INDUSTRIALIST CORROBORATES COUP PLOT RUMORS

S E C R E T LAGOS 000752

SIPDIS

NOFORN

E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 04/06/2014
TAGS: PGOV PINR MOPS PREL NI
SUBJECT: INDUSTRIALIST CORROBORATES COUP PLOT RUMORS

REF: A. ABUJA 586


B. ABUJA NI 584

Classified By: J. GREGOIRE FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AND (D)


1. (S N/F) SUMMARY. The head of Nigeria's leading indigenous
petroleum marketing firm and son of a former Lagos State
governor told ECONOFF that in a private conversation with
President Obasanjo and NNPC chief Funsho Kupolokun last
weekend, Obasanjo confirmed rumors that the GON uncovered a
coup plot by junior officers (reftels). Femi Otedola, sole
owner of Zenon Petroleum, said he was told that the GON found
a speech prepared by the leader of the coup plot, and that
the GON discovered $25,000 had been deposited in an account
in Cote d'Ivoire to be used to buy weapons for a coup
attempt. END SUMMARY.


2. (S N/F) On April 6, Femi Otedola, President and CEO of
Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd., met with ECONOFF and ECONSPEC
(a Nigerian Locally Employed Staff) to discuss his company's
fuel marketing operations and the state of the downstream
petroleum sector generally. According to Otedola, Zenon
controls 85 percent of the Nigerian diesel market, and the
company is rapidly expanding to control a greater share of
its vertical business stream from the refinery to the retail
pump (septel). Otedola is the son of Chief Michael Otedola,
who was elected governor of Lagos State in 1992 as a result
of bitter party infighting but was replaced with a military
governor when Sani Abacha came to power in 1993. Femi
Otedola was put on the Board of the Nigerian Investment
Promotion Commission (NIPC) earlier this year.


3. (S N/F) During a long and frank conversation about his
business and Nigeria's ongoing fuel woes, Otedola made
several references to private conversations he has had with
President Obasanjo, including discussions on getting the
government out of the fuel business and on privatizing
Nigeria's refineries. Otedola said President Obasanjo
recently asked him if Zenon would build a refinery in Lagos
near the Atlas Cove fuel jetty if the government gave the
company the land. Otedola told ECONOFF that such a project
would cost a half-billion dollars, which he was not
interested in investing in such a manner at this time. When
pressed for reasons why, he said the political risk is still
too great in Nigeria. Otedola said he is concerned that the
split between Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku is large and
growing.


4. (S N/F) Otedola then pointed to the recent reports of a
coup plot as further evidence of the high level of political
risk keeping him from making large capital investments in
Nigeria that would require him to take on significant debt.
He noted he keeps Zenon profits in several large Nigerian
banks from which he can transfer funds to European accounts
within 24 hours if he senses grave problems in Nigeria. He
said that the government's public attempt to play down the
coup plot story was a ruse (ref A).


5. (S N/F) Otedola intimated he met with Obasanjo and Funsho
Kupolokun, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),on Sunday April 4, and
was told details about the coup plot. He was not willing to
share many details, but Otedola said he was told that the GON
found a speech regarding the coup on the computer of the lead
plotter. He also said the GON discovered $25,000 deposited
in a bank account in Cote d'Ivoire for the purchase of
weapons to be used in the coup attempt. When asked if the
coup plotters were generals at the top of the military
command, Otedola said emphatically that junior officers
hatched the plot (ref B). He added that current senior
officers would not plot against Obasanjo, but if they did,
they could accomplish a coup relatively easily.


6. (S N/F) Otedola noted that he would be meeting with
Kupolokun in Lagos on Friday, April 9, and would probably
speak with the President again before leaving Nigeria for
London sometime in the next 10 days. Otedola said he keeps
his family in London and maintains commercial and residential
real estate holdings there.


HINSON-JONES