September 27, 2008
SaharaReporters, New York.
See Details of "Nevada Petroleum Resources, INc Registration informationa d a "Desista and Refrain Order" place on its operators.>> Registration required
SaharaReporters have uncovered a high-level scam perpetrated by the Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State in the award of a contract for “Abia Refinery” to the tune of $100 million. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between a delegation of Abia State officials led by the governor and a group known as “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.” in Tampa, Florida early September 2008.
According to newspaper reports, the Abia state government had agreed to build a refinery in the state at the cost of $100 million, with a capacity to refine 20,000 barrels per day. The reports had claimed that Governor Orji signed the MOU on behalf of the state government while a certain Kalu Onyioha signed in his capacity as the “Executive Vice-President” of Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.
SaharaReporters investigation reveals that the Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc., was a new start-up company registered in the US state of Nevada as recently as March 12 2008, as a domestic corporation with corporation number E159802008-8. It had at its registered agent, United States Corporations Agent Inc in Las Vegas. The company had a share count of 2 million shares and a capital amount of $2,000, which means that its share is valued at $0.001. The list of its officers included Van Monnets, listed as “treasurer”, Onyioha Kalu “Onyihoa” as “Director”, and Edwin W Sano serving as both President and Secretary of the corporation. The three officers listed 1337 3rd Street Suite 200, Santa Monica, California as their address.
There were other suspicious actions on the company's registration. The registration process was fast-tracked through a FEDEX Overnight Package delievered on the date of its execution. At the MOU signing ceremony, where Governor Orji promised that the company would commence work on the refinery in April 2008 no explanations were offered for the hurried registration of the phony company.
Saharareporters' investigations further reveal that the governor might have used Kalu Onyioha as a front to execute a major heist of Abia State resources, using a shell company to execute a project for which the company had no visible expertise or skill. Further investigations show that another individual engaged in the phony transaction, 60–year old Edwin Sano, had once tried to pull a scam in the state of California by setting up two phony oil corporations. The corporation known as Reserve Petroleum California, Inc., and progressive California Oil & Gas Income Fund, LP with the same address used in registering the “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc” was slammed with a “Desist and Refrain Order” for violations of section 25110 of the California Corporation code.
The order which was handed to Mr. Sano on June 18 2008 was granted to effectively stop him and his companies from selling to unsuspecting investors securities to be sold at $20, 000 per unit. The securities would have raised $20 million for Mr. Sano for the purported purpose of acquiring working interests in existing oil wells, drilling additional wells and acquiring the rights to other sites within Kern County in California. Sano and Onyioha apparently rushed to set up another company in Nevada with the hope of scamming Abia State of $100 million with the full knowledge and collaboration of the governor because they could no longer use the California based corporations owned by Mr. Sano.
The level of corruption in Abia State over the last one year has taken another dimension; going by the way the Abia State funds were being looted in this kind of phony transaction, by those in charge of the state. While the whole state is being impoverished, the looters led by T. A Orji are having a field day with the various scams, the latest being this bogus ‘Refinery Project’.
SaharaReporters investigations Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) reveal no records Nevada Petroleum Resources Limited, the Nigeria counterpart of a so-called Nevada Group. Curiously, the supposedly thorough process undertaken by the Abia State government to ascertain the authenticity of the company and its ability and capacity to embark on a huge refinery project, failed to establish that the company had no pre-existing records of building refineries or engaging in petroleum business of any kind.
Not only was an MOU signed between the Abia State government-once in April in Nigeria and later on Tampa, Florida with the governor’s 23-man delegation, but monies were also released to Nevada Petroleum Resources to the tune of $60 million, according to sources knowledgeable about the deal. Prof. Joshua Ogbonnaya, the Pro-Chancellor of the Abia State University, and one Emeka Ezeogo, a commissioner, the Governor’s deputy Chief of Staff and the LGA Chairman of Isialangwa LGA made the questionable remittances.
For a supposed “big time business man”, like Kalu Onyioha, nothing could be found on him except that his name featured prominently in EFCC charges filed against the former Governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu. Onyioha is not listed in any known businesses in the US or as a professional petroleum businessman or professional in California or Nevada. Before going to press, Saharareporters contacted Mr. Sano at his home in San Marco, California; a female voice answered the call and said that he was not home. Though we left him a message requesting his comments about the refinery business, he did not respond before we went to press. Also, SaharaReporters reached the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State governor, Kalu Ukoha, he told our reporter Abia State government does not work on Saturdays and as such he could not respond to our request for a copy of the MOU signed between the state and the phony corporation. Even though he admitted that monies were already paid to Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc, he said the details were contained in the MOU, which he said could not be produced until after the public holidays.
From available records, close to one billion has been expended on the refinery issue using various fronts, and several millions more have been lodged into offshore accounts.
A anonymous source at the state government said that the whole refinery scandal is just the tip of the iceberg in a state where the official governmental structure has collapsed and the place is being run by greedy individuals, a state where the budget for the function of the local governments are channeled to questionable sources.
There has been no audit of the state finances; while that is not peculiar to Abia, the refinery issue raises a lot of new questions, from who owns Nevada; to who got the Nevada Refinery project money; which refinery has Nevada Petroleum Resources built anywhere in world; how much has been paid and to whom?
Only last week, a deal similar to Nevada was sealed on Abia Palm Company to an Italy based company that deals in energy, to resuscitate the agricultural sector of the State.
See Details of "Nevada Petroleum Resources, INc Registration informationa d a "Desista and Refrain Order" place on its operators.>> Registration required
SaharaReporters have uncovered a high-level scam perpetrated by the Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State in the award of a contract for “Abia Refinery” to the tune of $100 million. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between a delegation of Abia State officials led by the governor and a group known as “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.” in Tampa, Florida early September 2008.
According to newspaper reports, the Abia state government had agreed to build a refinery in the state at the cost of $100 million, with a capacity to refine 20,000 barrels per day. The reports had claimed that Governor Orji signed the MOU on behalf of the state government while a certain Kalu Onyioha signed in his capacity as the “Executive Vice-President” of Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc.
SaharaReporters investigation reveals that the Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc., was a new start-up company registered in the US state of Nevada as recently as March 12 2008, as a domestic corporation with corporation number E159802008-8. It had at its registered agent, United States Corporations Agent Inc in Las Vegas. The company had a share count of 2 million shares and a capital amount of $2,000, which means that its share is valued at $0.001. The list of its officers included Van Monnets, listed as “treasurer”, Onyioha Kalu “Onyihoa” as “Director”, and Edwin W Sano serving as both President and Secretary of the corporation. The three officers listed 1337 3rd Street Suite 200, Santa Monica, California as their address.
There were other suspicious actions on the company's registration. The registration process was fast-tracked through a FEDEX Overnight Package delievered on the date of its execution. At the MOU signing ceremony, where Governor Orji promised that the company would commence work on the refinery in April 2008 no explanations were offered for the hurried registration of the phony company.
Saharareporters' investigations further reveal that the governor might have used Kalu Onyioha as a front to execute a major heist of Abia State resources, using a shell company to execute a project for which the company had no visible expertise or skill. Further investigations show that another individual engaged in the phony transaction, 60–year old Edwin Sano, had once tried to pull a scam in the state of California by setting up two phony oil corporations. The corporation known as Reserve Petroleum California, Inc., and progressive California Oil & Gas Income Fund, LP with the same address used in registering the “Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc” was slammed with a “Desist and Refrain Order” for violations of section 25110 of the California Corporation code.
The order which was handed to Mr. Sano on June 18 2008 was granted to effectively stop him and his companies from selling to unsuspecting investors securities to be sold at $20, 000 per unit. The securities would have raised $20 million for Mr. Sano for the purported purpose of acquiring working interests in existing oil wells, drilling additional wells and acquiring the rights to other sites within Kern County in California. Sano and Onyioha apparently rushed to set up another company in Nevada with the hope of scamming Abia State of $100 million with the full knowledge and collaboration of the governor because they could no longer use the California based corporations owned by Mr. Sano.
The level of corruption in Abia State over the last one year has taken another dimension; going by the way the Abia State funds were being looted in this kind of phony transaction, by those in charge of the state. While the whole state is being impoverished, the looters led by T. A Orji are having a field day with the various scams, the latest being this bogus ‘Refinery Project’.
SaharaReporters investigations Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) reveal no records Nevada Petroleum Resources Limited, the Nigeria counterpart of a so-called Nevada Group. Curiously, the supposedly thorough process undertaken by the Abia State government to ascertain the authenticity of the company and its ability and capacity to embark on a huge refinery project, failed to establish that the company had no pre-existing records of building refineries or engaging in petroleum business of any kind.
Not only was an MOU signed between the Abia State government-once in April in Nigeria and later on Tampa, Florida with the governor’s 23-man delegation, but monies were also released to Nevada Petroleum Resources to the tune of $60 million, according to sources knowledgeable about the deal. Prof. Joshua Ogbonnaya, the Pro-Chancellor of the Abia State University, and one Emeka Ezeogo, a commissioner, the Governor’s deputy Chief of Staff and the LGA Chairman of Isialangwa LGA made the questionable remittances.
For a supposed “big time business man”, like Kalu Onyioha, nothing could be found on him except that his name featured prominently in EFCC charges filed against the former Governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu. Onyioha is not listed in any known businesses in the US or as a professional petroleum businessman or professional in California or Nevada. Before going to press, Saharareporters contacted Mr. Sano at his home in San Marco, California; a female voice answered the call and said that he was not home. Though we left him a message requesting his comments about the refinery business, he did not respond before we went to press. Also, SaharaReporters reached the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State governor, Kalu Ukoha, he told our reporter Abia State government does not work on Saturdays and as such he could not respond to our request for a copy of the MOU signed between the state and the phony corporation. Even though he admitted that monies were already paid to Nevada Petroleum Resources, Inc, he said the details were contained in the MOU, which he said could not be produced until after the public holidays.
From available records, close to one billion has been expended on the refinery issue using various fronts, and several millions more have been lodged into offshore accounts.
A anonymous source at the state government said that the whole refinery scandal is just the tip of the iceberg in a state where the official governmental structure has collapsed and the place is being run by greedy individuals, a state where the budget for the function of the local governments are channeled to questionable sources.
There has been no audit of the state finances; while that is not peculiar to Abia, the refinery issue raises a lot of new questions, from who owns Nevada; to who got the Nevada Refinery project money; which refinery has Nevada Petroleum Resources built anywhere in world; how much has been paid and to whom?
Only last week, a deal similar to Nevada was sealed on Abia Palm Company to an Italy based company that deals in energy, to resuscitate the agricultural sector of the State.
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