Senator faults corruption allegation against Naval Chief

A lawmaker representing Enugu-North federal constituency at the National Assembly, Sen. Okey Ezea has dismissed a report of alleged corruption, bribery and oil bunkering against the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Senator said the sponsored publication “is baseless, malicious and orchestrated to harass and intimidate the Chief of the Naval Chief out of office.’’

Ezea said oil thieves were behind the publication and berated publishers of the online news outlets for providing their platforms to be used to defame the character of the Naval Chief.

“There seems to have been an orchestrated scheme to harass and intimidate the Chief of the Naval Staff, out of office.

“The culprits obviously are oil thieves, who have met a brick wall in the very competent and incorruptible naval chief.

“The allegations in their campaign of calumny have no fact otherwise they would have since presented them.

“In any case, the Nigerian Navy’s statement titled “Sponsored Malicious Publication Against The Office and Person of Chief of Naval Staff’’ provides all the answers,’’ he said.

Ezea said the online news outlets that propagated the evil campaign against the naval chief should remember that defamation of character was still a crime under the Nigerian law.

“They should not resort to begging when the chips are down,” he said.

He said the Naval Headquarters had since issued a disclaimer clearing Ogalla of all allegations levelled against him in the online reports.

In the disclaimer, the Navy said those feeling the heat of the several operations were behind the blackmail against Ogalla.

Ogalla was accused of involvement in facilitating unauthorised bunkering of crude oil and engaging in multi-million naira contract splitting fraud.

He was also allegedly accused of releasing oil tankers previously seized for transporting stolen crude oil off Nigerian shores.

Following the allegations, the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, promised to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.

The Navy rebuttal however, clarified that the vessels mentioned in the online report were apprehended for involvement in crude oil theft and illegal oil bunkering, and they have not been released as alleged in the online reports.

The Nigeria Navy also said it was not within the power of Ogalla to award oil-lifting contracts.

NAN