A Nigerian oil mogul and the Chief Executive of Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited, Abdulrahman Bashir, has been sentenced to 10 months imprisonment in the United Kingdom.

Abdulrahman Bashir, the Chief Executive Officer of Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited

According to Premium Times, Justice Butcher of England and Wales High Court sentenced the Nigerian oil mogul after he was found guilty of breaching multiple orders of the court in a pending suit instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Ltd.

“The basis of the sentence was that Mr Bashir had committed continuing breaches of the order of Mr Justice Robin Knowles of 1 August 2019 and of the order of Mr Justice Bryan of 6 September 2019,” the judge said.

Those orders required Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Ltd, of which Mr Bashir is the CEO and controller, to comply with requests for the release of 6,400.69 metric tonnes gas oil to Sahara Energy Resource Ltd or its agent from Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Ltd, Jetty 6.436181, Ibafon, Kirikiri Waterfront, of Aero Maritime Street, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria (“the Terminal”).

According to court documents obtained by Premium Times, Bashir breached those orders by failing to allow, or procure Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Ltd or its servants or agents to allow, the release of the said gas oil from the Terminal.

The court also gave a binding indication that the sentence could be reduced to six months if Mr Bashir complies with the relevant order which had previously been breached.

Rahamaniyya was fined £ 500,000 while Adebowale Aderemi, its manager, was fined £ 10,000.

In December 2018, Ultimate and Sahara entered into a settlement agreement in which Ultimate confirmed that the value of gas oil that had been delivered was USD 10,760,728.77, and agreed to make a series of monthly payments for it.

Court records showed that some payments were made, in consequence of which some 8,566.469 metric tonnes of gas oil was released to Ultimate. Ultimate, however reneged in performing the terms of the settlement agreement in full by making all the payments due. After various warnings, on May 10, 2019, Sahara terminated the settlement agreement, notifying Ultimate that its agent, Asharami Synergy Plc would take delivery of part of the remaining gas oil from the terminal.

Various attempts made by Sahara to obtain delivery of the gas oil were futile, leading to the lawsuit which was filed both in Lagos and in the United Kingdom.