British Crown prosecutor yesterday denied
suggesting jailed former Delta State Governor
James Ibori owns 30 per cent of Oando Plc.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass’ statement forced the
court to rise for 10 minutes to allow calm to
return, especially between her and Ibori’s
counsel, QC Ivan Krolic and QC Bailey for
Oando.
DC Peter Clark was under cross examination by
Krolic when he referred to Wass, as having
alleged that Ibori owns 30 per cent of Oando.
Cutting in suddenly, Sasha said: ”Your honour,
Mr Krolic should use the correct statement
used by the prosecution…The Crown has
carefully chosen their words; it may well not
be correct to say that the Crown said that Mr
Ibori owns 30 per cent of Oando.”
As if he did not hear what Sasha said correctly,
Krolic proceeded to say: “Your honour, I recall
Mr Bailey, counsel to Oando asking the
prosecution to withdraw what she said about
Ibori owning 30 per cent of Oando.
“If my learned friend, Sasha did not allege that
Mr Ibori has 30 per cent share in Oando, there
would have been no need for Oando’s counsel,
QC Bailey to be in sitting in the court.”
The judge, Anthony Pitts, trying to save the
situation said: “ The prosecution did not
suggest that Mr Ibori owns 30 per cent of
Oando.”
Relying on the sudden turn and retraction
from the prosecution and confirmed by the
judge, Krolic said: “It appears that there are
those that are involved with the media that
have concluded that Mr Ibori had 30 per cent
of Oando. If in fact my learned friend,
referring to the Crown Prosecutor, Sasha Wass,
did not say or mean that, the media should be
corrected.”
The British prosecution’s reference that Ibori
claimed that he owned 30 per cent of Oando
became a sensational news, triggering an
immediate panic that sent Oando’s share price
down by about 25 per cent within three
trading sessions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange
(NSE).
Ibori, who had pleaded guilty and serving a jail
term in United Kingdom for corruption, is
undergoing asset confiscation proceedings at
the Southwark Crown Court in London. The
proceedings started Monday last week.
The management of Oando has consistently
maintained that Ibori has no such significant
shareholding in the petroleum-marketing
company.
At a media parley in Lagos, Deputy Managing
Director, Oando, Omamofe Boyo, decried the
prosecution’s mention of the company’s name
in relation to the ongoing case, describing the
linking of the company to the jailed former
governor as undue sensationalism and reckless.
He said the prosecution was being unfair to
Oando as it has relevant authentic information
that the prosecution had independently
gathered showing that Ibori might have lied
when he made claim of substantial
shareholding in Oando.
According to him, Oando was well aware that
the London Metropolitan Police came to
Nigeria to investigate the claim of Ibori’s
shareholdings in Oando and other claims and
only discovered that Ibori had less than 400
shares in Oando then.
He said as a publicly listed company, the share
register and shares transactions on the
company are public documents that can be
verified wondering why the prosecution was
bent on misleading the court.
He noted that as a public company whose
shares are freely traded on the floors of the
exchanges in Lagos and Johannesburg, Oando
cannot determine who should or not buy its
shares.
He regretted the sensationalism around the
way the case is being run, noting that such
recklessness has had effect on an innocent
third party, which is Oando Plc.
He insisted that Ibori does not own 30 per
cent of Oando or Ocean & Oil or any affiliated
companies.
Boyo said the prosecution lawyers had all the
evidence of the true situation, describing what
had happened since Monday when the trial
started in London as “very bizarre.”
He stressed that the company had checked its
share registers in South Africa and Nigeria and
Ibori only has 443 shares out of the more than
300,000 shareholders of the company.
“We know all of those shareholders that have
stake from 0.5 per cent, because there are few
shareholders holding one per cent and above,”
Boyo said.
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