Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) has told a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that the allegation of diversion of N11 billion worth of petroleum products by oil magnate, Ifeanyi Ubah, Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited is tantamount to economic sabotage punishable by death.
DSS stated this in a counter-affidavit it filed to oppose an application by Ubah, asking an Abuja high court to set aside an order for his detention for 14 days following the failure of the security agency to produce him in court on Tuesday.
In the counter-affidavit filed by Safwan Bello, a DSS detective, the secret police described Ubah’s alleged diversion of the petroleum products kept in his custody by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as “an economic sabotage punishable by death” adding that the crime is capable of causing great damage to the country.
DSS also said in the counter affidavit that the oil magnate had failed to positively respond to NNPC’s repeated demand for the diverted product “in order to cause an artificial scarcity of the product.”
“The respondent was arrested on reasonable suspicion of his involvement in the commission of the crime. He converted PMS belonging to the NNPC kept in the custody of his tank farm to his personal use,” DSS said.