2 Oil Marketers Jailed 8 years For N789.6m Oil Subsidy Scam
Justice Latifat Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced two oil marketers, George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah, owners of Rocky Energy Limited to eight years imprisonment.
Justice Okunnu jailed the convicts after she found them guilty of a 26-count amended charge of conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery to the tune of N789.6million.
The convicts were arraigned alongside one Adamu Maula and his company, Downstream Energy Sources Limited, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
It will be recalled that the defendants were first arraigned before Justice Okunnu on February 26, 2013 on an eight-count charge.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail in the sum of N50 million each, with two sureties in like sum.
The EFCC had alleged through its counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) that the defendants had committed the offences between March 2011 and January 2012 in Lagos.
Jacobs also alleged that they fraudulently obtained N789.6 million from the Petroleum Support Fund for a purported importation of 14.2 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit from Europe to Nigeria.
The lawyer also accused them of forging documents, including bill of lading, certificate of quantity, certificate of origin and cargo manifest, which they allegedly used in facilitating the fraud.
According to the EFCC, the offences contravened Section 1 (sub-sections 1,2,3) and Section 8 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2006.
The EFCC also maintained that the offences contravened sections 363 and 364 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2003.
But during the course of trial, lawyers to the defendants, in separate no-case submissions, had urged the court to dismiss the charge against their clients for lack of merit.
While the prosecution presented 11 witnesses, including Abdulrasheed Bawa, an investigator with the EFCC, and tendered documents in evidence.
In his judgment Justice Okunnu found Ogbonna and Morah guilty and sentenced them to eight years imprisonment each.
The judge also ordered the convicts to return the money they fraudulently collected to the Federal Government.
Maula and his company, Downstream Energy Sources Limited, were, however, discharged and acquitted by the court.
