How Diezani's cousin was trapped, arrested by EFCC

DETAILS of how Mr. Donald Chidi Amamgbo, the cousin of the immediate past Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison Madueke, was lured and arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in Lagos,on Thursday, emerged last night. Amamgbo, who is the chief executive of Mezcor oil and Gas limited, Tridax Oil and Gas Limited, Lynear Energy Limited and Bulk Strategic Reserved Limited, is alleged to have used his companies to corner multi-million naira oil contracts from the NNPC because of his relationship with the former oil minister.

Ex-Petroleum Minister, Diezani-Alison-Madueke A source close to the operation, told Saturday Vanguard that a dummy was sold to Amamgbo that some EFCC operatives had swooped on his Abuja office on No 5 Sannar Street, Wuse 2, frisking anyone on sight. Alarmed over the report, the man, who was in Lagos at the time, called EFCC to enquire why the operatives were ransacking his Abuja office and threatened to take action against them.

But the operatives calmed him down and assured him that there was no cause for alarm and pleaded with him to report to their Lagos office for explanations. But as he arrived, Amamgbo walked into the waiting arms of his interrogators, who immediately took him on, on how he came about the various oil deals he got when Diezani held sway and the documents recovered from his office.

He was detained and questioned over night. Amamgbo, according to EFCC, is believed to have acted as the former minister's front by lifting Nigerian crude oil without any requisite experience. They are asking the man to explain how the four firms came by the major oil jobs ahead of other key players in the industry.

He has spent two days in detention. I don't have any front – Diezani But a source close to Diezani questioned EFCC's claim of the businessman's dealings with the former minister, asking whether there was anything in the contracts he got linking him with the former minister.

The source said the fact that Diezani was related to Amamgbo did not make him a business front for the former minister. “Let the record be put straight that despite the attempt to bring her down, Mrs. Alison Madueke did not and does not have fronts in the Nigerian oil industry and nobody should attempt to impute what does not exist. “Neither is she a shareholder in any of the companies being named as belonging to the person being investigated nor is any of the transactions by the said company traced to her,” the spokesman said.

Vanguard