Posted on: 06:16 Thu, 07 Jul 2016



SaharaReporters has exclusively
obtained shipping and merchant
vessel documents which show that the
disparaged former Minister of
Aviation Stella Oduah purchased and
registered an oil tanker a few months
before she was sacked by former
President Goodluck Jonathan.

It will be recalled that Mrs. Oduah,
now the Senator from Anambra
State, was sacked by Mr. Jonathan
in February 2014 following a series
of exposes from SaharaReporters
connecting her to a massive BMW
vehicle scandal. In recent days, the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) discovered that
N2.5 billion was put in a bank
account under the name of Mrs.
Oduah’s housemaid.

The EFCC said “Senator Oduah
apparently opened the account with
her housemaid’s name, image, and
details without the housemaid
knowing about it.”

This latest scandal, which involves
the unexplainable purchase of a
massive oil tanker, is connected to
Mrs. Oduah’s company Sea
Petroleum and Gas Company Ltd.
This company purchased the vessel
SEA STERLING, with call sign 5NXF,
and later registered it in the Port of
Lagos.

According to the Certificate of
Classification, by the International
Classification Society, the SEA
STERLING was certified and
entered in to the Bureau Veritas
Register Book as having
unrestricted navigation.

The vessel, also listed as an Oil
tanker on the classification
document, was stated as being
owed by Sea Petroleum and Gas
Company Ltd with a Nigerian flag.

It was given the registration
number 14565J and valid until May
23rd 2017.

The certificate was issued on
August 26th, 2013 at Lagos and
later obtained compliance and
insurance accreditation in
September 2013.

Mrs. Oduah’s oil tanker, affixed
with the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) number
9607318, is said to be able to
freight 4,126 gross tons.

SaharaReporters found that on
August 26th 2014 the Sea Sterling
was attacked by pirates off the
coast of Bayelsa State but were
repelled by security onboard.
A SaharaReporters investigation
into the vessel found that it was
built in 2012 and is 112 meters
long.

One maritime expert, who
SaharaReporters provided the
specifications of Mrs. Oduah’s oil
tanker to, told our correspondent
that “a 6,000 dwt [dead weight]
product tanker built in 2009 was
recently sold for $12.2 million. So a
similar sized tanker built in 2012
[like Stella Oduah’s] would probably
be valued between $13 and $15
million.”

He added that, “this assumes a
willing buyer and a willing seller
and also depends on the vessels’
condition and the shipyard it was
built.”

Mrs. Oduah was not immediately
available for comment on how her
company was able to afford this oil
tanker.