For the former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), it never rains, but it pours. Indices emerging from the anti-graft agencies presage the imminent arrest of Prince Haruna Momoh on charges of corruption and embezzlement and money laundering, to the tune of a jaw-dropping $700 million. Investigators have already confiscated Momoh’s Nigerian passport, and he has been ordered not to leave the country. Momoh holds a dual nationality from the two-island West Indies country of Saint Kitts and Nevis; a renowned tax haven for money-laundering and looted resources by African politicians and banking officials.
Sources told www.www.aso.rocks search engine that Prince Momoh and eight other Group Executive Directors (GED) who were recently sacked from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) last month are under investigation for participating in influence peddling networks and collecting bribes and kickbacks running into billions of dollars and were the key players in the transformation of the Nigerian oil industry into Corruption Inc. They were “retired” by the new NNPC boss, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu; who had, in a valedictory statement, wished them “success in their future endeavors.” But it appears Momoh’s days as a free man are numbered as his close former aides are cooperating with investigators to nail him.
The eight former NNPC directors also under investigation include: Bernard Otti, (Finance & Accounts); Timothy Okon, (Exploration & Production/Corporate Planning & Strategy); Engr. Adebayo Ibirogba, (Engineering & Technology); Dr. David Ige, (Gas and Power); Aisha Abdurrahman, (Commercial and Investment); Dr. Dan Efebo, (Corporate Services); Engr. Ian Udoh, (Refining & Petrochemicals); and Dr. Attahiru Yusuf, (Business Development).
The impending arrest of Prince Momoh comes in the wake of eye-popping revelations as for fraud investigators discover new details of massive corruption by Momoh, whose fortune is estimated at over a billion dollars. During his four years in office, Prince Momoh is said to have looted the PPMC blind, and used the illegal proceeds to acquired choice properties and invest in real estate in very high-returns real estate markets like in London, where he personally owns 13 houses. www.www.aso.rocks search engine investigations found that in total, Momoh owns no fewer than 34 high-value properties across the world, including eleven posh estates in Abuja. (see embedded pictures of some of his properties)
According to www.aso.rocks search engine investigation, Momoh exploited his adulterous relationship with former Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke for personal enrichment, and presided over a shadowy network of corruption and bribes and fraudulent contracts involving Ponzi schemes and Shell companies. The illicit proceeds were laundered with the complicity of the Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc, Yemi Adeola and a bank official, whom investigators simply identified as Biodun, as one of the kingpins of the money-laundering racket. Over all, Prince Momoh is known to have laundered a whopping $30 million through Sterling Bank.
Prince Momoh is believed to suffer from incurable money-mindedness, and will stop at nothing in his quest for personal financial gain. Investigators are also looking at how Momoh connived, aided and abetted a sinister plot to plunder and market aviation fuel contaminated with kerosene to airlines operators, in violation of industry standard operation procedures for fuel airlift.
Investigators and airline regulators are still trying to trace the origin of significant amounts of the element, Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) which was found in aviation fuel that is used in Nigeria. Momoh is believed to be the arrowhead of a vicious and unscrupulous network that is credited with adding significant quantities of kerosene into aviation fuel, which has been responsible for some of the aviation accidents that have caused the lives of several Nigerians, including the late former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi. Five others, including the former governor of Kaduna State, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, also died in that helicopter crash. Momoh is known to own three kerosene tank farms; in Lagos, Calabar and Oghara in Delta State, and pockets at least one million dollars for every 5,000 tons of kerosene sold.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) opened investigations last July 15, after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an alert following a red flag by airline engine manufacturer, Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce attributed the dual engine loss of thrust control of its Trent 700 powered Airbus A330 on the presence of Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) deposits on the Turbine Overspeed Servo, after the plane refueled in Lagos. The EASA warned against the use of SAP in aviation fuel, as it could lead to catastrophic failure or mechanical breakdown of flights in mid-air.
The NCAA has promised to “expeditiously establish monitoring and control measures of aviation fuel to enable the regulators and operators to get to the root source of this element (SAP) in the aviation fuel and address the issue appropriately.”
Before Momoh’s appointment as PPMC Managing Director in 2011, he was Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister of Petroleum resources. He worked as in-house Counsel to NNPC for Eleme Petrochemical Complex Project from 1988 to 1996. From there, he became a legal advisor to Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL) and later Company Secretary. From 2005-2006 Momoh moved to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd where he continued his role as Company Secretary and Legal Advisor. He served as Company Secretary of PPMC from 2006-2010 and a year later he took over as the managing director of PPMC, from where he was sacked last month. Momoh holds a Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Benin; an MBA in Information Technology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, and Barrister at Law from the Nigeria Law School, Lagos.