Tanzanian Local Businessman Accuses Companies of Death Threats

By Faustine Kapama

TANZANIAN businessman Moto Mabanga has accused two foreign companies dealing in gas exploration, Ophir Energy PLC and Ophir Services PTY Limited, of sending him death threats if he refuses to surrender his interests in three gas blocks offshore in Mtwara Region.

In a document filed at the High Court's Commercial Division in Dar es Salaam, Mr Mabanga also pointed the finger at the English company, BG Tanzania Limited of conspiring with the two firms for elbowing him out of the exploration gas business from the three blocks, One, Three and Four.

Mr Mabanga was responding to a written statement of defense filed by the three companies to oppose his suit in which he claims to be deceived fraudulently to surrender his interests in the three blocks in question situated in the Southern part of Tanzania.

"At the Michaelangelo cafeteria, the plaintiff (Mabanga) was physically threatened and it was made obvious to him that he would be physically injured or eliminated if he rejected the final offer to exit," reads one paragraph of his reply to defense documents by the three companies.

It is alleged that in December 2009 and January 2010, Ophir Energy PLC and Ophir Services PTY Limited started negotiations with BG Tanzania limited on the possibility of assigning 60 per cent interests in Block One, Three and Four.

But Mr Mabanga maintains that it was a condition given by BG Tanzania Limited that prior to such assignment, the five per cent interest allocated for him in each of the three blocks should be done away by hounding him out through nominal compensation for his interest.

He, therefore, denied that the termination agreement he had signed was voluntary and validly entered into. He further retained that it was BG Tanzania Limited, who had identified him as a red flag and obstacle to the deal for procurement of the 60 per cent interests in the blocks.

"The plaintiff avers that having known that (he) had interest in the blocks, the third defendant (BG) never did any due diligence by contacting (him) in accordance with Stock Exchange listed company rules," another part of Mabanga's reply to the written statement of defence states.

Instead, Mr Mabanga further accounts, the company unilaterally branded him a red flag and obstacle to the transaction so that he is removed, as a condition for executing the farm-in agreements.

"The third defendant therefore colluded with the first and second defendants (Ophir Energy PLC and Ophir Services PTY Limited) in all the wrongs they did to the plaintiff," he states in the document filed by advocates Mabere Marando, Gabriel Mnyele and Jethro Turyamwesiga.

In the plaint of the suit, Mr Mabanga claims to be coerced to sign a termination agreement to receive undervalued consideration of 7.5 million USD, thus depriving his rights to own property on fair payment and was forced out of the new corporate set up by xenophobic means because he was an African.

He is accusing Ophir Energy PLC and Ophir Services PTY Limited of failure to disclose to him the actual and potential value of oil and gas in the blocks and gave false reasons unfair to him and applied unfair valuation methods to determine the value of his interest.

It is alleged further that Ophir Energy PLC and Ophir Services PTY Limited did not disclose to Mr Mabanga the transaction with BG Tanzania Limited and the amount that the latter was paying for assignment of 60 per cent interest in the blocks.

Given the recent disclosure by the companies of the sale of 20 per cent interests to Pavilion Energy Pte Limited at 1,288,000,000 US Dollars, the value of the three blocks is 6,440,000,000 US Dollars, thus BG Limited must have paid a large amount for the 60 per cent interests.

"The defendants' (the three companies) acts of forcefully and fraudulently ejecting the plaintiff from Ophir amounted to breach of the Consultancy Agreements.

The plaintiff was entitled to a five percent free carry share interest in Block One, Three and Four perpetually," he claims. As a result, Mr Mabanga alleges in his suit, he has lost his entitlement of five percent interest in the profit acquired and that to be acquired from production and other economic activities deriving from the blocks and has suffered general damages.

Source: allAfrica