Top PDP financier Emeka Offor. [Photo credit: THISDAYLIVE]
A
new exclusive investigative report has revealed that one of Nigeria's
multi-billionaire business mogul, Chief Emeka Offor who is a major
financier of the PDP has gone broke.
The fall of the Peoples Democratic Party at the centre appears to
have devastated the fortunes of several politically-connected
businessmen who, as once suggested by former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, mostly relied on the then-ruling party for government
contracts.
One of such billionaire businessmen, Emeka Offor, has indicated that he is broke, just over two years after the PDP left power.
In the build-up to the 2003 general elections, Mr. Offor was
reported to have donated N200 million to the Obasanjo/Atiku presidential
re-election campaign. During the heat of the Obasanjo-Atiku feud in
2006, the Atiku Media Office in a statement by Garba Shehu, now
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, said a special account to
finance the PDP presidential re-election bid in 2003 was managed by Mr.
Offor.
Known for his interests in oil, gas, power and construction, the
businessman and politician got juicy federal contracts, many barely
executed, while the PDP reigned for 16 years.
But despite the massive wealth many Nigerians believed he amassed
in profit from various contracts, Mr. Offor is now indicating he is
broke, suggesting that his main cash cow, Chrome Oil, has suffered
downturn since the coming of the All Progressives Congress to power in
2015, according to correspondences seen.
Some staff members of the company, in a letter written on their
behalf by their lawyer, Femi Falana, say they are being owed N1.14
billion, representing outstanding salaries and wages between September
2016 and August 2017.
They also accused Mr. Offor of failing to remit their tax and
pension deductions, an act they described as unethical and criminal
under our laws.
They demanded that “all pension deductions and contributions
from July 2015 to August 31 2017 totalling N244,172,464.80 be remitted
to their respective pension fund administrators,” the letter said.
Similarly, they demanded “that all PAYE tax deducted from staff
payroll from July 2015 to August 2017 totalling N153,775,382.58 be
remitted” to tax authorities.
Then, “that the sum of N579,219,429.5 being the disengagement
benefits” of the staff as at end of August 2017 be paid to their
respective bank accounts.
But Mr. Offor blamed the “general economic meltdown and recession”
for his company’s inability to meet its financial obligations to
employees, saying his “businesses suffered frustration commencing from
March 2015 and grounded to a halt in September 2015”.
Mr. Offor said the company had “no job to execute and closed office starting from September 2015”.
The PDP-led government left power in May 2015 after losing elections held in April.
Before PDP
While he started out in business with governments years before the
PDP came to power, Mr. Offor got some of his most lucrative contracts
under the PDP. He also became one of the party’s top financiers.
Under the Sani Abacha military junta in the 1990s, Mr. Offor’s
Chrome Group was offered the contract for the Turn Around Maintenance of
the Port Harcourt refinery. About that time, he led the Movement for
National Stability to campaign for the late dictator’s ultimately futile
bid to transmute to a civilian leader.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
Reflecting on the condition of Nigeria’s refineries and Mr. Offor’s
link, Mr. Obasanjo told Premium Times in August 2015 that nothing came
of the purported work done by the businessman, despite being paid.
“I explained that what I met were refineries that were not
working, refineries that were given to an amateur for repairs, for
maintenance, what they call turn around maintenance to the company of
Emeka Offor – Chrome Group,” said Mr. Obasanjo.
“Where has Emeka Offor maintained refineries before? Where has he? That’s what we met. So, the refineries were not working.
“What can you recover? A man (Mr. Offor) who was paid
upfront. He had people…. after I left he became friends with every
government that has come. Now he’s not only into refinery and oil and
all that, he’s now also in energy.”
Nevertheless, TAM contracts of both the old and the new
Port-Harcourt Refineries were awarded to Mr. Offor by the Goodluck
Jonathan government in 2014, under controversial circumstances.
But the refineries have in recent years worked in fits and starts
despite those new rounds of ‘rehabilitation’ by Mr. Offor’s firms. The
authorities are yet to give any coherent explanation for this situation.
If anything, Nigeria’s oil minister confirmed in July that fresh
efforts to revamp the refineries through private sector funding had been
commissioned.
‘Broke and shut’
In a letter dated August 16, Chrome’s staff warned of legal action
if “immediate steps” were not taken by Mr. Offor within seven days.
But Mr. Offor is not “perturbed”, said his lawyer, Jeph Njikonye, in a reply, dated August 22, to the staff’s counsel.
In the letter, Mr. Offor described the claims by his aggrieved ex-staffers as “bogus and presumptuous”.
“The totality of your claims, allegations, inclusive of
monetary claims and allegations of unfair labour practices and failure
to make remittances are with respect, gold digging and grossly
unsubstantiated,” Mr. Offor’s reply read.
“They are unequivocally repudiated”.
He, however, offered explanation why Mr. Offor had been unable to meet his obligations to “a handful of former staff”.
“Sequel to the general economic meltdown and recession in the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, our client’s businesses suffered
frustration commencing from March 2015 and grounded to a halt in
September 2015,” read the reply.
“Consequently,” Mr. Offor, his lawyer said, “had no job to execute and closed office starting from September 2015.”
“If our client’s businesses revive as our client hopes they
will, our client will determine whom to re-engage as staff and what
terms and conditions such a re-engagement will be.”
The closure of the company was confirmed by a correspondent and
during our visit to the 22 Lobito Crescent, Abuja headquarters of the
Chrome on Monday, a private security agent said “the office has been
locked for long.”
“As you can see nobody came to office; the office is under lock.”
“Long long before Sallah,” said the security agent, when
asked if the it was the case the case that the company was yet to resume
from the last Eid holiday officially observed nationwide between Friday
and Monday.
Asked why the company was shut down, he replied, “because there’s no operation; the company stopped operating.”
Apart from Chrome, Mr. Offor’s other company, Global Scansystems Limited is also troubled.
The staff there have not been paid for two years, while their terminal benefits remain unpaid, the employees said.
The staff of Global Scansystems are now locked in battle with Mr. Offor at the National Industrial Court.
Source: PREMIUM TIMES
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