The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned four defendants for an alleged N2 billion oil fraud at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
According to a statement shared by EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale on Saturday, the accused appeared before a trial judge, Rahman Oshodi, on Friday.
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The defendants are Babatunde Olukunle Oyefolu, Babayemi Isaac Olatunde, Ezekiel Abaki, and Plural Oil Marketing Limited.
They face charges of conspiracy, theft, and possession of stolen property.
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“The defendants were arraigned on a four-count charge of alleged conspiracy, theft, and possession of stolen property involving 894,111 litres of base oil valued at N2,000,000,000 (Two Billion Naira),” he stated.
In one of the counts, EFCC stated that the defendants, “sometime in 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired among yourselves to unlawfully convert 894,111 litres of base oil, property in which Providus Bank holds a special interest.”
Another count alleged that they “dishonestly retained in Plural Oil Marketing Limited’s Keystone Bank account the sum of N2,000,000,000.00 (Two Billion Naira), being funds fraudulently converted.”
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The statement said all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following the plea, prosecution lawyer Z. B. Atiku requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the accused in a correctional facility pending trial.
But the defence lawyer, Suleiman Usman, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court that bail applications had been filed and served on the prosecution.
He urged the court to grant bail on liberal terms and undertook to ensure the defendants’ presence at all subsequent proceedings.
Bail granted
Mr Oshodi granted the defendants bail in the sum of N20 million each, with one surety.
In the ruling, the court held that the surety is required to provide evidence of means of livelihood.
The court also ordered the second defendant to deposit his passport, while the third defendant must submit a valid passport photograph and sign an undertaking not to travel outside Nigeria during the pendency of the trial.
The prosecution was directed to notify the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
The judge granted interim bail pending perfection of the bail conditions and directed the defendants to be produced in court on the next adjourned date.
The trial is scheduled to commence on 29 April.
Over the years, the EFCC, established in 2003 as a major anti-graft agencies responsible for investigating financial crimes, including fraud and money laundering, has prosecuted several high-value financial crimes.
Some of such cases include alleged N1.9 billion forex fraud and recovered $2 million in ongoing trials linked to a former Central Bank of Nigeria governor.
The EFCC has also handled large-scale oil and petroleum-related frauds, spotlighting the prevalence of economic crimes in the sector.
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