The Managing Director of Macobarb International Limited, Shedrack Ogboru has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali to direct his men to release the report of criminal investigation required to resume criminal proceedings he filed in court against the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) and two of its officials.
The criminal proceeding under consideration involves a N4.2Billion contract scandal between the NLNG and one of its contractors, Macobarb International Limited, which has lingered for almost 10 years now.
Ogboru told Kristina Reports that he had petitioned the IGP on the matter after the Rivers State Police Command failed to comply with a court order issued by Chief Magistrate Blessing Vic-Jumbo in Port Harcourt, thus frustrating the court proceedings.
According to him, the IGP Alkali directed the Nigerian office of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), popularly known as Interpol, under the leadership of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Garba Umar, to take over the case with a view to ensuring compliance with court order.
Umar, who is the Head of Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) in Nigeria, was elected Interpol Vice President, Africa, and consequently, an Executive Committee Member of the ICPO.
He informed that Interpol operatives visited Port Harcourt in July 2022 and, in fact, began investigations before the case was said to have been yanked off Interpol to another undisclosed unit of the Police, a move believed to have stalled the investigations.
“Our lawyer wrote a reminder to the police as directed by the court but the police failed to accept the letter. We reported back to the court. In striking out the case, the court blamed the police for failing to do their part.”
“The court ruled that any time we are ready; we can come back to the court. The court clearly saw crime but needed the police to say so to allow the court to start trial.”
“We later reported the matter to the IG of police and he minuted it to Interpol probably because the Rivers State police disobeyed court order and the other party in the case appeared to be a multinational entity.”
“Interpol moved in, took over the file from Rivers State Police Command and drilled Macobarb and we also submitted all evidence of crime against the NLNG. We are also aware they invited the NLNG, especially, the persons accused. This was in 2022.”
The Macobarb CEO said he was calling on the IGP to expedite action on the release of the report, explaining that the report is a requirement of the Rivers State private prosecution law in criminal matters.
Macobarb had filed a criminal case before a Port Harcourt Chief Magistrate, Blessings Vic-Jumbo, as part of the N4.2Bn scandal, asking the court to find the NLNG, its then Managing Director, Tony Attah, and General Counsel/Company Secretary, Akachukwu Nwokedi liable for criminal misrepresentation and fraud by obtaining value from Macobarb on false pretence.
In granting the plaintiff’s request, the court asked the police to investigate the matter in order for trial to begin, but the police, which was reported to have begun investigations went quiet when it got to getting the side of the story from the multinational gas corporation.
After several adjournments to wait for the police report, the Chief Magistrate struck out the case to avoid it clustering her docket, but urged the complainant to feel free to return to court whenever the police completed its investigation.
Before striking out the case, the Chief Magistrate ruled that the matter was brought under the right laws and could stand as a criminal suit and thus directed the police to investigate the crime brought before the court.
Ogboru stated that the police saw the contract papers, saw the evidences advanced by his firm, and all materials particular to the allegation to form a prima facie case.
“We submitted evidence of forgery of the signature of an important staff of the NLNG to have attended a meeting of July 28, 2015, whereas such a staff did not attend such a meeting.”
“We showed the police how we acted on the contract terms to manufacture abroad a product at $134,000 and cleared it with N7m and delivered to the NLNG, and how they turned round to say that action was not to be paid for.”
“Macobarb is still waiting for the police to give the outcome of their investigation on our claim that NLNG committed crime. We learnt that there was an order to hand over the case to O/C Legal at the Police Headquarters.”
“Everybody can see a clear pattern: any time the case of crime is about to be investigated, something would happen to cause a handover of the case to another unit, and the case goes quiet.”
Efforts by Kristina Reports to get the reaction of the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, through the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi was yet unfruitful as at the time of this report as he was yet to respond to messages sent to him via WhatsApp.
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