Society Gists

Behind the facade of the pristine and plush Victoria Island, Lagos, office of Eroton Exploration and Production, an independent oil and gas producing company, is a cesspool of discontent, debts and dire straits. The company is barely surviving.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eroton has been stewing in embarrassing debts and failure to meet its obligations to many of its suppliers and staff. Worse is that the company, according to inside sources, has had to lay off some of its workers because it could no longer meet up with its monthly wage bill.

Like every other company across the world, Eroton, in conforming with the new world order of social distancing necessitated by COVID-19, asked some of its staff to start working from home. When things normalised a bit, some of the staff were asked to return to the office while others were sacked outright. The entitlements of those laid off have reportedly not been sorted.

Amongst top management staff, it is believed that beyond the impact of the corona virus on the global economy, the lavish lifestyle of their chairman, Jite Okoloko, has also affected the fortunes of the company. Dandy Okoloko loves the good life. And he spares no expense to lap up every imaginable luxury from one end of the world to the other. The Delta State-born Economics graduate of the University of Benin also rarely flies commercial; thanks to his luxury private jet. And when the heat in Nigeria becomes too much, he hops on the jet to ferry him and his posse to either his homes in the United States or any idyllic destination. Even when the company was not generating as much money as it was, Okoloko’s opulent lifestyle remained constant. A member of staff disclosed that instead of cutting down on his expenses, Okoloko carried on like the pandemic was a mirage.

The company’s descent into debt and distress counteracts its code of conduct which is based on “our shared values of accountability, integrity, loyalty, honesty and professionalism.” Established in 2015, Eroton prides itself as having created local solutions by applying basic innovative technologies which have led to a six-fold increase in production since inception.