PH refinery: Ex-MD Dikko faces 12-count money laundering charge, gets N150m bail

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday arraigned former Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Ahmed Dikko, on a 12-count charge of alleged money laundering before the Federal High Court Abuja.

Dikko appeared before Justice Inyang Ekwo alongside Masterpiece Projects & Investment Ltd, the second defendant in the case. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges, while the company also entered a not guilty plea through its counsel.

According to the EFCC, the former refinery boss allegedly used about N218.4 million to acquire a property in Katampe Extension, Abuja, without passing the funds through a financial institution, an act the commission said contravenes the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

At the start of proceedings, EFCC counsel, Mr Ekele Iheanacho, informed the court that the matter was fixed for the defendants to take their plea. Following the arraignment, the prosecution asked the court to set a date for trial.

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Defence counsel, Mr Ikechukwu Ajunwa, subsequently applied for bail, arguing that Dikko had complied with the conditions of the administrative bail earlier granted by the EFCC and would neither interfere with the trial nor abscond.

The prosecution opposed the application, urging the court to reject the request based on a counter-affidavit and written address already filed before the court.

Delivering his ruling, Justice Ekwo held that bail is a constitutional right and should only be denied where sufficient grounds exist. He granted Dikko bail in the sum of N150 million with one surety in like amount.

The judge ordered that the surety must own landed property within the court’s jurisdiction, submit the title documents for verification by the court registrar and be a responsible citizen. Dikko was also directed to deposit his international passport and barred from travelling outside the country without the court’s approval.

The matter was adjourned until October 12, 13 and 14 for the commencement of trial.

The arraignment comes about two weeks after the EFCC filed separate charges against Dikko and Jimoh Yisawu, former managing director of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), over the alleged diversion of funds released for the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries.

The anti-graft agency alleged that Dikko received and retained funds from contractors engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, concealed the source of part of the money through third parties, made a cash payment of about N218.4 million for a property in Abuja and converted $77,080 through another party in violation of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

The charges are part of the EFCC’s ongoing investigation into the alleged diversion of funds approved for the rehabilitation and turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries. The commission said the probe has so far led to the recovery of more than N9.4 billion, $21.2 million and several landed properties.

Remembering PH Refinery mess

In 2021, this journalist did a financial analysis of the PH refinery under Dikko. According to the analysis published at that time by The ICIR, the local refinery, which was then managed by Ahmed Dikko, an engineer, reported no income in 2020 but incurred administrative expenses of N19.215 billion, paying salaries, wages and other benefits to unproductive workers to the tune of N22.55 billion. 

The refinery employed 487 new staff members in 2020 despite that it was incurring losses. The 487 new workers were paid N3.93 billion annually, indicating that each of them took home an average of N8.072 million annually or N672,713 monthly.

READ ALSO: NNPC under Kyari spent nearly $3bn on Nigeria’s three refineries. None is working now.

The amount  they earned monthly was about the annual salary of a normal Level 8 Federal Government worker. Between 2019 and 2020, the refinery employed 1162 new staff, paying N41.163 billion in salary and wages.

Out of the 487 staff members employed in 2020, 430 were senior and management staff, amounting to 88.2 percent, with huge financial implications. Only 57 were junior staff members.

Also, out of 675 staff engaged by the refinery in 2019, about 656 were management and senior staff, representing 97 percent of the total, also with huge financial implications.

Staff pension, gratuity and ‘long service award’ gulped N77.76 billion in 2020 as against N63.41 billion the previous year.

Staff were allowed to take car loans, compassionate loans and advances valued at N1.001 billion in 2020 and N597.297 million in 2019.

In 2020, this refinery, which made no revenue, incurred comprehensive losses of N53.179 billion. In the previous year, the company made no revenue but incurred N50.530 billion in comprehensive losses.

Between 2017 and 2020, the company comprehensively lost N241.609 billion. Its revenue within this period was merely N6.27 billion. In 2019, the Port Harcourt refinery did not record any revenue.  Yet, it reported N25.19 billion in expenses.

Six directors collected N59.65 million in fees, meaning that each of them received an average payment of N9.94 million a month in 2019.