The duo of Dr. Ibe Kachiukwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, and Mr. Dafe Sejebor, Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and other top guns in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and NAPIMS are pressuring oil giant, Addax Petroleum, to purchase for $48 million above the asking price, sources have disclosed to SaharaReporters.
The owner of the building is the controversial businessman, Mr. Jide Omokore.
A source close to the two government agencies explained that Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, a former NNPC Group Managing Director, and Sejebor, Group General Manager of NAPIMS, have been pressuring Addax to purchase a building for its headquarters for $115 million, while the building is priced at $67 million.
Mr. Omokore was arrested in June for alleged money laundering. Mr. Sejebor has also faced allegations of money laundering. In July, the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change accused Mr. Sejebor of corruption. He was similarly accused of fraudulently obtaining money from contractors. A source later revealed that Mr. Sejebor purchased a house in Houston, Texas valued at between $1.2 and $1.4 million.
When SaharaReporters contacted to Mr. Sejebor on the phone to verify his ownership of the five-bedroom house, he declined to comment and hung up.
However, an online property search revealed that the registered owner of the pricey house is one Dafe S. Sejebor. Such ownership is at variance with Nigerian laws, which require public officials to declare ownership of properties abroad.
The same source also told SaharaReporters that Mr. Sejebor has a front in the United States, who has established companies the US to use for his various dodgy schemes. The companies include HPO Global Resource Ventures, Pioneer Alfa Petroleum Services Nigeria Limited, and Methanes Company Nigeria Limited.
