Emeka Offor: Whose Front is He?

If he were American or European, he would be on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the world. He estimates his net worth at three billion dollars ($3 billion), although a recent report obtained by Elendureports.com, puts his net worth at about six billion dollars ($6 billion). This former “Julius Berger truck driver” claims to have been a former petty contractor until fortune smiled at him. He reportedly was given a nineteen million naira contract in 1983, and thus opened the gates to unimaginable wealth.

According to documents obtained by Elendureports.com, business tycoon Emeka Offor is being investigated by a branch of the American government. Another business mogul, Wahab Folawiyo, may also be under investigation. What do these two men have in common besides stupendous wealth? They are both friends of Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo. And they are both oil men.

Emeka Offor is one of the major financiers of the President’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In the last election cycle, he donated two hundred million naira to the Obasanjo re-election campaign. He is also reputed to have sponsored the former Governor Mbadinuju of Anambra State, some members of the National Assembly and Anambra State House of Assembly for elections in 1999. He allegedly parted ways with Gov. Mbadinuju because the Governor refused him unimpeded access to the State’s Treasury. This parting with Offor led to Mbadinuju losing the nomination of his party for re-election in 2003.

Offor owns a chain of companies including, Chrome Oil Services, African Express Bank (Afex Bank), Chrome Radio Station, Chrome Air, and Environmental Remediation Holding Company (ERHC). Chrome Air is on retainer with the Central Bank of Nigeria. Offor also sits on the board of several companies, including Niger Insurance.

Documents obtained by Elendureports.com indicate that the bulk of Offor’s business is with the Nigerian Government. These documents show that Emeka Offor may have made most of his wealth from inflated contracts and speculate that he may be laundering money for some highly-placed government officials. Existing records show that Offor was a front for the late Gen. Sanni Abacha. His first major government contracts came from the Abacha regime.

Offor’s company, Chrome Oil Services, handled the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) on two federal government owned refineries in Port Harcourt. Claims have been made that Nigeria may have been fleeced of at least one hundred million U.S. dollars by Chrome Oil Services. Even with all the money invested in the Turn-Around Maintenance, the two refineries have yet to perform at optimal levels. On November 23, 2004, Offor appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (downstream sector) to explain the non-completion of the TAM. He was rude and disrespectful to the committee members. They have yet to summon him since then.

The documents in our possession accuse Offor of being involved in “about 20 other serious cases of corruption, influence peddling, abuse of office, involvement in illegal acts and cover-ups, harassment and intimidation of political and business opponents, procuring law enforcement agents to act unlawfully, infringement of transparency rules and regulations of government.”

A document prepared by one of the Nigerian security agencies credits Emeka Offor, his business partner, Gidado Idris, and some others as being the people who destroyed the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) through their business practices. Their imprints are also found on the struggling National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON), as well as Eleme Petro-Chemical Company.

There are allegations that Offor used his closeness to Vice-President Atiku to ‘corner’ the multi-billion dollar Yola/Bauchi NEPA transmission line. He has already been paid a significant part of the contract fees as mobilization fees. Offor, in a published report, denied Atiku’s involvement in the deal. Sources at the Vice-President’s office, who spoke to Elendureports.com, told us that Atiku and Offor were not, and have never been, close friends, “Although the Vice-President introduced Offor to the President, Offor is closer to the President than Atiku. In fact I can tell you that Offor has not been close to the Vice-President since 2001, except for during the campaigns when the entire people in the VP’s campaign entourage spent a night at Offor’s country home.” The Vice-President denied having any business dealings with Offor. According to the source, “The Vice-President swore that he has never done any oil business since becoming the Vice-President.”

The said documents in Elendureports.com’s possession state that Emeka Offor and Vice President Atiku were also implicated in a recent revelation about a mysterious Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) signature fee deposit from the sale of OPL 245. Malabu Oil and Gas, a Dan Etete company, were the original owners of OPL 245, but it was later revoked by the Obasanjo Government, and later sold to SPDC. The entire OPL 245 transaction is tainted by controversy as Malabu and Etete sued the Obasanjo Government in a U.S. court for two-and-a-half billion dollars ($2.5 billion). Some interest accruing from the signature fee paid by SPDC is said to have been paid to some U.S. Congressional contacts. Emeka Offor is said to have recapitalized his bank, the Apex bank, with some of the money.

Sources also told Elendureports.com that Offor is very close to the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief, Jackson Gaius-Obaseki. Sources told us that Offor and the Vice-President met last at the President’s office. The Vice-President had gone to present documents to the President concerning Jackson Gaius-Obaseki. The said documents show that Obaseki had salted away about six hundred million dollars ($600 million) in various bank accounts. This revelation led to the President’s firing of Obaseki. However, the President refused to release the file with the documents that show the details of Obaseki’s bank accounts.