Ibori: Oando, Notore fault British prosecutor

Oando Plc has accused British prosecutor,
Sasha Wass, of distorting facts concerning it
in the ongoing asset confiscation hearing of
the convicted former Delta State Governor,
James Ibori.
The Deputy Group Chief Executive, Oando, Mr.
Mofe Boyo, who spoke at a press conference
in Lagos on Thursday, said Wass chose to
sensationalise the facts in order to mislead
the court and discredit the company.
According to him, the prosecutor deliberately
chose to hype the assertion made by Ibori
that he owned 30 per cent of Oando despite
the fact that Wass had earlier contacted the
Nigerian Stock Exchange to confirm that this
was not true from the shareholders’ register.
“The UK Police came to Nigeria during the
course of investigation and I believe that they
must have gone to the NSE for findings, but
my worry is why they have decided to distort
the facts. But as it is, we don’t have a locus
standi in this case because we are neither the
accused nor the defendant,” Boyo said.
He said that contrary to the British
prosecutor’s claim that Ibori had 30 per cent
stake in Oando, the ex-governor only had 443
units of share.
The Oando chief argued that the shareholding
structure of the company was a public
document available at the NSE for any
interested member of the public to verify.
Boyo said the company had over 300,000
shareholders, and as such, did not have any
obligation or right to carry out any form of
background check on them.
He, however, said Oando was currently
exploring the option of seeking legal
interpretation on how best to seek redress in
the matter, which he confirmed had
negatively affected the company.
Meanwhile, another company linked to the
convicted former governor, Notore Chemical
Industries Limited, said on Thursday that Ibori
did not and had never owned or controlled
shares in the fertiliser firm.
It said in a statement that it had worked
extremely hard to become a major player in
the global fertiliser market, relying on strict
ethical principles.
According to Notore, the ongoing confiscation
proceedings are solely between the United
Kingdom court and Ibori.
“Notore is not a party to the UK court
proceedings because the English law does not
allow Notore to defend itself in them,” the
Onne, River State-based company said.
The firm stressed, “Ibori did not have ‘hidden
assets’ in Notore. He has never owned nor
controlled shares in the company, and, so far
as the company is aware, no other
shareholder or shareholders hold shares for
him in trust.
“Notore remains proud of the central role it is
playing in the revolution of African agriculture
and Africa’s economic empowerment, and is
committed to the Federal Government’s
Agricultural Transformation Agenda and to the
objective of making the country self-reliant in
food production.”