Oando Plc has denied allegations of owning shares in the Maltese company Ras Hansir Oil Terminal Limited, which purportedly operates an oil storage and blending facility.
The company stated that neither it nor its executives have any interests in this entity, emphasising that a search of the Malta Business Registry revealed no such company exists.
Oando described the claims as malicious and misleading, urging the media to verify information before publication to prevent misinformation among stakeholders.
Company secretary, Ayotola Jagun, in a statement yesterday, said, “Our attention has been drawn to recent allegations on social and digital media, levelled against Oando Plc (‘Oando’ or ‘the Company’) 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.
“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.
“As part of a comprehensive investigation into the basis of the false claims, we conducted a search of the Malta Business Registry, the official repository for all registered entities past and current within the country. 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.
“Furthermore, it is imperative that information released about a publicly quoted company such as Oando is thoroughly researched and deemed accurate before it is published in the public domain.
The company’s securities are traded daily across two exchanges (NGX and JSE). To prevent misinformation and confusion among investors, as well as our other stakeholders, we implore all members of the press to take adequate steps to ensure the veracity of reports by fielding all enquiries with Oando Plc Corporate Communications department, the oil firm stated.
