NewStats: 3,263,727 , 8,181,172 topics. Date: Saturday, 07 June 2025 at 03:08 PM 1n5g3j

Inside details of multi-billion naira subsidy fraud that got oil marketer 104-year jail term

When stories of the petrol subsidy fraud appeared on the pages of newspapers, they were told mostly with sketchy details, with the crux of the narrative centring on the trials and convictions of the indicted oil marketers. But little was known about the gravity and tricky details of the fraud that milked the nation’s treasury.

In his new book, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), reveals inside details of the massive fraud that marred the Petroleum Fund (PSF) scheme.

Bawa served as the chairman of the anti-graft agency from February 2021 to June 2023.

In the book, he detailed how the petrol subsidy scheme was used to syphon public funds, drawing from his experience as a key investigator on the EFCC’s special team that probed the 2012 subsidy fraud.

The case of Rowaye Jubril, the managing director of Brila Energy Limited, is unusual and intriguing.

Just like Oluwaseun Ogunbambo his fellow oil marketer and managing director of Fargo Petroleum and Gas Ltd, who was also indicted in the scam, Jubril was found to have forged several documents.

But what makes his case peculiar is how he orchestrated the fraud through ‘Remain on Board (RoB)’.

RoB is the material remaining in vessel tanks, void spaces, and/or pipelines after discharge. It includes water, oil, slops, oil residue, oil/water emulsions, sludge, and sediment.

WITH RoB, JUBRIL KILLED TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

Jubril did not import petrol, but used forged documents submitted to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to claim subsidy payment of N963.7 million.

The mother vessel, MT Overseas Limar, which he claimed to have used to import the product from Brazil in November 2010 was nowhere near the African coast at the time.

So, what did Jubril and his company do?

Brila Energy claimed to have imported and discharged 13,155 metric tons (equivalent to 17,700,573 liters) of PMS at Obat Oil Depot, Apapa, Lagos state, in March 2011.

The company alleged that MT Limar moved the product into its chartered vessel, MT Delphina (13,271 metric tons), offshore Cotonou and later transferred it into MT Dani (13,245 metric tons), and then discharged in Obat depot (13,155 metric tons).

Investigations, however, showed that MT Dani received 10,302 metric tons of PMS from three different vessels, with the following breakdown: MT Aidin 3,952 metric tons; MT Gavros: 3,119 metric tons; and MT Delphina: 3,234 metric tons.

Simply put, MT Dina only got 3,234 metric tons from MT Delphina as against Brila’s claim of 13,245.

Afterwards, MT Dina discharged its content to three other depots and Obat only got 6,911 metric tons as against Brila’s claim of 13,155.

“These findings indicate a complex set of transactions that directly contradicts the claims made by Brila Energy Limited regarding the discharge volumes and the sourcing of the product.” Bawa wrote in his book.

“The volume discharged was significantly lower than the claim made by Brila Energy Limited. The actual recorded discharge was 6,911.970 metric tons instead of the claimed 13,155.807 metric tons. The inquiries revealed other significant discrepancies.

“MT Delphina received Motor Spirit (PMS) from MT Gavros, rather than from MT Overseas Limar. It subsequently discharged the product into three different vessels.

“The investigation into the operations of Brila Energy Limited revealed that the activities were basically a purchase of Remain on Board (ROBs) as opposed to a mere inflation of volumes. According to the documentation submitted by Brila Energy Limited, there. There was no genuine importation that took place. The trader that was engaged in the transactions raised suspicions that the mother vessel was never present in Africa, and the claimed STS transfer was fraudulent.

“Unlike in other cases where companies purportedly imported a lesser volume, such as 5,000 metric tons, the forged documents indicated a larger import of 10,000 metric tons. ROBs were purchased to cover the stated import. The fraud, in this case, was multifaceted. It primarily involved the nefarious acquisition of ROBs without any legitimate import.”

Following EFCC’s prosecution, on March 16, 2017, a Lagos state high court sentenced Jubril to 10 years imprisonment and ordered the company to pay N963.7 million in restitution to the federal government.

BUT IT DIDN’T END THERE…

Jubril and his company also helped another company to defraud the federal government of N1.1 billion from the subsidy fund.

In 2011, the PPPRA gave Alminnur Resources Limited, owned by Saminu Rabiu, permit to import 10,000 metric tons of PMS, but the company asked Brila Energy Limited to carry out the importation on its behalf.

All the documents involved in the transaction of the alleged petrol import from Amsterdam were forged while the vessels claimed to have been used were “dead”.

On April 7, 2017, a federal capital territory high court convicted and sentenced Jubril to 104 years imprisonment over the N1.1 billion subsidy fraud. Rabiu died during the trial.

Published by Cable Books, an imprint of Cable Media and Publishing Ltd, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’ is now available for purchase online via and on

https://www.thecable.ng/bawa-how-oil-marketer-claimed-multi-billion-naira-subsidy-payment-despite-not-importing-petrol/

Today, the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud are running around forming coalition to unseat the man that dare to remove their cashcow. And some unpatriotic fellows are hailing them.

Subsidy is a scam.

Okay

This guy should stop disturbing us. At your age, you had the rare opportunity to leave an indelible mark in the EFCC, but you couldn't do any significant thing. What a shame!

Interesting

Will Nigeria ever be free of corruption, especially of this magnitude?
Everywhere you turn, you'll find deep footprint of corruption, except you are not looking.
I just read about Ebonyi Airport!

Good afternoon, well-meaning Nigerians; I am typing this post amidst severe pain and serious hunger.

With the current hardship in our dear country, how will a poor but hardworking person like me survive?

I am confused and in trauma..

I am 29 years old and an O.LEVEL holder. I had a car accident two months ago and got bedridden as a result of a broken leg that I suffered in the accident.

The car accident threw me into trauma and hunger, as I am unable to go out to hustle for my daily bread as I used to do before.

As I am typing this, I have yet to eat food since yesterday morning other than the water that I have been drinking to gain some strength. This is due to the fact that I am totally broke now. I spent the last #60,000 I have on me on medication. I am in Lagos, but my parents are far back in Kwara State, Ilorin, my hometown. I am thinking of relocating back home to get better treatment, but the issue is, I still do not have the transportation fare.

Please, daddies, mummies, and my brothers and sisters on Nairaland forum, please help me; hunger is doing a very deadly work in my body.

I live at Number 34, Adewale Dauda Street, Eleko Town, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State.

If you live close to me and want to visit me, my phone number is 091 353 109 33 and that's my address. Please help me.

Below are my bank details; please have mercy on me.

Bank: OPay
Number: 91 353 109 33
Name: Babatunde Sikiru Yisa

May God bless you more and grant you all your heart desires as you help me.

May God turn our situation in Nigeria from its current state to a better state that will bring joy, happiness, and riches to you, me, and all Nigerians. Ameen

See pictures of my broken leg on this Nairaland link https://nairaland.sitesunblocked.org/8444907/president-tinubu-watching-governor-eno/3#135652474

Please help me, may God continue to protect you and your family. May you never lack any good things in life.

Make I book space first....


You know what pains me the most about this guys.... Their children, their wives ... They live so proud and ostentatious lives. When you hear them speak, they make the common man's children look like they don't have a life. When they drive by with crazily expensive cars they make you know they own the city, while their fathers are just purely criminals with no conscience milking the nation.

Mad people!

You had the power to make a change, you kept mute and showed loyalty to your brothers.

Now you're here disturbing us with bedtime stories.

The current EFCC chairman too will write his book, after the expiration of his tenure of course.


Mr. Bawa, these revelations are already known to Nigerians. The whole subsidy thing was a scam. Except if you're trying to promote your book, these things that toutes saying would have sounded better when you were still Chairman.

If you're looking for a way to promote your book. Why not try a TikTok challenge sir?

Which fuel subsidy again? The one tinubu claimed he removed or buhari's own?

Tinubu removed subsidy and decided to pocket the subsidy money for himself and his family…

I came to the conclusion about 2 years into my assignment that Nigeria is probably the only genuinely classless society I have seen. Class is very different from wealth. Upper class people can be dirt poor (and lower class people can be fabulously rich). Class is about behaviour and attitudes, not wealth (a point made very well in Kate Fox’s excellent book Watching the English). And insofar as behaviour goes, I didn’t see a shred of difference between the top politicians, down through the officials in the national authorities, through the middle class professionals, through the service providers, right down to the area boys. The behaviour was identical across all strata: I want more money, and I will do absolutely anything to get it. If you were to replace the politicians – let’s say our 109 senators from before – with 109 random people from the Nigerian citizenry, you would get no change in behaviour. You could repeat the experiment a thousand times, and you would get no change. There is no ruling class in Nigeria, there is just a set of rulers. Where any change is expected to come from I don’t know. -Tim newman

INEC & THE FUEL SUBSIDY FRAUD ARE THE SAME!

It's been two months now, yet INEC is yet to conclude its study of the Supreme Court judgment and take a clear position on the Labour Party leadership crisis.
Is this delay a calculated attempt by INEC to create confusion within the Labour Party?
This prolonged inaction could negatively impact the party's preparations for the council elections in Lagos and the FCT.

ucheheart:
Which fuel subsidy again? The one tinubu claimed he removed or buhari's own?

U dull o

SatoshiX:
Today, the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud are running around forming coalition to unseat the man that dare to remove their cashcow. And some unpatriotic fellows are hailing them.

so Bawa mentioned just two names in the story above and the date was 2017.

so since 2017 till 2023, are you saying that there were no other persons involved in this "huge fraud"?

Bawa was Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from 24 February 2021 – 14 June 2023.

how of the people involved in this so called fuel subsidy fraud did he arrest and prosecute?

can you pls mention the names of the people in "the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud"?

SatoshiX:
Today, the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud are running around forming coalition to unseat the man that dare to remove their cashcow. And some unpatriotic fellows are hailing them.

Coalition of criminals

Money were them don chop finish.
🚶🏿‍♂️🚶🏿‍♂️🚶🏿‍♂️🚶🏿‍♂️🚶🏿‍♂️

You can understand why they did everything to frustrate dangote

lexy2014:


so Bawa mentioned just two names in the story above and the date was 2017.

so since 2017 till 2023, are you saying that there were no other persons involved in this "huge fraud"?

Bawa was Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from 24 February 2021 – 14 June 2023.

how of the people involved in this so called fuel subsidy fraud did he arrest and prosecute?

can you pls mention the names of the people in "the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud"?

See Questions

Tjra:

Coalition of criminals

where is the money from the fuel SUBSIDY removal.
The same people that occupied Nigeria when President Jonathan removed the subsidy & increase the fuel price to 145 Naira have done same & increase it to 850- 950 Naira & people like you & Soyinka have gone mute.

BlackViper:


https://www.thecable.ng/bawa-how-oil-marketer-claimed-multi-billion-naira-subsidy-payment-despite-not-importing-petrol/

The biggest culprit in the scam is PPPRA

A government that cannot solve a problem is unserious

Black man, Black mentality..
Mugu fall, Guy man Chop

This case shows the depth of corruption in Nigeria’s subsidy scheme.
N963.7 million was ordered in restitution to the federal government.
But it didn’t stop there—another N1.1 billion was fraudulently obtained.
Jubril and his company used forged documents and fake vessels.
They acted on behalf of Alminnur Resources, owned by Rabiu.
The PPPRA had granted import permits, but the deal was a sham.
This wasn’t just a scam; it was a betrayal of public trust.
In 2017, Jubril was sentenced to 104 years in prison.
Rabiu died during the trial, leaving part of the case unresolved.
Such fraud bleeds the country and hurts ordinary Nigerians.
*The Shadow of Loot & Losses* exposes the full story.
This book is a must-read for those seeking truth and justice.

Dem no born am well. U Wan make them kill am?

lexy2014:


so Bawa mentioned just two names in the story above and the date was 2017.

so since 2017 till 2023, are you saying that there were no other persons involved in this "huge fraud"?

Bawa was Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from 24 February 2021 – 14 June 2023.

how of the people involved in this so called fuel subsidy fraud did he arrest and prosecute?

can you pls mention the names of the people in "the cabals that benefited from this huge fraud"?

The only thing, and I mean ONLY, that unites Nigerians across regardless of their tribe, religion or sex IS CORRUPTION.