Maduka vows to recover Capital Oil debt

The President, Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmos Maduka, has vowed to get back all the money allegedly owed him by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah. Maduka, in a document made available to our correspondent on Tuesday, said, “Given the fact that I earned every kobo through my sweat, I will collect my money to the very last kobo. I vow to pursue this matter to the end. “I and my family will fight with everything to ensure that Ubah repays all the money he owes me. God is my witness.” Maduka claimed in the document that he entered into a joint venture business agreement with Capital Oil for the importation and sale of petrol. The basis of the joint venture agreement was that he would provide the funding for the importation, while Capital Oil would be responsible for the importation logistics as well as handle the sale of the product.

Capital Oil’s role, according to the document, was to obtain Petroleum Import Permits required to import PMS from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and the Department of Petroleum Resources. Capital Oil, according to the agreement, would also source for the products, open Letters of Credits to the supplier, who must deliver the product to its storage tanks, arrange for the sale of the product and pay the proceeds and subsidy element into the Joint Venture Account to repay the loan obtained by the Coscharis boss. For Maduka, the agreement stated, “The only risks are the risks of exchange rate fluctuation, unless Capital Oil acted fraudulently and diverted either the cargoes or shipment of the cargoes. “Finally, Capital Oil will process the subsidy claim for the imported products since it is known that the sales proceeds will not cover the cost of importation.” In order to ensure that Capital Oil fulfilled its part of the transaction, the document explained that a sales agreement, which ensured that it pre-sold the products being imported to Coscharis Motors, was reached. The Petroleum Product Storage Facility Letting Agreement was also reached under which Capital Oil leased the tanks in which the products would be sold to Coscharis. The duo also reached an Escrow Agreement, which provided for an account to be opened into which Capital Oil would domicile proceeds of subsidy collected by way of Sovereign Debt Notes for the products imported, which together with proceeds of the sale of the products, would be used to repay the bank credit facility. Explaining how Coscharis got involved in the deal, the document stated, “Given the fact that all the banks that had been approached refused to have anything to do with Capital Oil, Maduka approached Access Bank for a facility to provide funding for the importation of petrol. “The facility granted to Coscharis Motors was subsequently increased to $164m to accommodate additional requests by Ubah and Capital Oil for additional importation. Eventually, 10 Letters of Credits were established and fully negotiated. “Shipments were made and products were partially received for six of the 10 Letters of Credit, while products in respect of the remaining four Letters of Credit established for the importation of 130,000 metric tonnes of PMS were not delivered at all. This was despite the fact that all 10 LCs were fully negotiated.” When our correspondent reached Ubah on the telephone on Tuesday, he said, “We are already in court; and I won’t want to comment on this.”