LAGOS— ONE of the Naval officers standing trial over the missing oil bunkering vessel, MT African Pride, Rear Admiral Antonio Bob-Manuel, yesterday told the court that former Minister for Defence, Dr. Olu Agunloye, claimed in a telephone conversation with him that his younger brother owned the vessel caught with crude oil valued at N10 billion.
Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel who spoke as his counsel opened his defence said the former minister called him on telephone at mid-night to claim that his younger brother owned the vessel as far back as 2003 and made frantic efforts to secure its release. He said: "Just a week after Sola sent me a text message, the former Minister of State for Defence (Navy), Dr. Olu Agunloye, reached me on my phone at about 2200hours (10pm) and told me that his younger brother was having problems with the Navy.
"I enquired what type of problem and he said I had his brother’s ship in my custody and that he called me to facilitate the release of the vessel. He also said that his brother had been trying to reach me without success.
"At that point, I requested to know who the brother was and he mentioned a name I cannot easily pick but I told him I could not remember having contact with any such person. Then I said the only person I had contact with on MT African Pride was one Sola and he said it was the same person.
"I reminded him that at that time the release of the vessel was beyond the Naval Headquarters and that he could try the presidency but he told me that the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Samuel Afolayan, had requested him to have a word with me on the vessel because it was in my custody."
The former Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command further said the former minister did not relent as he concluded the discussion and called the Chief of Naval Staff and returned again to him to say he called the CNS.
"I did not fall for the demands of the former minister but when he hung up, the next morning I called the Naval chief to inform him of the former minister’s schemes and I advised the CNS to refer him to the presidency in case he came up with more presssure. The CNS told me that he referred him to me as a tactical way of dismissing him."
Earlier, Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel who was led in evidence by his counsel, Colonel Bello Fadile (rtd), standing in for Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) said the said Sola had visited his office twice seeking the release of the missing vessel and said on his second visit, he threatened to arrest him and he ran away. He said Sola had sent him a text message which reads thus:"My big brother, Please forgive me if I am going to hurt you with this but you know you can trust me. My patners gives $15,000 for you. I desperately want the vessel to be released. The CNS seem to be willing." The second message, according to him, was an amendment of the first one.
"Third message which I recieved on my MTN line at about 4.27 pm on October 16, 2003 was a different one and it reads: ‘The first message is a mistake. The figure is $100,000. From Shola’." Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel said with these messages, he summoned an operations meeting in his command where his Chief Staff Officer, Commodore Biobaku; Command Operations Officer, Captain Andrew Dacosta; Commanding Officer, NNS Beecroft; Commodore Cliff Akaleme and Command Intelligence Officer, Commander Ikoli were in attendance. He said he warned the officers to be wary of the said Sola and showed them the text messages as evidence. He also said he later called the Chief of Naval Staff and appraised him of the development.
He also told the court how he convened a court-martial at the Western Naval Command to try Lieutenant Commander M.C. Abubakar who was the officer in-charge of security on board the merchant tanker before the crude oil in it was stolen. He said the command through the confessional statement of Ordinary Seaman, Jonas Atam, got a lawyer to get an ex-parte ruling from the Federal High Court in Lagos compelling the GSM network provider, MTN to release the records of the calls made by Lt. Commander Abubarkar. The call records were tendered as exhibits.
However, the former FOC said the command also engaged the services of a female operative within the Naval intelligence community to squeeze out information from the OS Atam. According to him, "the command after the call records were obtained, was able to establish a link between Abubarkar, Sola and another Lieutenant Commander, M.L. Nimyel who was the officer-incharge of security on-board MT Betinelo. In the MTN call records made available to the court, the said Sola had allegedly called Abubakar severally apparently to strike a deal for the release of the 11.300 metric tonnes of crude oil in the vessel."
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