Welcome to Volume 4 of Gist Circular! Quick update before we start: Gist Circular is now a monthly issue. You’ll get the same gist in the same style, just once a month, so each issue brings you the stories that had everyone talking! And this month had a bit of everything. A $40 million debt dispute ended with court bailiffs at gates in Maitama and Ikoyi. An Abuja pastor filled Old Trafford with worshippers, and there wasn’t a football in sight. And Item7Go finally arrived in Mabushi with queues, party rice and, yes, a waterfall. Sorrows, sorrows, prayers… and party rice. Let’s get into it.
Court bailiffs come knocking as Rahamaniyya chairman faces $40m debt dispute
It is one thing to owe $40 million. It is another thing entirely to have court bailiffs show up at your properties in Abuja and Lagos only to have a face off with your loyalists, or should we say, goons.
That was the scene on Wednesday, September 23, when court officials moved against properties linked to Abdulrahman Musa Bashar, chairman of Rahamaniyya Group of Companies, as part of efforts to recover an approximately $40 million judgment debt owed in a dispute involving Petrichor Energy FZCO. The saga has all the ingredients of an international legal drama: fuel deals, unpaid bills, bounced cheques, personal guarantees, luxury addresses, multiple countries, freezing orders and, eventually, court officials turning up at the gates.
The latest episode followed a February 25 order of the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division, granting Petrichor permission to register a judgment of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales for enforcement in Nigeria. The Court subsequently issued writs of attachment and sale dated May 15. In simple terms, the court authorised enforcement against assets linked to Bashar and, under a separate writ, Bashar and Ultimate Oil & Gas FZCO.
The original dispute dates back to fuel transactions between Petrichor Energy, formerly known as CE Energy DMCC, and Ultimate Oil & Gas involving the supply of gasoil and Jet A1 aviation fuel. According to court documents, the parties began with five spot contracts before graduating to a term contract in April 2023. Ultimate Oil reportedly paid for some of the fuel but later stopped meeting its obligations for interest and demurrage. Petrichor then took the dispute to the Dubai International Arbitration Centre in November 2023, but apparently, the fuel kept moving even while the money was not.
Two additional cargoes were supplied under the term contract, after which Ultimate again failed to meet its payment obligations. By January 2024, the parties were attempting to restructure the growing financial headache. On January 14, they entered into an agreement covering Ultimate’s outstanding obligations. The security package included nine undated cheques signed by Bashar, who also personally guaranteed the company’s obligations. There was, however, a problem with the cheques. They were returned unpaid over what the court documents described as irregular signatures.
At this point, what started as a fuel-supply disagreement was becoming a rather expensive international legal saga.
In February 2025, the English High Court entered summary judgments against Ultimate Oil and Bashar. Ultimate Oil was ordered to pay AED22.8 million, while Bashar was ordered to pay AED122.1 million under his personal guarantee, plus interest and costs. The parties tried another payment arrangement in April 2025. That arrangement also failed to produce a clean ending. The court later found that Ultimate Oil defaulted on several instalments despite extensions and partial payments. The remaining sums were eventually put at approximately $32.7 million against Bashar and $7.5 million against Ultimate Oil.
And because apparently one country was not enough for this particular debt dispute, the legal action crossed borders.
On March 30, the United Kingdom High Court granted a worldwide freezing order against Bashar and Ultimate Oil over the unpaid debt. The order covered assets in Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and France. The Nigerian writs then gave the sheriff authority to recover the judgment debt through the attachment and sale of goods and chattels belonging to the respondents, as well as the seizure of specified monetary and financial assets.
Which brings us to Wednesday, 23rd September.
In Abuja, court officials arrived at a property on Panama Crescent, Maitama, where they pasted the court order on the gate and sealed the property. They also visited Bashar’s main residence on Logone Close, Maitama, where the enforcement team reportedly encountered resistance.
Meanwhile, Lagos had its own episode.
Officials went to a property in Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, where they also encountered resistance. They eventually gained access but were unable to obtain the keys to the apartment. So, in the space of a single day, an international fuel-debt dispute had gone from arbitration rooms in Dubai and courtrooms in London and Lagos to the gates of some of Abuja and Lagos’s most recognisable upscale neighbourhoods. The saga has now involved legal proceedings in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Dubai, with the outstanding debt running into tens of millions of dollars.
For now, the court battle is no longer confined to contracts, arbitration filings and judgments. Let’s see where this goes.
Abuja-based Pastor, Jerry Eze fills up Old Trafford
From football chants to prayer chants, Old Trafford had a very different sound last weekend…
Manchester United has seen plenty of big nights at Old Trafford, but this one had no football, no red cards and definitely no VAR.
Instead, thousands of people gathered at the iconic stadium for something very different: PRAYER. Abuja-based Nigerian pastor, Jerry Eze took his daily prayer, NSPPD to Old Trafford in Manchester, turning the home of Manchester United into a massive prayer and worship venue as worshippers gathered from the UK and beyond.
For a stadium that usually roars with football fans, the atmosphere was a completely different one as prayers, worship and gospel music filled the stands. And the scale of the gathering was hard to miss, with the available capacity reportedly reached and some worshippers unable to get into the stadium despite turning up for the event.
Eze later apologised to those who could not gain entry, including people who had travelled from different places to attend. The gathering also featured Nigerian gospel artistes including Mercy Chinwo, Dunsin Oyekan, Sunmisola Agbebi and Kaestrings, making it as much a celebration of Nigerian gospel culture as it was a prayer gathering.
And if there is one thing that makes the whole scene particularly interesting, it is the location. Old Trafford is famously known as the “Theatre of Dreams”, a place associated with some of Manchester United’s biggest football moments. This time, however, the dreams being brought into the stadium were not about lifting a trophy or scoring a last-minute winner.
They were prayers, testimonies and hopes.
Pastor Jerry Eze has now taken NSPPD to one of the world’s most recognisable sporting venues and judging by the crowd, plenty of people were ready to turn up for prayer.
Abuja people, Item7Go has finally entered the chat.
If you’ve been seeing people shout about Item7Go online and wondering what the fuss is about, well, congratulations. You can now find out without travelling to Lagos, Ibadan or Ilorin.
Item7Go has officially opened its first Abuja outlet in Mabushi, and judging by the reception, Abuja people have been waiting for this one. The outlet opened on September 24 along Ahmadu Bello Way, and people came ready. There were queues, plenty of food orders and reportedly about 1,500 pre-orders on Chowdeck before the launch. Abuja said, “We are hungry, please.”
So, what’s on the menu? Item7Go is doing what it knows best: party rice and shawarma. Think jollof, fried rice, chicken, beef, fish and croaker, served in the generous portions the brand is known for. But the food is not the only thing people are talking about.
Have you seen the Abuja outlet?
Because Item7Go did not come to Abuja to play. The Mabushi space is huge, with dedicated pickup areas, delivery rider spaces, photo spots and even a waterfall. Basically, you can buy food, take pictures and sightsee.
For the people who have tried, what do we think? Hit or Miss?
