Oil and Gas company, Springfield Ashburton Limited has again debunked reports circulating in the media, particularly on controversial website, Sahara Reporters, linking its MD/CEO, Kevin Okyere, to corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector under former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
In a rejoinder to online publication Sahara Reporters’ story of 14th October 2015 titled “Ghanaian Oil Tycoon Kevin Okyere Bought A £4.5m London Mansion In 2014 Tied To Diezani’s Looting”,
which the website has deliberately not published for obvious cynical
reasons after a poor attempt to link Okyere’s purchase of a London home
to proceeds from graft amongst several other claims, Springfield
described the entire publication as “full of lies, half-truths and
innuendos and calculated attempt to injure the reputation of our company
and it’s Managing Director.”
Springfield
further warned that “Any attempt to tarnish our image with baseless
allegations shall be met with appropriate legal action. Our company will
not hesitate to use every legal means to protect our interests as we
owe that much to our business partners, stakeholders and the general
public.”
The company further clarifies its position saying:
“The
house in question was paid for in March 2014 and the sale closed in May
2014. The first contract awarded to our company was in May 2014,
however, we received our first crude oil lifting in June 2014, which we
got paid for in July 2014. We fail to see how a property paid for in
March 2014 provides a connection to an oil contract awarded in May 2014.
All allegations against Melanie are baseless. Melanie Spencer
has not been implicated in any investigation and has absolutely nothing
to do with the Minister or any of her dealings. It is only logical that
Melanie’s address is at Kevin Okyere’s property given the fact that she
is his wife. As stated above, there is no connection between Kevin
Okyere’s property and Alison-Madueke.
It is spurious to imagine that a bank of Standard Bank’s
quality will lend itself to a “highly suspicious” transaction. The loan
in question was obtained and processed through all appropriate official
channels and is backed with proper documentation.
The Federal Minister did have a Senior Special Assistant named Kevin, a Kevin Allanso
NOT Kevin Okyere. Okyere is a Ghanaian and it is preposterous to
imagine that he will be appointed Personal Assistant to the Federal
Minister of Petroleum in Nigeria.
Kevin Okyere is not and has never been Madueke’s personal assistant and has never been employed by the NNPC or any other government institution in the world.
Furthermore,
Okyere is the founder, Chairman and CEO of his self-owned group of
companies. As a business man running his own business it is unfathomable
how he would successfully run a multinational business while doubling
as a personal assistant at the same time.
It
is a shame that in their bid to sensationalize and smear the good name
of a hardworking entrepreneur, Sahara Reporters threw all the
professional ethics of journalism to the wind and failed to investigate
and check all their facts before publishing.
The
claim of the award of a $40billion annual contract to Springfield is
totally ridiculous. The company has never received that amount. One only
has to think of what the total value of annual crude oil lifting
contracts in Nigeria is (about $60 billion) to realize that this claim
is utterly baseless.
The only
contracts which the company has partaken in from the NNPC is NNPC’s
crude oil lifting contract which was awarded to it alongside 26 other
companies and a condensate contract for EGP3 out of which only 4 cargos
have been lifted to date and an LPG contract, from which no cargos were
ever lifted. There was absolutely nothing untoward about the award of
these contract as due process was followed to the letter. Springfield is
not and has never been involved in crude oil swaps or subsidy
contracts.
There was absolutely
nothing untoward in the award of the oil lifting contracts to our
company. Springfield has been in business since 2008 in Ghana giving it
considerable expertise in the oil business. It is usual to take into
account the expertise of the Group Company when awarding a contract to
the National subsidiary. Thus, Springfield’s track record in Ghana was
taken into account prior to the award of the contract and it wasn’t
considered a “mere two years after incorporation” as Sahara mockingly
couched it.
It took Springfield two
whole years to get awarded the oil lifting contract after a failed
attempt. The final award was on merit due to a strategic partnership
with BP. Springfield’s track record speaks for itself as it has not been
involved in any oil swap contract or participated in the oil subsidy,
areas which have caused a lot of controversy in the industry. All
Springfield’s contracts with NNPC have been discharged diligently and we
are not indebted to any of our trading partners or banks.
Dissolution
of the company in the UK was a routine business decision with no
connections to the elections. The company decided that it did not make
business sense to keep on incurring the expensive costs of running an
office in London when the Company had little or no operations in London.
Maria Luisa left the company to move on to other projects because we decided to dissolve the company.
Melanie
Spencer has never been arrested by the UK National Crime Agency and we
have not been notified by the UK National Crime Agency of any
investigation of Melanie Spencer.
It
is a totally ridiculous suggestion that Okyere is the “pocket” of
anyone. Okyere has never been “the pocket” for anyone including
Alison-Madueke or Nana Akufo Addo.
It is indeed right that Kevin Okyere has sued these publications (The New Statesman: $7.5million, Alhaj Alhaj, Herald & The Republic: $3.7 million each) for printing outright lies and fabrications.
Springfield
Ashburton Limited and Kevin Okyere are law abiding citizens and will
explore all legal avenues to right a wrong that has been done to them.
On
16th October 2015, the New Statesman published a full retraction of its
earlier misleading reports and acknowledged that “it had no evidence
that Springfield’s dealings with NNPC were not legitimately secured.”
As has been stated above, our Company started business in 2008, long before . Alison-Madueke became minister.
The
claims in the media that our company’s success is tied to a supposed
“connection” to Alison-Madueke are preposterous. We have worked
painstakingly over the years to build our reputation as a credible and
worthy player in the oil and gas industry, and indeed we have come very
far as an indigenous African company. Any attempt to tarnish our image
with baseless allegations shall be met with appropriate legal action.
Our
company will not hesitate to use every legal means to protect our
interests as we owe that much to our business partners, stakeholders and
the general public.”
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