Oando refutes alleged ownership of blending plant in Malta

Oando Plc has refuted an allegation that it owns interest in an oil storage and blending facility in Malta.

“Our attention has been drawn to recent allegations on social and digital media, levelled against Oando Plc of being a shareholder, and its Principals of being Board members, in a Maltese company, Raz Hansir Oil Terminal Limited that operates an oil storage and blending facility, and is purportedly responsible for importing adulterated petroleum products into Nigeria,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

“Considering the above, we wish to refute such claims and attest that neither Oando PLC nor its executives have ever held shares, investments, or interests in the fictitious Maltese company.”

The company said that as part of a comprehensive investigation into the basis of the false claims, it conducted a search of the Malta Business Registry, the official repository for all registered entities past and current within the country.

It said: “Our search yielded no results for a company bearing that name. Subsequent due diligence efforts similarly failed to uncover any record of the company’s existence.

“We therefore believe that the false claims are of the malicious intent of misleading the public and our stakeholders. We want to reiterate that as a publicly listed company, any corporate actions, such as acquisitions, are declared publicly in accordance with applicable corporate governance Laws and Rules.”