The management of Capital Oil and Gas owned by Ifeanyi Ubah on Friday announced it has shut down its operations.
This is as a result of a court order by Justice A. Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The verdict delivered earlier in the week, ordered the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over the possession of all properties and assets of the oil firm.
A statement by the company reads: “In the light of the order, the Jetties and Depots of Capital Oil & Gas Industries Limited located at Apapa have been shut down with immediate effect.
“With effect from today, Friday November 16, 2012 (yesterday) discharge and loading of petroleum products from the facility is temporarily suspended.
“We wish to emphasise that we stopped operations by 4:37am this morning 16/11/2012 with a total load-out of 224 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) – equivalent of 8, 151, 270 litres of PMS – belonging to NNPC. This will remain our last operation till further notice. This is to ensure that that the order of the court is not in any way violated.
The statements also stated that: “Before the court order, our operations had been greatly threatened. Now the open-secret plan to take over our business has materialised. This is no doubt a clear case of victimisation. Nigerians will unfortunately be worse for it. If only they had put the nation’s interest first.
“That a company like ours, which accounts for about 35 per cent of daily petroleum products distribution in Nigeria, can be the subject of such an application and court order is baffling. The Government has refused to pay us. It would appear that those who want to take over our business are succeeding with the aid of their friends in government. “We empathise with the long-suffering masses of Nigeria who have been experiencing long queues in filling stations, non-availability of petroleum products as well as high cost of transportation.”
“We had cried out that the unsubstantiated findings by the Aig-Imoukhuede Committee was strangulating our business by denying us access to payments from the Federal Government, credit, business partners, good-will etc as well as making us look like criminals and people without integrity.
Capital Oil said: “They came up with subsidy, we defended it and they could not refute our defense. They came up with Access Bank and Coscharis, we went to court and they refused to appear, rather, they went to a United Kingdom (UK) court. “Now they are coming with AMCON.
“For the benefit of Nigerians, we have been discussing with AMCON with two Nigerian financial consultants and a British firm, towards reconciling our position and exposures with AMCON. We have not been found wanting in terms of cooperation with AMCON even when government policies have adversely affected our business over the last 10 months.
“We cannot be stopped from trading, our funds tied down, and at the same time, are found wanting for not meeting our obligations by the same Government Ministry. We have painstakingly managed to pay our workers salaries till October 2012, even when we have not received any form of payment in the last 10 months.”
The company had alleged a conspiracy against it after its deal with Coscharis Group owned by Cosmas Maduka went sour.
Acces Bank had given a loan facility to Capital Oil and Coshcharis Group in a joint venture to finance the importation of petroleum products.
Ubah and Maduka, both Anambra indigenes, have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over which party defaulted in the business transaction.
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