Court jails former NEXIM Bank’s chief Roberts Orya 10 years for N1.4bn fraud

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, sentenced Roberts Orya, a former managing director of the Nigerian Export Import (NEXIM) Bank, to 10 years’ imprisonment for fraud he perpetrated while in office.

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Trial judge F.E Messiri held that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt and found the defendant guilty as charged.

The judge sentenced the former NEXIM Bank chief to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the 49 counts brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

However, the judge ordered the sentences to run concurrently, implying the convict will only spend 10 years in prison.

EFCC arraigned Mr Orya in November 2021, charging him with abuse of office as managing director of NEXIM Bank, a position he held from August 2009 to July 2016.

The commission alleged in the charges that Mr Orya used his office to divert NEXIM Bank’s N1.4 billion tthrough fraudulent loan awards.

In one of the counts, the prosecution accused Mr Orya of inducing NEXIM to pay N488 million to Treasure Mix Construction Limited as a loan under the pretence that the directors of Luxurium Leisure Services Limited, a company with ownership traced to him, applied for and were the beneficiaries of the said loan. The commission said Mr Orya took this action, with intent to defraud, on 21 September 2011, while serving as NEXIM’s director-general.

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According to EFCC, Mr Orya perpetrated similar fraud by inducing NEXIM to pay N630 million to Treasure Mix Construction Limited under the same circumstances on 19 February 2013.

The commission said the actions constituted an offence contrary to section 1 (1)(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under section 1 (3) of the same Act.

He was also accused of incorporating the company, Luxurium Leisure Service Limited, using the names of non-existent persons and others without their consent, and proceeded to grant loans to the company which remained unpaid years after.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to all 49 counts, setting off a full trial that came to an end with Thursday’s judgement.

In the course of the trial, which lasted over four years, the prosecution led by Samuel Ugwuegbula, called seven witnesses.

The judge ruled on Thursday that the evidence tendered by the prosecution proved Mr Orya was guilty of all 49 counts.

NEXIM, a government-owned development financial institution established in 1991 to diversify Nigeria’s economy by promoting, financing, and supporting the non-oil export sector.

It provides export credit guarantees, insurance, and loans to small and medium enterprises, acting as a key policy bank for economic development.

The case involving Mr Orya highlights how officials have taken advantage of the noble goals of the establishment for personal gains.

Pre-trial battles

Allegations of compromised loan disbursement and procedural abuses sullied Mr Orya’s administration.

For instance, in 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) accused Mr Orya of corruption and fraud.

The CBN accused his administration of plotting the removal from office of its deputy governor in charge of the Economic Policy Directorate, Joseph Nnanna.

However, Mr Orya described the accusations of fraud in the disbursement of loans against him as “wild, inappropriate, unacceptable and untrue.”

In 2021, the High Court of Benue State awarded N50 million as damages against the NEXIM Bank over the unlawful arrest and detention of Mr Orya by the EFCC and the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

The court reprimanded the EFCC and the IGP “for turning themselves into tools of persecution in the hands of the NEXIM Bank authorities,” and ordered them to apologise to Mr Orya.

The court gave the judgement following a fundamental human rights suit Mr Orya filed against the EFCC, the IGP, NEXIM Bank, the State Security Service (SSS), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Mr Orya alleged that the EFCC arrested and detained him for four days before he was requested to continue to report daily and then weekly for the period covering 2016 to 2018.

Thereafter, in October 2017, the NEXIM Bank management wrote to the now defunct Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) and Mr Orya was apprehended and detained in Abuja for four days.

Mr Orya served as the managing director of NEXIM Bank between 2009 and 2016. The then-President Umaru Yar’Adua appointed him to the position for the first term of five years on 14 August 2009. Then-President Goodluck Jonathan reappointed him on 18 August 2014. But he did not complete the second term as he was removed from office amid myriads of allegations of fraudulent awards of NEXIM Bank’s loans.