By Olatunbosun Obafemi
Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola has announced a ₦1 billion libel suit against Umar Sani, a former media aide to ex–Vice President Namadi Sambo, over claims linking him to Nigeria’s fuel subsidy scandal.
The dispute began after Sani, in a post on his X handle, alleged that Otedola’s company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, once controlled as much as 90 percent of diesel imports and benefitted heavily from the same subsidy framework the businessman now condemns.
“The subsidy regime predates Jonathan and lasted decades. It was entrenched under Obasanjo, continued under Yar’Adua, remained during Jonathan’s time, and persisted under Buhari with even greater opacity,” Sani wrote. “To lay the blame solely on Jonathan is misleading, especially as Otedola himself enjoyed enormous privileges during the era.”
Otedola, however, rejected the claims, describing them as “false, baseless, and malicious.” In a statement, he insisted that Zenon Petroleum never traded in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and therefore could not have accessed the Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF), which applied only to PMS. Diesel, he stressed, had long been deregulated.
The businessman maintained that far from benefitting from subsidy fraud, he was the whistleblower who first alerted then-President Goodluck Jonathan to the abuses within the PSF scheme, a revelation that triggered subsequent legislative probes.
He also revisited his clash with former lawmaker Farouk Lawan, arguing that the bribery allegations against him were part of a sting operation conducted with the Department of State Security (DSS) to expose extortion within the House subsidy probe panel. Lawan was later convicted and jailed for bribery.
Otedola further urged President Bola Tinubu to release the full Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede report on subsidy fraud, which he said would expose the real perpetrators. On his past dealings with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), he admitted suffering financial losses during the 2008 global meltdown but noted that he had settled his debts by surrendering assets worth hundreds of billions of naira, a move publicly commended by AMCON.
“Because of these deliberate lies and unfounded allegations, I have instructed my lawyers to file a ₦1 billion suit against Umar Sani to serve as a deterrent for other mischief makers,” Otedola declared.
