‘Subomi Awokolude
A multi-million-dollars international scam has ripped the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) otherwise known as the cooking gas sub-sector apart, threatening the growth of the industry projected to gulp $10 billion Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).
Foreign investors who were allegedly duped via transactions with the secretariat of Nigerian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) over funding covering visas, hotel, local transport and sponsorship of the Fifth African LPG Summit organised by the group in Lagos, Nigeria, have indicted the Executive Secretary of the group, Mr. Joseph Eromosel, of defrauding them.
A investor from Singapore, Mr. Vincent Choy, who interfaced with NLPGA on behalf of other foreign investors, alleged in a report obtained by this newspaper that the NLPGA’s executive secretary received money meant for accommodation, visas procurement, local transportation and other logistics for foreign participants through 15 different money transfer channels.
The former president of the association, Mr. Dayo Adesina, owner of Strategic Energy, Choy alleged, introduced Eromosele to him.
Consequently, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who got the report through the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police, has ordered the Unit to prosecute Eromosele and members of the group’s executive to ascertain their culpability in the alleged rip-off.
The fifth Africa LPG summit slated for June 19 and 20 in Lagos, where Nigeria was expected to showcase LPG potential and $10 billion investments projections to foreign investors could not hold because of this alleged scam.
But executive members and members of NLPGA governing council, including Vice President of NLPGA, Mr. Felix Ekundayo; Second Vice President, Mr. Baylon Duru; and member of Governing Council, Jacob Adewale Coker, who confirmed the scam, said at a meeting in Lagos that Eromosele acted alone in the alleged scam through his personal bank accounts. Ekundayo represented the new president, Nuhu Yakubu, who, he said, was abroad.
Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), an umbrella body for the cooking gas marketers,, which is also a corporate member of NLPGA, called the meeting.
The NLPGA executive members present at the meeting, said that the matter had received the Inspector General’s nod for prosecution, stressing that the accused had been suspended as the executive secretary of NLPGA and had so far refunded over $11,000 of the undisclosed amount involved in the scam.
“The matter has been reported to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police Force and we have been told that they have received order from the Inspector General of Police to begin investigation.
“What we have done as a group is to suspend Joseph Eromosele as the executive secretary,” Ekundayo said before bagging out of the meeting.
Coker who tasked members to allow security agencies carry out their duties, maintained that Eromosele had, through efforts of the SFU, coughed out $11, 000.
His views were corroborated by Duru, another member of the executive of the group, which claims to be a “transparent, open and accountable association,” as their mission statement on their website.
Eromosele, however, denied these allegations in a telephone chat with this newspaper.
Asked why he was suspended by the NLPGA, he said that he was not “in any way aware of the suspension.”
The summit, he argued, was cancelled because of inability of many foreign participants to secure Nigeria visas.
Stakeholders, who said the scam had further soiled the image of the country, particularly before the global LPG stakeholders, called for a thorough probe of the alleged scam.
“The LPG market in Nigeria has been growing at a geometric rate and we are all expecting foreign direct investments for this market to hit $10 billion shortly. What this scandal has done is to put everything at risk,” one of the stakeholders at the NALGAM meeting said.
