A member of Bola Tinubu’s Economic Council, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, has been linked to the importation of petrol from Malta and Russia, raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest within the administration’s efforts to stabilize the energy sector.
In 2023, TheCable reported that Nigeria petroleum importation from Malta surged significantly to $2.8 billion, compared to zero between 2017 and 2022, and a mere $13.32 million in 2016.
Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer (GCEO) of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), immediately denied Dangote’s claim, saying he did not have interest in any plant in Malta.
According to a report by TheCable, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, owner of Matrix Energy and member of the presidential economic coordination council (PECC).
In an interview with TheCable, Aliu strenuously denied any wrongdoing in his business practices and promised a full response to the newspaper’s questions.
In July 2024 alone, over 200,000 tonnes of petrol from Malta were discharged into the Matrix jetty in Warri, Delta state, according to an insider who shared confidential documents with TheCable.
“This represents about 25 percent of Nigeria’s monthly PMS consumption going to a relatively small player with only 150 retail stations,” the insider said.
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The insider further revealed that Aliu is leveraging his close relationships with the top management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) to secure crude oil cargoes for his company, with Matrix Energy receiving discretionary allocations of crude from NNPC on a monthly basis.
According to the insider, the crude allocations to Matrix are traded by Gulf Transport & Trading (GTT), a trading company registered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The source disclosed that two of the three crude cargoes of the recently launched Utapate grade were allocated to GTT.
These crude cargoes are typically sold at a $3 per barrel premium, translating to $3 million per cargo with minimal effort. This amounts to a tax-free profit of nearly $150 million annually, or about N240 billion, at an exchange rate of N1,600/$.
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