Oil mogul, Alhaji Abdulrahman Musa Bashir, the Chief Executive Officer of Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited has been jailed in the United Kingdom.

Justice Butcher of England and Wales High Court sentenced the Nigerian oil mogul after he was found guilty of breaching multiple orders of the court in a pending suit instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Ltd.

Bashir who was handed a 10 months jail sentence, had been ordered to comply with requests for the release of 6,400.69 metric tonnes gas oil to Sahara Energy Resource Ltd or its agent from Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Ltd, Jetty 6.436181, Ibafon, Kirikiri Waterfront, of Aero Maritime Street, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria (“the Terminal”).

This was in line with the deal Ultimate Oil and Gas, the trading arm of Rahamaniyya Oil in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), entered into a deal with Sahara Energy in 2018. In the signed contract, Ultimate agreed to buy, and Sahara agreed to sell 15,000 metric tonnes in the Vacuum of Gas Oil.

A Collateral Management Agreement (CMA) containing a London arbitration clause was entered into on July 8, 2018 between the two parties and it was further learnt that Rahamaniyya agreed to store the gas oil at its terminal pending payment by Ultimate.

According to reports, Sahara delivered a total of 14,967.159 metric tonnes of gas oil to Rahamaniyya’s terminal in Nigeria and also issued invoices for the gas oil on October 26, 2018 for USD 10,760,728.77. The payment should have been made by August 29, 2019 but Ultimate defaulted in making necessary payments.

In December 2018, Ultimate and Sahara entered into a settlement agreement in which Ultimate confirmed that the value of gas oil that had been delivered was USD 10,760,728.77, and agreed to make a series of monthly payments for it.

Court records showed that some payments were made, in consequence of which some 8,566.469 metric tonnes of gas oil was released to Ultimate. Ultimate, however reneged in performing the terms of the settlement agreement in full by making all the payments due. After various warnings, on May 10, 2019, Sahara terminated the settlement agreement, notifying Ultimate that its agent, Asharami Synergy Plc would take delivery of part of the remaining gas oil from the terminal.

Various attempts made by Sahara to obtain delivery of the gas oil were futile, leading to the lawsuit which was filed both in Lagos and in the United Kingdom.

Justice Butcher who delivered the third order following a contempt of court judgement;

“THE BASIS OF THE SENTENCE WAS THAT MR BASHIR HAD COMMITTED CONTINUING BREACHES OF THE ORDER OF MR JUSTICE ROBIN KNOWLES OF 1 AUGUST 2019 AND OF THE ORDER OF MR JUSTICE BRYAN OF 6 SEPTEMBER 2019.”

There was also a binding indication that the sentence could be reduced to six months if Mr Bashir complies with the relevant order which had previously been breached. He was also fined £500,000 while Adebowale Aderemi, its manager, was fined £10,000.

These are among travails of the oil mogul. In 2019, Ecobank Nigeria Limited launched a legal action against Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Group over an alleged N25.9billion debt.

The bank is seeking to recover N25, 900, 959, 351. 88 allegedly owed it by the firm and its founder, Alhaji Abdulrahman Musa Bashir.

The bank, through its solicitors Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL), said the money was availed Rahamaniyya to finance the importation and local purchase of petroleum products.

Ecobank instituted the debt recovery actions at the Federal High Court in Lagos and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

This is as Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court in Lagos granted the bank’s prayer for an order of interim injunction restraining Rahamaniyya and its directors from interfering or tampering with the petroleum products in their tank farms.

Earlier on June 27, Justice Ayokunle Faji of the same court granted an order for the issuance of a bankruptcy notice against Alhaji Bashir.

The bank said the action against Alhaji Bashir in his personal capacity is based on his personal guarantee to repay the loans.

Ecobank said he allegedly failed to meet the repayment obligation.

According to Ecobank, the recovery actions come on the heels of its resolve to ensure that debtors fully honor their obligations after benefitting from credit facilities which helped to grow their businesses.

Through the actions, the bank seeks to enforce collateral agreements, wind up the company for inability to pay its debts and obtain an order of court adjudging Alhaji Bashir bankrupt.

The bank said it has representations across 36 countries in Africa and constantly supports businesses in all the countries.

It added that it holds customers’ deposits in safe trust hence its vigor to recover the debt portfolio from Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas, against the backdrop of its insistence for customers it helps to pay their debts in full and honor their obligations when due.

In his 30s, Abdurrahman  Musa Bashir was born in Sokoto to a local Sharia court judge,Alhaji Musa Bashir.

He was admitted as a pupil into the College of Education (COE) Primary School, Sokoto and later on proceeded to Ahmadu Bello Academy, Sokoto for his post-primary education.

 He later gained admission into Sokoto College of Arts and Science (SCAS) for a diploma course in Accounting and Business Management. He started retail in a kiosk in Sokoto and its environs before he finally got involved in oil business where his fortunes suddenly prospered in bounds.

Abdulrahman Bashir made his dramatic entry into oil and gas sub sector when he was employed by a northern–based businessman and oil mogul, A. A. Rano. Within a short time after his employment, the young man was already engrossed in the business to the extent that his boss, A. A. Rano, started sending him to Lagos and Port Harcourt to secure petroleum products for his several servicing stations across Northern Nigeria.

His business acumen and skills, another business associate, who didn’t want to be named, was seen in “his ability to secure petroleum products even during shortage had, in no small measure, endeared him to his boss and even other independent petroleum marketers based in the North.

His enterprising nature and quick delivery of this product made it possible for him to win the confidence of other petroleum marketers other than his boss and who found it very rigorous to go Lagos for the same purpose. Before you knew it, these people started sending him money through his banks to procure the product for them.”

His ability to procure the product, at times numbering more than 100 tankers at a time, even a t the peak of scarcity through sources other than the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), made him a household name in the oil business in the North, and particularly among the oil and gas magnates in Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt, among others.

He decided to become independent, gathered, as a result of the volume of transactions that was taking place in his various bank accounts. “It was evident that the young man was doing well by virtue of the turnover in his banks accounts. These independent marketers in the North did send him money, ranging from N20 billion to N50 billion to buy fuel for them. Therefore, there was a lot of business activities taking place in his accounts running into hundreds of millions of Naira.

When the oil mogul went autonomous and registered Rahamaniya Global Resources Limited as a private business, funds were never his problem, having established a huge financial profile with Oceanic Bank, courtesy his huge bank accounts.

After he secured the oil import licence, his business empire started to expand in leaps and bounds. His banks, also did not find it difficult to finance all his exports. His clientele portfolio that included constructions firm such as the PW, Sokoto Cement, NITEL, among other multinational corporations continue to develop like his bankers. Within the last six to seven years Rahamaniya was already a domineering oil firm rubbing shoulders with the spheres of Zenon and its contemporaries. His recent establishment of a tank farm worth over N2 billion in Lagos was evidence that the businessman has come of age in the oil and gas sector, his associate said.

Rahamaniya has more than 500 tankers, 26 filling stations across the country, five vessels worth $7 billion each operating and a tank farm that earn him close to N400 million monthly. And this is apart from his investment in real estate.

While his business grew, his taste, flamboyance and philanthropy also develop. Apart from riding on expensive porch cars, the young billionaire also carved a niche for himself in frequenting five-star hotels whenever he travels out to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, UK, US and China.

Many people in Sokoto, his home state believed that he is the richest person in the state because of his philanthropic activities. He is equally a darling of the youth by offering financial assistance to many bachelors interested in getting married. The less privileged are not left out as he visits hospitals and settle hospital bills.

His trailer-loads of rice, sugar and other grains are common features in Sokoto. He distributes them to people lavishly. He has been sponsoring more