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Despite the claim that he’s been witch-hunted by a foreign corporation, the trouble seems still far away for businessman and scion of Pa Christopher Abebe, the first indigenous chairman of UAC Nigeria, Dr. John Warimeme Abebe. The sociable and influential business mogul, who is a brother-in-law to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, claimed that a Norwegian oil and gas company incorporated in Nigeria, Statoil Nigeria Limited, made a criminal complaint of forgery against him after he had sued the company at the Federal High Court. In the suit, Abebe was claiming a net profit interest (NPI) of 1.5 per cent in Statoil’s oil and gas assets in Nigeria.
But Statoil Nigeria, in turn, accused the brother of former First Lady, late Mrs. Stella Obasanjo of forgery. And on July 26, 2018, Abebe was arraigned on a four-count charge of forgery, fabricating evidence, using fabricated evidence and attempting to pervert the course of justice by the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC).
Four years later, despite Abebe’s efforts to extricate himself of such criminal allegations of an alleged $4million fraud, the case seems far from being dispensed with.
On Monday, 2 August —Abebe still on trial for the alleged multi-million dollar fraud— stood before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, with the prosecution further cross-examining him. Because of his need to tend to his health overseas, the presiding judge was said to have adjourned Abebe’s case till October. In between all these crises, the businessman is also having Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON to contend with as the corporation early this year clamped down on another of Abebe’s investments —Inducon Nigeria Limited— over an alleged N1.3 billion debt.
Before the legal brouhaha with Statoil, Abebe arguably was regarded as the first Nigerian in deep offshore oil exploration. He successfully brought British Petroleum and Statoil into the Nigerian oil scene in 1991. He is a distinguished Alumni award winner of the University of Lagos and the first and only African and Nigerian to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement award of the International Cricket Council.
