Group raises the alarm on how Okowa plans to divest Delta’s N20bn loan in family business, security firm

A non-political pressure group, Delta Grassroots Coalition, has called on the people of Delta State to reject in its entirety, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s insistence on plunging the state into further debt with his Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Project, which the group feared would never see the light of day.

According to a statement signed at the weekend by the National Coordinator of the group, Dr Kazie Ochie, the project was one of Governor Okowa’s Special Purpose Vehicles created to fund his Vice-presidential campaign and third term agenda (attempt producing Speaker Sheriff Oborevwori as duccessor) in Delta State.

Ochie alleged that the resources of the state were being brazenly looted by Governor Okowa in a desperate bid to mobilise funds for his selfish ambitions.

“Our conscience and curiosities were pricked by the very recent N20 billion loans Governor Okowa asked for and was graciously granted by the Delta State House of Assembly in a record time of eight minutes during its sitting on January 27, 2023 without debates or valid questions asked.

“There are no doubts left now that the loans are being channeled to worthy causes, personal worthy causes: the actualization of the Vice presidency of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the governorship ambition of his stooge, Honourable Sheriff Oborevwori who is the Speaker of the rubberstamp Delta State House of Assembly.

“Our findings about the N20 billion loan facility from Fidelity Bank, after our due diligence, an elementary procedure in matters like this which the Delta State Executive Council and Delta State House of Assembly deliberately failed to do, are not only outrageous, they are confounding. And it has become imperative that we inform Deltans whose lives and future are being mortgaged for selfish ambitions, how their resources are being looted in the open by a Governor in desperate need of funds for his selfish ambitions,” the group alleged.

The Delta Grassroots Coalition further claimed that Governor Okowa had on January 25, 2023, written to the Delta State House of Assembly requesting for approval to obtain a loan of N20 billion from Fidelity Bank to finance the state government’s additional investment of 3% equity in UTM Offshore Limited Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Project.

The group said Governor Okowa had stressed that the loan had become urgent because of the Russian-Ukraine War which had led to a shortfall in supply of natural gas in Europe.

However, the Delta Grassroots Coalition said its investigations showed that the transaction was a fraudulent one because UTM OFFSHORE LIMITED, the company in which Governor Okowa was “investing” the whopping sum of N20 billion of Delta State money borrowed from Fidelity Bank company which was incorporated on July 15, 2012 was owned by one Mr. Julius Rone, a native of Warri, a Diploma holder and close associate of Sheriff Oborevwori, the Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly.

According to the group, “the other directors and shareholders in the Company are his wife, Utibe Rone and three sons, Misan Ryan Rone, Oritsewinor Sean Rone and Oritsesesan Julius Rone.”

Delta Grassroots Coalition claimed that UTM Offshore Limited “is a business owned by a husband, wife and three teenage children whose official business address is also their residential address at No 9, Opuda Close, Maitama, Abuja FCT, Abuja.”

It stated further that “UTM Offshore Limited had been inactive since July 15, 2012 and only became active on December 2, 2021.”

The group further alleged that “the company’s Principal Business Activity as we found out at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as at February 2023 is to carry on the business of “Providing Guards for Pipeline Security, for products line, Crude line and Gas.”

“In other words, the company’s areas of core competence is the provision of SECURITY GUARDS for pipeline infrastructure and NOT upstream or midstream business in the oil and gas industry let alone a Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Project.”

According to Delta Grassroots Coalition, “Those who are familiar with highly complex and capital intensive projects like this tell us that asides providing an entity that shows good corporate governance, there are other critical elements to be considered such as availability of gas from an International Oil Company (IOC) via a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA), which is a commitment from any of the IOC’s and an Off take Agreement with those who will buy the LNG, mostly in the international markets. UTM Offshore Limited as at February 9, 2023 has none of these. In fact, we have it on credible authority that ExxonMobil have issued a Cease and Desist letter to UTM Offshore Limited to stop parading Exxonmobil as one of the gas suppliers as it does not have any contractual business relationship with UTM for the FLNG project. For those who do not know, CEASE AND DESIST is “a cautionary notice detailing the sender’s complaint of alleged wrongdoing by the recipient and threatening legal action if the offending activity is not stopped.”

The group expressed its concerns that the N20 billion loan from Fidelity Bank with a humongous 21 percent annual interest rate was already encumbered.

“That would have been the case if this was a genuine corporate business transaction that was beneficial to all parties, especially Deltans. But it is not. UMT Offshore Limited is actually one of Governor Okowa’s Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), created to fund his Vice Presidential campaign and third term agenda in Delta State. Our Governor has a mentor in his principal and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in matters of phoney SPVs.

“We therefore call on all Deltans to reject in its entirety Governor Okowa’s insistence on plunging Delta State into further debt with this phony FLNG project that will never see the light of day,” the group stressed.