₦airaland Forum

4 arraigned for crude oil fraud

All plead not guilty

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday February 8, 2017 arraigned the quartet of Umar Audu Bida, Truth Igogori, Ifenyinwa Nwankwesiri and Ogechukwu Obaji before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja on a 9-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of $1million (one million US dollars).


The accused were arraigned alongside four companies: Universal Contractors, Lambda Energy Services Limited, Double Wonder Concept Limited, and ICS Energy Services Limited.


Bida and his co-accused sometimes in 2014 allegedly conspired to defraud one Donald Latella of North Park LLC of $1million under the pretext of supplying about two million barrels of Bonny Light Crude Oil.





The offence contravenes Section 8 (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.


Count 2 of the charge reads:
That you, Umaru Audu Bida, Truth Igogori, Ifenyinwa Nwankwesiri, Ogechukwu Obaji, Universal Contractors, Lambda Energy Services LTD, Double Wonder Concept LTD, and ICS Energy Services LTD and others now at large, sometime in 2014, within the Judicial Division of the Federal High Court of Nigeria attempted to obtain the sum of $1,000,000.00 (One million United States Dollars) from Donald Latella of North Park LLC under the false pretence of supplying about 2 million Barrels of Bonny Light Crude Oil which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section Section 8 (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.


The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge.


Upon their pleas, counsel to the EFCC, Onjefu Obe, asked the court for a date to present his witnesses and for the accused to be remanded in prison custody pending trial.


However, Ammeh O. Ammeh representing 1st and 5th defendants and R. O. Attabo standing for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th defendants, through oral applications prayed the court to admit their clients to bail.


Justice Nyako held that the court was a court of record and asked the defence to make their applications formal.
The judge, thereafter, adjourned to Thursday, February 16, 2017, for hearing of the bail application and ordered that the accused persons to be remanded in prison custody.

Case takes a funny twist

A mild drama and rowdiness temporarily occurred during proceedings at the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal siting in Benin City on Tuesday when one of the petitioner’s witnesses (PW 14), Mr. Yusuf Seidu Abu mounted the dock only to claim that he was not just a witness but at the same time, a petitioner against the Edo 2016 governorship election.

Recall that the petitioners in this case are the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and her candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Prior to the mild drama and mirth occasioned in the courtroom by Mr. Abu, who was facing cross-examination, he said, “I voted in unit 001, ward 8 and I functioned as the ward collation agent for the PDP. We had 9 polling units”.

However, on being asked that, ‘When the petitioner in his petition stated that you had 10 polling units, did you object?’ he thundered saying, “I am the petitioner”. This reply evoked laughter and served as a timely dose of comic relief in an otherwise serious court case.

The witness, who had earlier stated during cross-examination that although multiple voting in some units was his grievance, he also wanted to add over-voting and non-accreditation to his complaints.

He however buckled when asked if he was in all the units to have noticed multiple voting.

“I was not in unit 9 to have noticed multiple voting. I was in unit 001. In unit 08, I was not there to have noticed multiple voting because I registered and voted in unit 001”, he answered.

Continuing in a booming voice, he said, “I was the ward 8 collation agent, but I did not sign the result sheet and nobody signed for my party. I signed the unit result as the polling agent”.

According to him, he claimed he signed the result sheet because there was nothing he could do even though I was not the polling agent.

Further attracting laughter, PW 14 who on one hand noted, “Accreditation and voting did not take place simultaneously” however agreed to have voted without accreditation saying nothing was wrong with his action.

Bench warrant issued for sisters after failing to appear for hearing

Politics Nigeria can exclusively confirm that indian courtesans, Kiran and Jyoti Matharoo failed to show up in court today to continue a hearing on their case.

The two sisters alongside their Nigerian accomplice, Babatunde Oyebode a.k.a Baudex are currently facing charges of extortion, cyber-bullying and blackmail. The trio met their waterloo after trying to blackmail billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola

The case, with file no. A/203/2016, which is between the Lagos state commissioner of police and the 3 defendants following a petition filed to the police by Otedola, was called up at about 10:03 am on Wednesday. Only Oyebode and his legal counsel showed up. Spotting a brown blazer and black trousers, Oyebode briskly walked to the stand.

When queried by the presiding judge, Justice E.A Ojo on the whereabouts of the girls, Oyebode quickly stated that he had no knowledge of their whereabouts.

After having a brief chat with court officials, Justice Ojo issued a bench warrant for the girls and placed an order for their sureties to show cause. Justice Ojo then filed for the case to be transferred to the Federal high court in Lagos.

The matter has been adjourned to the 1st of March 2017.

The absence of the ladies in court today has fueled rumors that the two sisters allegedly fled Nigeria silently last week. It is believed the sisters are still in possession of some digital copies of compromising pictures and videos of randy businessmen and politicians discovered on laptops and iPads seized from them by the Nigerian police.

Mile Six Junction, along the Jalingo- Numan highway was under siege on Tuesday afternoon by aggrieved youths protesting the death of four persons after a fatal accident involving a petrol tanker and a tricycle on Monday.

Witnesses say, at about 5 PM on Monday, a commercial tricycle, popularly known as ‘Keke NAPEP’, was trying to cross the highway, when the tanker collided with the tricycle, thereby leading to the instant death of the passengers.

Reports gathered by Politics Nigeria reveal that the protesting youths were protesting the death of the passengers by burning tyres and blocking the highway. No vehicle was, however, allowed in and out of Jalingo metropolis.

Early Tuesday, youths were seen digging holes on the highway, aimed at creating speed bumps and slowing down traffic.


Also, security agents were seen trying to maintain order while the Commissioner of Works, Taraba state, Tafarki Agbadu, was making frantic efforts, alongside the Taraba State Roads Construction and Maintenance Agency, TARCMA, to appease the youths by agreeing to construct speed bumps.

Speaking to journalists at the scene of the accident, the rampaging youths insist they would not disperse if the speed bumps were not erected.Meanwhile, as at the time of writing this report, TARCMA had arrived the scene and work on the construction was about to begin.

The Mile Six junction in Jalingo is a big junction that connects the city center at the outskirts of the city. It is also a big transit road to Yola and Numan and experiences a lot of vehicular traffic, particularly long distance travelers. Unfortunately, despite its status, there is no traffic regulation or speed bumps at the junction- a situation that has resulted to several loss of lives and car crashes.

Below is also a photo from the accident that occurred yesterday;

Oyo state bans violence against women

The Oyo state government, on Tuesday, signed into law a bill prohibiting violence against women in the state.The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Seun Abimbola; Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; and Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Musah Abdulwasil, were present during the signing into law of the bill to Prohibit Violence Against Women in Public and Private Life, at the Governor's Office, Ibadan.

This development has been praised by people of the state. Prior to this development, governor Ajimobi has been under fire following his comments to protesting students of LAUTECH. The governor reportedly lost his cool and threatened the students while speaking to them over institution's closure for over 8 months.