· How made his billions as PPMC boss
There is no scandal like greed, nor any crime so shameful as inordinate pilfering. In a country well governed, gluttony is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth elicits feelings of shame. But it takes a humane and open heart to understand and feel the indignity of being identified as a common thief spurred by the lure of immoderate yearnings. Haruna Momoh, former Managing Director (MD) of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), perhaps lacked a humane and open heart; that was why he pitilessly pilfered the country’s petroleum coffers in connivance with his former boss, ex-petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Consequently, he has been sacked – a fallout of the cleaning up exercise sanctioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in the petroleum sector. The former PPMC boss was a lackey and accomplice of Diezani and together, they masterminded several shady schemes and oil deals that rendered the nation’s petroleum sector a jungle of mess and brazen corruption.
Despite their differences in age, tribe and religion, Diezani saw in Haruna, a dependable ally and beyond counting dollars in multiple billions, the duo successfully pulled off many lucrative deals that have left friends and business associates gaping in envy and bewilderment.
Like all obsequious underlings, Haruna profited immensely by playing Diezani’s partner in crime;
as you read, the former PPMC boss is a proud owner of over $2 billion fortune, with houses in Swiss Cottage, St John’s Wood, London, New York, Lagos, Portharcourt, Abuja and Dubai. He has three petroleum depots in Calabar , Lagos and Oghara. And to guarantee a steady stream of income, he made it mandatory that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the PPMC patronize his depots. Haruna has over 100 brand new cars given to him by oil marketers as kickbacks for the several shady deals he perpetrated with them .
Now that he has been sacked by the new NNPC MD, Ibe Kachikwu, what happens to all the money? Haruna used to make brag that his three children, Hakeem, Habib and Saradatu can never suffer again in life; together with his wife, Helen, they live large in London, United Kingdom (UK), gorging on the collective wealth of over 170 million Nigerians. Industry pundits and legal luminaries however, implore the incumbent leadership of President Buhari and NNPC’s Kachikwu to investigate the excesses and theft committed by Haruna and cohorts in the petroleum sector.