Businessman, Rivers Govt, others bicker over ‘ unauthorised’ sale of oil vessel
THE Managing Director of Florence Petroleum and Marine Services, Dr. Henry Okey Obi, and Rivers State government are in a faceoff, following the former’s allegation that the government sold his N600 million worth of oil vessel, known as MT Okiki, unauthorised.
But the state government claimed it only carried out the order of a competent court in the sale.
In a petition Obi sent to the Inspector- General of Police ( IGP), Akali Baba and the Federal Government of Nigeria ( FGN) seeking justice, he claimed that his vessel was sold illegally, when he was in London.
When The Guardian contacted the Rivers State government, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Zaccheus Adango, said it only carried out an order of an Environmental Sanitation Court sitting in Port Harcourt, which ordered the removal of the wreckage of MT Okiki from the waterways.
Adango said: “The action was based on the subsisting order of court and the provisions of the Rivers State Environmental Protection and Management Law, 2019. If any act of illegality was committed in the course of implementing the order of the court, those responsible should be held to account. The Office of the AttorneyGeneral of Rivers State has not done anything unlawful.”
Adango made available a copy of a letter written by his special assistant, Chukwuma Eke, to the deputy commissioner of police in- charge of State Criminal Investigation Department ( SCID), in response to a letter of invitation extended to Rivers State Ministry of Environment over the sales deal.
The letter dated July 14, 2021, reads in part: “I am directed by the Honourable AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice, to refer to your letter of invitation dated July 6, 2021, to the permanent secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Environment on the subject of purported conspiracy and stealing of scrap vessel, MT Okiki and respond to same.
“I am to inform you that sometime in July 2020, the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, in pursuance of its lawful mandate to ensure a clean environment in the state, sought and obtained an order from a Magistrates’ Court, Port Harcourt, sitting as the Environmental Sanitation Court, Port Harcourt, which authorised the Rivers State government, through the ministry to identify, gather, collect, remove and dispose of all sunk and abandoned wreckages of seagoing vessels and ships, which posed serious environmental hazard and pollution along the water channels in Rivers State.
“Sometime between January and March 2021, the Ministry of Environment, on the strength of the aforesaid order of court, gave approval/ authority to Messrs Bio- Keff Company Nigeria Limited, to salvage, confiscate, remove and dispose of scraps/ wrecks on the waterways in the state.
“In the circumstance, I am directed to inform you that the salvage, removal and release of the burnt wreck, MT Okiki was lawful activity sanctioned by the Rivers State Ministry of Environment,” he said.
Sending a save- our- soul to the IGP, Obi said he was in the United Kingdom ( UK) on March 23, 2021 when he was alerted that some armed men led by a former commissioner of environment in River State, came and stole the vessel, which was anchored on a jetty at Okirika, River State.
He said the vessel was worth in excess of N600 million in the open market and was sold to one Alhaji Usman Ilyasa for N50 million and also alleged that the permanent secretary, Ministry of Environment Rivers State, Dr Nduye Briggs, played a major role as he gave the authorisation for the sale of the vessel on June 26, 2021 after claiming he could not find the owner.
He continued: “The vessel, which was used for bunkering fuel tanker with Nigerian flag to offshore platforms like Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Brass, SPDC and Chevron, was involved in a fire incident on May 7, 2013, en route to supply marine gasoil to Agip Brass and later salvaged and anchored in a jetty at Okirika, River State, where the company paid jetty fees to the community that owns the jetty.”