Nigerian energy company Oando says neither the company nor its executives own shares, investments or interests in Maltese company Ras Hanzir Oil Terminal.
Oando was responding to recent allegations on social and digital media, levelled against Oando of being a shareholder, and its principals of being board members, in the Maltese company that operates an oil storage and blending facility, and is purportedly responsible for importing adulterated petroleum products into Nigeria.
“As part of a comprehensive investigation into the basis of the false claims, we conducted a search of the Malta business registry, the official repository for all registered entities past and current within the country. Our search yielded no results for a company bearing that name,” Oando said in a statement on Monday.
Subsequent due diligence efforts similarly failed to uncover any record of the company’s existence, it said.
“We believe that the false claims are of the malicious intent of misleading the public and our stakeholders,” it said.
It said as a publicly listed company, any corporate actions, such as acquisitions, were declared publicly in accordance with applicable corporate governance laws and rules.
“Furthermore, it is imperative that information released about a publicly quoted company such as Oando, is thoroughly researched and deemed accurate before it is published in the public domain.”
The company’s securities are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the JSE. To prevent misinformation and confusion among investors and other stakeholders, “we implore all members of the press to take adequate steps to ensure the veracity of reports by fielding all enquiries with Oando’s corporate communications department”, it said.
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