Key Points

• Otedola firmly denies complicity in ongoing subsidy fraud allegations.

• He has sued Umar Sani demanding ₦1 billion damages.

• Otedola strongly urges Tinubu to release delayed subsidy audit report.

Femi Otedola, a billionaire from Nigeria, is suing Umar Sani, a former spokesperson for ex-Vice President Namadi Sambo, for ₦1 billion because of claims that he is involved in fuel subsidy fraud.

Otedola, the chairman of Geregu Power Plc, said the accusations are “false, malicious, and damaging,” and he is determined to protect his reputation in court.

Sani said in a media interview a few days ago that Otedola got money from fake subsidy payments. Now, he has filed a lawsuit in the Lagos High Court. The businessman says he has never been involved in subsidy fraud and remembers how he helped expose corruption during the 2012 House of Representatives investigation led by Farouk Lawan.

Otedola said that the lawsuit was needed to “draw the line against reckless falsehoods” and get investors and the public to trust him again.

Otedola says he had nothing to do with subsidy fraud

Otedola said again in his statement of claim that he had been found innocent in previous investigations. He said that Lawan’s conviction, which happened in 2021 when he tried to get a $3 million bribe to clear Otedola’s company, proved that he was honest.

“The record is clear. “I stood against corruption then, and I stand against it now,” Otedola said. He also said that attempts to connect him to subsidy fraud take attention away from Nigeria’s urgent need for energy reform.

Billionaire tells Tinubu to make the report public

According to a report by Premium Times, Otedola asked President Bola Tinubu to make the results of the government’s most recent fuel subsidy audit public, in addition to the lawsuit.

The report that was asked for to look over subsidy claims from 2017 to 2021 has not yet come out. Otedola said that being open would build public trust and put an end to “recycled allegations” that are used for political gain.

Experts in policy say that Tinubu’s government is under pressure to show that it can remove subsidies while still holding past officials accountable. Dr. Abiola Oladipo, a political economist at the University of Lagos, said, “Releasing the report would show that they are serious.”

New political controversies are sparked by claims

The case shows that subsidy scandals are still very political, even though the 2012 investigation found ₦1.7 trillion in fake payments. Otedola, who has been focussing more on Geregu Power and the Nigerian Exchange lately, says the controversy could get in the way of his business goals.

He promised to fight hard in the defamation case and keep pushing for changes in the energy sector. He said, “Nigeria can’t afford to keep living in the past.”