$29.2 Million Scam Hits Akwa Ibom Refinery, Petrochemical Company

Police authority at the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Force Criminal
Investigation Department (FCID), Milverton Road, Ikoyi in Lagos said at
the weekend that, Akwa Ibom Refinery and Petrochemical Company Ltd, never
existed. This is after conmen had allegedly siphoned a whopping $29.2
Million public money using the company as conduit-pipe.

Police investigators disclosed also that findings at the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) have revealed that there is no company in their record
called, “Akwa Ibom Refinery and Petrochemical Company Ltd.”

“There is no company named Akwa Ibom Refinery and Petrochemical Company
Ltd. We have a letter from the CAC to that effect. Yet, there are records
purporting the existence of the company. There are minutes of meetings and
resolutions purportedly passed by the company, and there are agreements
signed between this company and the Akwa Ibom State Government through its
agency known as Akwa Ibom State Investment and Promotion Council
(AKIIPOC)”

Tunde Ogunsakin, a Commissioner of Police (CP) and Chief Operation Officer
(COO) SFU, who disclosed this to our Correspondent, added that two
Nigerian Banks. FCMB and the defunct Gulf Bank were the financial
institutions actively used by the conmen to clean-up the country.

He added that another fictitious company named LYK Engineering Ltd
allegedly owned by a prominent Akwa Ibom politician also benefitted from
the scam.

Ogunsakin stated that LYK Engineering collected $17 Million to finance
letter of acquisition of equities in Ibom Power Company. “So these two
companies were the two Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) used by the
perpetrators of the fraud to fraudulently siphon funds, massively and with
impunity, from the defunct Gulf Bank, which eventually led to the untimely
collapse of the bank.”

It was gathered that there are foreigners among the conmen, these include
one Gareth Wilcox, a Briton, who was allegedly the Managing Director (MD)
of Ibom Power Company and one Peter Lin, a Chinese American, who was the
chief operation officer of LYK Engineering Ltd.

Investigation revealed that the duo had since absconded Nigeria with their
stolen money.

Police also revealed to our Correspondent that, after it was indicted,
Ibom Power Company admitted participation in the sleaze and promised to
refund the sum of $8.86 Million (N1.2 Billion) being amount allegedly
collected to purchase a non-existing gas-turbine.

Courtesy: Nigeria Political Economist/Pointblanknews.com.