US embassy cable - 04LAGOS752

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