Businessman Abdulrahman Bashir, owner of Rahamaniya Oil and Gas, started out as a kiosk owner in Sokoto state, where he was born and lived with his poor family until fate brought him in contact with oil moguls A.A Rano and Femi Otedola and his life changed astronomically.
From a small shop owner, Bashir who was barely 30 years at the time started robbing shoulders with the big and mighty in the oil and gas business, until a brush with Otedola, one of his benefactors almost crippled his business in that sector.
He survived and later went ahead to become owner of other chains of businesses beyond the oil and gas sector and yet hit by another misfortune as a result of the meltdown in Nigeria’s financial sector 11 years ago.
Like other businessmen in the country, Bashir was caught in the web of N40 billion debt he owed defunct Oceanic Bank Plc that almost ruined him following AMCON decision to take over his properties to recover the huge debt.
Since then, he has been struggling to live his former ostentatious lifestyle, as many of his projects suffered including his philanthropic work in Sokoto and other northern states, where he normally distributes food and money to poor people during Ramadan fasting period.
Those past misfortunes, from all indications, cannot be compared to his 10 months prison sentence by a United Kingdom, UK court recently, over breach of contract with Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, another indigenous oil and gas firm.
Sahara Reporters reported that Justice Butcher of England and Wales High Court has sentenced Bashir to prison for breaching multiple orders of the court in a pending suit instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Ltd.
How did he become an inmate?
Bashir, the UK court ruled, was found guilty of breaching multiple orders of the court in a suit instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, including 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, Apapa Lagos.
This was in line with a contract Ultimate Oil and Gas, the trading arm of Rahamaniyya Oil in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), entered into with Sahara Energy in 2018.
Ultimate had agreed to buy 15,000 metric tonnes in the Vacuum of Gas Oil, and to secure the deal, a Collateral Management Agreement, CMA containing a London arbitration clause was entered into on July 8, 2018 between the two parties.
According to the details of the court proceedings Ultimate defaulted in payment after Sahara had delivered the consignment worth $10,760,728.77.
Later in 2018, the two parties entered into a settlement agreement where Ultimate was expected to make monthly payments, but the company still failed to do so, leading to the termination of the deal by Sahara in May 2019.
This led to the arbitration in a UK court which ordered Ultimate to fulfill its contract obligations to Sahara.
When Bashir failed to carry out the order, Sahara instituted a contempt of court proceeding against Bashir which led to his sentencing in February by Justice Butcher few months ago.
Butcher said concerning his sentence “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.”
Bashir was also fined fined £500,000.
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