dubai, UAE; and Unit 512, 5th Floor, located at First Group, Marina Hotels, Al Seba Street, Plot 394-426 Dubai AE-AJ, UAE.
Other properties traced to Momoh include Unit 503 1 Bedroom Heritage, 5th Floor, located at First Central, Dubai Media City, Tecom, off Sheikh Zayed Tecom, Al Barsha 3, Dubai, UAE; Unit 1910 ES Heritage, 19th Floor, located at First Central, Dubai Media City, Tecom, off Sheikh Zayed Tecom; Unit 2507 Dubai Sports City; Unit 314 Dubai Sports City; and Unit 1002, Tecom Barsha 125616.
The EFCC has also accused Momoh and others at large of conspiring to launder about 9 billion naira. The money has since been forfeited permanently to the Federal Government.
The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed to The Street Journal correspondent yesterday that Momoh was under investigation but has remained evasive.
How Haruna Momoh used wife to launder $700m – ICPC
If you think that the above properties in Dubai is a big deal, another heart breaking sleeze perpetuated by Momoh and exposed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC will make you think otherwise.
Jane Asuquo, an ICPC witness told a Federal High Court, in Abuja, that Momoh used his wife, Ochuko, to launder $700million between 2012 and 2015 when he was the MD at PPMC.
Ochuko Momoh , was on March 9, arraigned before Justice Taiwo by the ICPC. She was arraigned alongside Blessing Azuka-Ngozi, Stanbic-IBTC Bank Plc, Energopol Nigeria Limited, Blaid Construction Limited and Blaid Farms Limited on a 22-count charge which was later reduced to 13 counts.
The 1st defendant in the new charge, Momoh, is currently at large.
During examination by the ICPC Lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, Asuquo said, “Sometime in 2015, ICPC received a petition against Haruna Momoh freezing PPMC about 700 million dollars. The petition was initially assigned to another team at that time which had Paul Bassey, James Udoh etc, as members.”
Asuquo, an Assistant Chief Investigative Officer with the commission, said the case was reassigned to her team on July 19, 2018.
“We went through the file to see what our colleagues had done,” she recalled, adding that the team discovered that Ochuko had a number of companies which she used in conniving with her husband to defraud the PPMC.
“After we went through the file, we sent letters of invitation to 1st and 2nd defendants and requested documents from financial institutions used, the Bureau de Change (BDC) operators, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), FCTA and other companies registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, etc. We received responses to letters sent out such as statements of account, account opening documents and other relevant documents,” she said.
She said letters were written to Stanbic-IBTC Bank, Union Bank, UBA, Access Diamond Bank Heritage Bank and Citibank.
Asuquo, however, said three letters were written to Ochuko, inviting her to the office but she failed to honour them.
The witness narrated how money was moved out of PPMC in tranches in the name of award of contracts.
Asuquo said investigations by the commission revealed that Ochuko and her children had over 50 accounts domiciled in different banks.
“There were lots of cash flows in these accounts running into billions in naira and in dollars. The investigation also revealed that the accounts were opened between 2012 and 2015 when Momoh was head of PPMC. We had a course to invite some banks like Stanbic-IBTC because when we went through the bank statements of Stanbic-IBTC, we discovered lots of abnormal inflows; a situation of somebody making a deposit of about N10 million in one day. We drew the attention of the bank to these and invited them if such transactions were normal and if they report this to NFIU and CBN,” she remarked.
Asuquo said that the bank, in a response letter, admitted that such an act was “abnormal.”
She said in the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Energopol Nigeria Limited had no office in Port Harcourt as claimed in their documents.
“The company address only exists on paper,” she stated, noting that further investigation showed that the bank statements of Blaid Construction Limited, though duly registered with CAC, did not indicate how salaries of the staff were paid contrary to the claim that they have over 10 employees working in the company.
“We requested for contract documents from PPMC and they obliged us. We discovered that in 2013, when Momoh was still the MD, he awarded a contract of N250 million to Blaid Construction Company, owned by his wife. We sought to invite the former PPMC MD but they responded that he could not be traced through his last address”.
Meanwhile, the federal government has secured an interim forfeiture order from the Federal High Court in Abuja to seize 2.4 billion naira and properties allegedly linked to Momoh.
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, on Monday, the ICPC alleged Momoh illegally acquired the said monies and properties.
The ICPC said the properties to be forfeited are Plot 199, Ebitu Ukiwe Street, Utako, Nos. 21, 22, 23 and 26 Olympia Estate, Kaura District, Plot 1824, Cadastral Zone, BO7, Katampe, plot 1827, Cadastral Zone, BO7, Katampe and No. 6 Casamance street, Wuse Zone 3, all in Federal Capital, Abuja.
The question on the lips of many people in Nigeria is why NNPC is so porous that an individual can steal so much within a short period of time.
Stanley Madora of Mandora oil and gas said that there was no auditing firm checking the account of the NNPC until recently. And most of the money stolen is the proceed of bribery and corruption.
“They don’t steal directly from the NNPC but rob marketers and prospective customers. Imagine, they were collecting $4 on every litre of crude oil exported by this country,” Madora said.
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