Femi Otedola has refuted the allegations of fuel subsidy fraud, describing the claims as “false, baseless, and shameless attempt to pander to lies.”
A former Special Adviser (Media) to ex-Vice President Namadi Sambo, had accused Otedola of hypocrisy, stating that he benefited from the controversial subsidy regime under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and alleged that his company controlled “as much as 90% of diesel imports and up to 40% of others” under the same system he now condemns.
He also faulted Otedola’s claim that more than N2 trillion was siphoned under Jonathan’s government, describing it as “hypocritical and selective.”
Otedola reacting to Umar Sani, article in a statement posted on his X account on Monday, maintained that his company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, never participated in the subsidy scheme because it dealt only in diesel, which was deregulated at the time.
“Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited was wholly an importer and trader of diesel with a market share in excess of 90%. We never traded in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and as such could not have claimed for subsidy under the Petroleum Subsidy Fund scheme,” Otedola stated.
He explained that PMS was the only product eligible for claims under the subsidy scheme, while diesel had long been deregulated.
“It is therefore shocking that someone like Umar Sani who occupied a position of authority and responsibility could display such ignorance of basic industry facts in public,” he added.
Otedola also insisted that far from being complicit in subsidy fraud, he was among the first to expose it during the Jonathan era.
According to him, he alerted the former president directly, and when the then Minister of Petroleum denied the allegations, he took the matter to Senator Bukola Saraki, who later raised it in the Senate.
“With my strong determination to stop the economic malaise and bleeding, I called Senator Bukola Saraki and reported the fraud to him. He took it to the floor of the Senate, and from there the House of Representatives began its investigation,” Otedola recalled.
“If I was complicit in subsidy theft, would I be the one to raise the alarm and blow the whistle on myself? That alone should question the motive of Umar Sani for his most recent publication on this matter,” he said.
The controversy follows Otedola’s recent intervention in the dispute between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and fuel marketers, where he criticized members of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) over alleged subsidy fraud and obsolete practices.
