Dele Cole Has No Hand in Ghana Oil Deal - Son

The former Senior Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on International Affairs, Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, who was dropped two weeks ago by the President, had no hand in the oil deal between Ghana and Sahara, a Nigerian oil trading company, his son Mr. Tonye Cole said yesterday.

Tonye told THISDAY yesterday in an interview while reacting to our story of Sunday June 24, that his father did not overtly or covertly play any role in influencing the award of the oil deal to Sahara being managed by him.

He said before his father's appointment as Senior Special Assistant, Sahara had been executing several contracts with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NN-PC), for about six years, adding that in fact, the company had done less business since the inception of the Obasanjo administration.

Tonye affirmed that Sahara is fortified with deep expertise in oil trading, an incentive he said, had been opening doors for the company to rub shoulders with even well-established multinationals. He added that his company had no need to use anybody's name, apart from its own track record of competence and performance to win contract.

He said his father did not even know the scope of the business of Sahara, but like every other father, "Dr. Dele Cole is happy that he (Tonye) is doing well."

On why his father was removed, Tonye said: "I asked him and he said when he met Obasanjo the President did not tell him". He said his father told him that he later gathered that "it might have something to do with Ghana." What that things was, he did not however elaborate, but Tonye said Obasanjo had the prerogative to remove his father.

Explaining the Ghana oil deal. Tonye said it was based on the contract between Nigeria and Ghana which NNPC had cancelled because of non performance.

"What has happened is that Vitoil had a contract to supply crude to Ghana. That contract was cancelled because of a default in supply to Ghana.

"When that contract was cancelled, the NNPC slammed a penalty on the Ghanaian government for $2.3 million which is non-performance penalty.

"Towards the end of the Jerry Rawlings administration, Vitoil rushed in a new contract which was based on the non-existing contract from NNPC. This was done in-between the first and run-off elections"

He further stated that the signing of the contract was around December 23 last year, which, he said, bound the Ghanaian government to Vitoil for the crude supply.

However, Cole said as far as the contract was concerned, it was non-existent as it was based on the contract between Nigeria and Ghana which NNPC had cancelled because of non performance. This he said really angered President John Kuffour when the facts unfolded.

Kuffour, he said, had to seek new companies to come in "and this was how we now got on board."

"Of course getting in there, we saw the price Vitoil quoted. We now put in our bid and somewhere along the line Shell also were called to bid. I think Ocean and Oil (another Nigerian company) also submitted a bid.

"The long and short of it was that we had one of the best prices for Ghana and that was how Sahara was given the contract," he pointed out.

On the bidding offers, he said Vitoil quoted one dollar nine cents, Shell 59 cents while Sahara was 26 cents.

"I think Vitoil now reviewed their price and gave a discount of about 12 cents. Any way, we had a better offer." He said the bidding was around February while a new contract between Nigeria and Ghana for crude oil supply was signed around March, shortly after which Sahara got a job to supply the oil.

But before then he said Kufour came to Nigeria to see Obasanjo, pleading that the $2.3 million penalty for non performance be cancelled, which Obasanjo turned down. Among themselves (Obasanjo, Kuffour and NNPC) they agreed to defer payment on the penalty.

According to him rather than say the debt was waived "it was actually a deferred payment." What that meant in simple terms is debt rescheduling", he said, stressing that it was not true Sahara influenced in anyway the deferred payment

"When President Kuffour, came to power as is usually the case," he said he inherited a bankrupt economy.

"At that point in time, they were thinking of doing two things. One, they were thinking of increasing the prices of their petroleum products at that time," he further stated.

According to the Cole, the Ghanaian government explored another option which was to declare the country bankrupt and join the league of HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries).

"When Kuffour came, he came personally to President Obasanjo on this crude, that he wanted the crude contract to be re-established," Dele Jnr. noted and denied h is father's influence on the deferment of the $2.3 million debt by the federal government.

Describing his father as a highly private person, the junior Cole said his father had never shown interest in his business beyond knowing that he was doing well and therefore had never at any time used his official position to favour him or his business.