News - Court freezes oil marketers’ assets over subsidy scam

[TGD]

 JUSTICE Adeniyi Onigbanjo of the Ikeja High Court Thursday ordered an interim forfeiture of assets belonging to an oil marketer, Mr. Oluwaseun Ogunbambo.

The order secured by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was sequel to an ex parte application filed by the anti-graft agency.

Ogunbambo is one of the oil marketers being prosecuted by the EFCC for the subsidy scam running to the tune of N4.5 billion.

Although the worth of Ogunbambo's assets, which the EFCC sought to freeze, was not disclosed, the commission however  said that the affected assets were  mostly in the United Kingdom, five Nigerian bank accounts and a landed property at Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Five of the bank accounts bear the names of his companies, Fargo Petroleum Gas Limited, Arnage Oil and Gas Limited and Seatac.

Also, the account of Nassaman Oil Service Limited, belonging to Mamman Ali, son of former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,

Ahmadu Ali, was among the assets frozen at the instance of the court for alleged fraud linked with Ogunbambo.

EFCC's counsel, Mr. Francis Usani, who moved the application for forfeiture, said: "The property and bank accounts set out in the schedule hereto, property of the persons currently standing trial for conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence, obtaining the sums of over N4.5 billion by false pretence, forgery and uttering of a documents in Charge Nos ID/116C/2012, ID/133C/2012 and ID/122C/2012 all pending in this judicial division (Ikeja), be in the interim forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria pending the determination of all the pending proceedings against him".

Two of the charges are pending before Justice Onigbanjo.

In the other charge involving Ogunbambo and his firm, Adeline Investment, pending before another judge, Justice Olabisi Akinlade, the accused was alleged to have used forged cheques and false claims to defraud Stanbic IBTC Bank up to the tune of N430 million in 2010.

According to the other two charges involving Ogunbambo, Habila Theck and Fargo, the accused were said to have defrauded the Federal Government under the fuel subsidy scheme up to the tune of N976.7 million.

In the other matter involving, Ogunbambo, Mamman Ali, Christian Taylor as well as Nasaman Oil Services, the defendants were charged for defrauding the Federal Government the sum of N4.5 billion under the  subsidy scheme.



The Guardian