Those who know Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, The Honorable Minister Of State, Mines And Steel Development, can attest to the fact that he is hard working, peace loving, kind hearted and extremely generous. His entry into the Abia politics in 2015 shook the foundation of the political establishment in the state and unsettled some characters indefinitely. The reason being that he has made a good name for himself through his numerous philanthropic gestures and outstanding achievements in the private sector. One things that stood him out when he was in the private sector was his commitment to ordinary Nigerian people and insistence on selling petroleum products to the masses at regulatory prices without tampering with his meters. He resented hoarding of products and he built facilities across many locations to help the federal government tackle scarcity as it was then. The news of his love and commitment to the people of Nigeria had spread like wide fire across the South South, South East and North East, where his fuel stations were located. Yet many did not know him in person. He does not like to blow his trumpet.
For long, many knew about Masters Energy (his company) without knowing who was behind it. He was simply focused on helping the masses and not drawing attention to himself.
From his effort at bridging the petroleum supply gap he joined the effort by the federal government to tackle LPG gas supply challenge. Due to his good relational skills he was able to partner the Niger Delta communities to build a mega oil and gas facility in the region in the face of militancy, which had forced many companies to desert the environment.
Aside his history of building successful enterprises and being the Founder of Masters Energy Group, and now Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uche Ogah has made a name for himself as one of the most generous men to come out of Africa.
Apart from Ogah’s scholarship scheme covering primary schools, secondary and university, under Ogah Foundation, he has done so much for the people and has supported government efforts..
In the year 2012, Dr. Ogah cleared 6 Months salary of the academic staffs of Abia State University to enabled them call off their strike and resume duty. In the year 2013, Dr. Ogah sponsored the state organized empowerment program of about 350 youths of Abia and donated Golf/Sienna car to each person.
Dr. Ogah built a state of the art auditorium, fully Air-conditioned and fully equipped for Abia State University.
Apart from schools, churches and homes for the less privileged that Dr. Ogah has built within Abia State, he singlehandedly developed a community in Uturu and provided all the amenities to detail. He went ahead to build the biggest industrial cluster across the East of Niger in Abia State.
Dr. Ogah is noted to be the second highest employer of labor in Abia after the state Govt. Abians benefiting from Dr. Ogah’s empowerment are countless.
As I said the other day, his story is unique because he may not be amongst the ten richest persons from Abia state, he is simply a giver and a man with the milk of human kindness.
With this enviable record and commitment to serve the people he came into Abia politics and those whose reason for joining politics is to enrich themselves and impoverish the people went into frenzy. They aligned themselves against him because given the opportunity to handle executive power in his state, his performance will expose their wickedness against the people.
Since the day he joined politics they have been having nightmares. They have continued to fight him as though their lives depend on him not coming to power. They have thrown all manner of dirty things at him in an effort to destroy his reputable image because his record is too outstanding for them to deal with. For them it has become a project that must be accomplished and they are not leaving any stone unturned.
Few days ago they came with a rehearse of their old song of Dr. Uche Ogah being involved in one case that must be investigated. To tell you how stupid they are, they created a faceless organization and sent a petition in a matter that was long quashed by a court of competent jurisdiction, years before now. They are even ashamed of themselves, to the extent that they are hiding behind a faceless organization instead of coming boldly to be identified. That is how low they have gone in their determination to bring Ogah down.
Unfortunately for them, another failure awaits them.
In any case, it is expected of evil minded, low thinking characters to attack his image. He is a shining star and the good people of Abia have continued to repose confidence in him. Even as a Minister of the Republic he is making Abia people proud and these primitive political opponents are dying out of envy. He has continued to do good to as many as he can. And recently he trained over one thousand Abia indigenes who are about to be empowered with money to go into businesses.
Hence, some political charlatans are in severe pain because once again they have been exposed by his commitment to the people.
Dr. Uche Ogah is ahead of them. The story they are using to mischeracterize him has long been thrown into the dustbin of history. But for clarity sake, presented below is the exact account of what transpired between Masters Energy and a greedy client who wanted to reap what she did not sow but was stopped in her wake by the law of the land. Although Dr. Uche Ogah’s political enemies are trying to make a political capital out of it, he has remained ahead of them by being open and law abiding in all his conduct.
He is no longer in the service of Masters Energy but records must be made available so that those who are intent on tarnishing his image can see through their foolishness.
Sometime ago before Dr Uche Ogah thought of entering politics, one Mrs Bridget Adeosun, a Director of Mut-Hass Petroleum Ltd was introduced to Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd as a struggling lady who has interest in Oil and Gas sector but does not possess the necessary capacities including having facilities like Storage Tank to consummate a business transaction her company had with Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency that gives Permit to import fuel into the country.
On the 2nd of February, 2011, the said Mrs Bridget Adeosun, a director of Mut-Hass Petroleum Nigeria Ltd requested Masters Energy through a letter from her Company that Masters should execute an Agreement – ThroughPut Agreement through which Masters Energy will confirm that they will be ready to offer a space in their Depot to store her petroleum products if the company is given allocation to import the petroleum product.
Mastets Energy replied to her letter by acceding to her request that they shall offer the storage facility to the intended product whenever the permit is granted to her by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. In addition, Masters Energy executed the ThroughPut Agreement dated 10th of February, 2011.
These documents are available for inspection:-
1. Letter from Mut-Hass Petroleum Ltd dated 2nd Feb., 2011 is available for inspection.
2. Letter from Masters Energy Oil & Gas Co, Ltd is available for inspection.
3. The ThroughPut Agreement dated 10th of February, 2011 is available for inspection.
This said ThroughPut Agreement was submitted to DPR by Mut-Hass Ltd for issuance of the permit and thereafter on the 10th of May, 2011, DPR wrote to Masters Energy for confirmation of the ThroughPut Agreement and on the 11th of May, 2011 Masters Energy wrote to confirm the ThroughPut Agreement.
These documents mentioned above are all verifiable.
4. The letter from DPR to Masters Energy is available for inspection.
5. The letter from Masters Energy to the DPR is available for inspection.
On the 12th of April, 2011, Mrs Bridget Adeosun returned to Masters Energy with a Permit to Import 10,000 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) issued to Mut-Hass Petroleum by PPRA.
5. The said Permit Letter dated 5th April, 2011 is available for inspection.
Upon receipt of the Permit from PPRA, Mut-Hass Ltd through Mrs Adeosun complained of her inability to fund the transaction due to lack of funds and experience. She therefore offered to transfer to Masters Energy Ltd the entire interest of her company in the Allocation for an agreed sum of N=26,820,000(Twenty-Six Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira only) calculated at N=2.00 per litre, as full and final consideration for the transaction.
6. The Agreement(MOU) in which she transferred all the company’s interest in the Allocation to Masters Energy Ltd is available for inspection.
7. The invoice for the Allocation dated 6th May, 2011 is available for inspection.
8. The Photocopies of the Cheques received by Mrs Adeosun from Masters Energy Ltd are available for inspection.
Mrs B. Adeosun deposited these cheques in an account she opened at ECO bank, where she is a sole signatory.
Further to this memorandum of understanding wherein all the interests in the allocation was passed to Masters Energy Ltd, requisite and ancillary documents such as Account Opening Forms, Company Resolution for Account Opening were duly executed by officers of Mut-Hass
Petroleum Ltd to the benefit of Masters Energy Ltd. THIS PROCEDURE WAS NECESSITATED BY THE FACT THAT THE TRANSACTION COULD ONLY BE EXECUTED THROUGH THE BANK ACCOUNT OF THE COMPANY IN WHOSE NAME THE PERMIT WAS ISSUED.
On 4th August, 2011, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Ltd made payment for the said 10, 000 metric tons of PMS through Mut-Hass UBA Account opened for the purpose of the transaction via the establishment of a Letter of Credit(L/C).
On the 6th of September, 2011 the imported product was delivered into Masters Energy storage tanks and was certified by relevant government agencies.
The Sovereign Debt Note for payment of the cost under-recovery (otherwise called subsidy) was issued on 15th November, 2011 by the Federal Government to Masters Energy in the name of Mut-Hass Petroleum Limited (being the name in which the import permit was issued). The value of the Sovereign Debt Note was supposed to be utilized by Masters Energy to offset part of the cost of the importation.
Due to the delay in the payment on the Sovereign Debt Note by Federal Government of Nigeria, the transaction incurred some foreign exchange differentials occasioned by Dollar rate fluctuation as at the time of importation valued at N=51,884,,159.95(Fifty one million, eight hundred and eighty four thousand, one hundred and fifty nine Naira, ninety five kobo).
Masters Energy applied to the Government for the differentials in the foreign exchange transaction. Surprisingly, it was discovered that Mrs Bridget Adeosun through Mut-Hass Ltd had written to Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency(PPPRA) requesting that the accrued interest and foreign currency differentials be paid to her company on a transaction she has no interest after transferring all her rights and liabilities to Masters Energy Ltd.
Masters Energy was shocked. It was also found that the said woman had purportedly passed a Board Resolution through her company to change the SIGNATURE OF THE UBA ACCOUNT BY ADDING HERSELF AS AN “A” SIGNATORY IN PREPARATION FOR THE MONEY(the accrued interest and foreign exchange differentials) the Federal Government was to pay to the importing company which by agreement is Masters Energy Ltd even though payment will still be made in the name of Mut-Hass Ltd.
Masters Energy initiated action immediately to stop the Federal Government from paying her company the said money, as the said sum rightly belonged to Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd.
The court in Abuja issued an injunction against the payment and directed that the money should be deposited with the Registrar of the Court in an interest yielding account of any reputable Bank.
The above mentioned documents are verifiable:-
9. The Board Resolution of Mut-Hass Petroleum Ltd
10. The court order granting an injunction against the payment of the money to Mut-Hass Ltd.
When Masters Energy succeeded in obtaining this Court Order against Mut-Hass Ltd, heaven was let loose.
Driven by an unprecedented greed and avarice ever exhibited by any human being, Mrs Bridget Adeosun literally got mad and wrote petitions upon petitions to all the Security Agencies in Nigeria alleging “forgery” of her signature and that of other directors in all the agreements she signed, including the Board Resolutions authorizing Masters Energy to run the UBA Account of Mut-Hass Ltd for the purpose of this particular transaction
All the security agencies investigated the said allegation and found no substance in it. However, Inspector General of Police initiated a criminal charge but When the Police saw the futility of the charge and knowing their inability to secure any conviction with the alleged frivolous charge, they withdrew the charge immediately and UP TILL NOW THERE IS NO OTHER CRIMINAL CASE IN COURT AGAINST DR. OGAH OR HIS COMPANY CONCERNING THIS FALSE ALLEGATION.
The following documents are verifiable:
11. The various petitions to several Security Agencies.
12. The Charge and withdrawal of same by the Police
The above is the true account of what transpired between Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd company and Mut-Hass Petroleum Nigeria Ltd owned by her.
Two important posers to puncture her allegation of forgery are as follows:
1. The sum of N=26,820,000(Twenty-Six Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira) which Mrs Bridget Adeosun collected from Masters Energy Company and which she receipted, was for what purpose?
2. If she is alleging that the UBA Account operated was fraudulent and its documents forged by Masters Energy company, how come the same woman who allegedly knew nothing about the said Account got her company to pass a Board Resolution in which she wanted to become the “A” signatory in preparation to have control of the anticipated differentials the Federal Government was about to pay to Mut-Hass Ltd being the importing company of the PMS?
CONSCIENCE is an open wound, only truth can heal it.
Dr. Uche Ogah’s bother to always explain issues is born out of respect for his people. That is an exceptional behavior in our political clime. Those behind this new mudslinging as usual will suffer fatal failure. Let them come open and bear the shame of their envy against God’s anointed.
Great Imo Jonathan
