Senate requests that managing director of Samsung Nigeria be deported as he is an illegal immigrant

SENATORS have requested that the Nigeria Immigration Service deport Mr Young Ho Jo the managing director of Samsung Nigeria back to South Korea because he entered the country without the necessary travel documents.

 

Yesterday, Senator Solomon Adeola, the chairman of the senate ad- hoc committee probing the $16.35bn Egina Oil Field Project, said that the senate called for Mr Ho Jo's deportation last week in line with an interim report on his role in the oilfield. Senators reviewed the role of Samsung and other operators of the Egina project and it emerged that Mr Ho Jo was residing in Nigeria illegally during the scrutiny of his papers.

 

Senator Adeola said : “Mr Young Ho Jo who has been working for the past two months in Nigeria as the managing director of Samsung without fulfilling legal requirements for such, told us that he couldn’t complete his documentation as a result of alleged breakdown of machines of the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCMDB). However, the NCMBD wrote to us that their machine had never broken down in the period claimed, showing that the man has contravened the local content law.

 

"Going by recommendations made by this committee to the senate and resolution adopted, the managing director of Samsung Nigeria is no longer recognised on account of improper documentation as shown by papers he presented. To the senate and this committee, the Samsung Nigeria managing director is an illegal immigrant who must be deported by the Nigerian Immigration Service, to which a letter to that effect has been forwarded to the ministry of interior but he can, however, come back to the country through proper documentation thereafter."

 

He added that during his illegal residency in Nigeria as the managing director of Samsung Nigeria, Mr Young Ho Jo, also violated the Local Content Act by spending $1.6bn out of the $3.5bn contract. Under the terms of the deal, Samsung got a slice of the $16.35bn Egina Oil Field Project.

 

Nicolas Terraz, the managing director of Total Upstream Nigeria stated that as the major operator of the project, his company will continue to assist the committee in its investigations adding that its goal is to deliver the project expected produce 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Gbolahan Okesanya, the representative of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) , said that it will ensure that maximum cooperation is given to the senate audit team, adding that its goal tallies with that of the corporation in its regulation of the oil industry.

 

Meanwhile, the second phase of the investigation, would be carried out by consultants to be assigned by the senate for 16 weeks on the spot assessment of the project execution as regards value for money in line with the local content act.

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