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Tuesday 22 March 2016

Billionaires At War! Why Oil Magnate, Jide Omokore, Detests Zenith Bank’s Jim Ovia

The rage of discordant, rich-spoilt heirs baying for broken glass, pales to the cold war between Jide Omokore and Jim Ovia. Like two seething confluences streaming into a raging deep, the multibillionaire owner of Energy Resources Group of Companies and Zenith Bank chairman respectively, are engaged in a bitter, silent war that threatens the possibility of friendship between them ever again.
So bitter is their rift that friends and associates of the duo have reportedly given up on the likelihood of resolving their quarrel and getting both billionaires to be bosom friends again. The warship of acrimony berthed in the port of the two billionaire friends and business associates when a business deal turned awry for Omokore. The latter promptly sought a bailout from Jim Ovia, who was then the Managing Director (MD) of Zenith Bank, but the latter declined. Instead of bailing his friend out, Ovia reportedly turned a blind eye.

Omokore ran helter-skelter, urging their mutual friends to mount pressure on Ovia to bail him out but Ovia remained adamant and subsequently struck his friend down even more viciously. He confiscated Omokore’s properties which the latter has used as collateral for some of the loans he took from Zenith Bank. Many of their friends intervened but Ovia reportedly told them off coldly and ruthlessly that in business, there are no friends.
Omokore was angry, cringing from the magnitude of his friend’s callous indifference when he needed him the most. The energy entrepreneur felt betrayed and exposed and silently swore never to have anything to do with Ovia and his bank again. Few years after the incident, Omokore enjoyed unprecedented good fortune again; he came into wealth and several lucrative deals. Omokore’s friendship with the former president and petroleum minister earned intimidating fortune and predictably, he became the darling of the financial sector and Nigeria’s high society.
Zenith Bank account marketers and investment executives approached Omokore asking for his patronage but the Energy Resources boss firmly declined citing Ovia’s betrayal of his trust and comradeship as a deal breaker. The Zenith Bank crew pleaded with Omokore to reconsider his decision but he stuck to his guns, savouring the rare opportunity he had to spite Ovia and his bank for riding roughshod all over him while he was down.
But in an unexpected twist of fate, Omokore ran into troubled waters again as he recently became a person of interest in the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Since Omokore became the subject of investigation in a fraud pertaining to the oil sector, he has been having sleepless nights and Ovia has been enjoying the rare privilege gloat back at him.
Nobody knows how the ongoing inquest will end for Omokore; while most of his rivals and detractors envisage that it would be the end of him and his massive business enterprise, pundits and friends of Omokore argue that it is only temporary bump from which he would rise stronger and even more prosperous. Hence Ovia might really not have to gloat for long afterall.
It would be recalled that before the axe fell on their friendship, Omokore and Ovia enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. They struck many deals together and also navigated the social scenes hand in hand.
Respected for his Midas Touch that has seen him grow an indigenous company, Energy Resources, into a thriving conglomerate including SPOG Petrchemicals Limited, Energy Resources Management Limited, Energy Property Nigeria Limited, Innovative Haulage Limited, Expedia Marine Ltd and Restore Engineering Limited. Omokore also functions as chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited, a private upstream oil and gas company, with an increased focus on under-developed producing fields in Nigeria. In partnership with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Atlantic Energy focuses mainly on Niger Delta assets, contracted and executed under Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) with the NPDC.
Until his unsavoury encounter with the EFCC, Omokore played comfortably in the international oil and gas circuit. Forbes magazine once described his company as one of Nigeria’s largest privately-held conglomerates with interests in oil trading and exploration, haulage services, steel, dredging engineering and property development with an estimated $400 million annual revenue.

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