Society Gists

• Guilty parties desperately avoid prosecution as EFCC, Interpol, mounts heat on corrupt oil barons

• A few ‘good’ culprits prepare to turn themselves in, many more turn global fugitives

It is the lack of integrity that drives a man to adulterate ethics with gluttony and ill will. Ultimately, such sly character corrupts his soul with lust for gold and substitutes intelligence with error and false luster.

But when push comes to shove, and the fruits of his iniquity are ripe for harvest, he starts to run from pillar to post in frantic quest for a reprieve he would never get.

This somehow illustrates the sad, desperate quest of Nigeria’s embattled oil barons, popularly known as the ‘Diezani boys.’ The latter are so regarded in respect of their very close and rewarding relationship with former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who is currently under investigation for financial fraud and embezzlement of funds amounting to billions of naira.

While Diezani undergoes intense scrutiny for her alleged mismanagement of public funds while serving with the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, her major associates and cohorts have turned fugitive in their skin and the country. All of Diezani’s boys lost their calm and peace of mind immediately Walter Wagbatsoma, Managing Director (MD) of Ontario Oil and Gas Ltd, was arrested and charged in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Economic Crime Unit of Lincolnshire Police, in connection with a £12 million NHS trusts fraud investigation.

Findings revealed that Walter may have unknowingly purchased “dirty” foreign exchange from an anonymous source through an intermediary in Dubai, United Arab Emirates without proper due diligence on the source of the funds before it was wired into his company’s offshore trading account. Unknown to him, the Forex was part of the NHS trusts fund being investigated in the UK. The fund was later traced to his account as the investigation continued, according to a source.

More informed sources alleged that Walter’s fellow oil barons and colleagues in Diezani’s personal cabal of oil Turks, were thrown into a flux of fear and unrest as they are worried that they might be picked up and detained too for financial fraud and other atrocities they committed against the country while their godmother, Diezani, was still in power.

Many of them that fled the country for safe havens abroad soon after President Muhammadu Buhari launched his anti-corruption campaign and recovery of looted state funds via the EFCC, have started restrategizing about their escape plans. But while some of them are busy devising plots to disappear from the social radar and thus escape prosecution, the few wise ones among them are consulting widely with their lawyers; these latter band of Diezani boys are aware that it is not possible for them to flee and escape the reach of Interpol and the EFCC forever, hence they are determined to turn themselves in and possibly, attract milder punishments for their crimes.

All is certainly not well in the world of Nigeria’s rich, young, oil barons. Many of them are scurrying about like squirrels fleeing the heat of the diehard hunter eager to make mincemeat of their hide and innards. Had they known, they would have sought more honourable paths to wealth and acclaim.