Despite Death of Three Managers, Jimoh Ibrahim’s Energy Group Parties in Dubai

Shady Lagos businessman Jimoh Ibrahim and his company, Energy Group (sometimes referred to Global Fleet Group), are proceeding with a one-week annual GMD’s Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates despite a road crash which claimed three of the company’s managers on their way to the event.

The accident took place last Friday as the men drove from Port Harcourt to Lagos to catch a flight to Dubai.  A fourth manager who was traveling with them is in an unspecified hospital, his condition described as “serious.”

The managers were attached to a subsidiary of Energy Group in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. A member of staff who spoke to Saharareporters on condition of anonymity complained that if Mr. Ibrahim had flown the men to Lagos instead of insisting that they drive, they would still be alive.

The choice of who would go on the trip was already causing conflict within the company before news of the crash arrived to devastate of some of the workers. The controversy ensued when names of some of the directors who were originally billed to attend the conference were abruptly dropped at the last minute without an explanation. Some of them, including some editors of newspapers and magazines under Energy Group, were unceremoniously  substituted with their subordinates.

Mr. Ibrahim’s businesses, some of which have taken a serious hit in recent times, include oil & gas distribution, hotels, resorts, airlines, banking, real estate, insurance and publishing. He was one of the prime benefactors of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s privatization exercise, successfully buying up public companies at give-away prices.

But his reputation as a manager is at an all-time low, and he faces a bevy of court cases, as he has also acquired a sordid reputation of pulling out huge equities from such companies and then running them down. Perhaps the most publicized in this respect is Air Nigeria, formerly Virgin Nigeria, which he ran aground within a short period of time after using it to obtain huge business loans.  

Only last month, the Senate confirmed that Mr. Ibrahim fraudulently diverted a loan of N35.5 billion obtained by Air Nigeria from the Federal Government Aviation Fund as part of the government’s efforts to boost the domestic aviation industry.  He converted the money to personal use in NICON Investment Limited, a company he owns with his wife.

Among the legal tussles he left behind in Air Nigeria is one in which the Federal Inland Revenue Service sued him for five years of tax evasion of about N4.86 billion, as well as forgery of Tax Clearance Certificates.

Prior to “purchasing” Air Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim had also previously acquired, and run aground, EAS Airlines, an experience he deployed in his manipulation of Air Nigeria. 

Mr. Ibrahim’s acquisition of Newswatch Magazine has also run into similar difficulties and the case and the previously successful publishing endeavor are currently in court.

Ibrahim’s Energy Group conference in Dubai will last until Saturday.  According to a member of staff, “the shabby way it was planned and executed will leave bad blood up and down the company for a long time to come.”