Court Adjourns Nadabo Energy Boss’ Trial In Alleged N1.4bn Oil Fraud
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Justice Christopher Balogun of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has adjourned further hearing in the trial of the Chairman of Nadabo Energy Limited, Abubakar Peters.
The Head of Media and Publicity at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.
Peters, alongside his company, Nababo Energy Limited, were arraigned on December 10, 2012, for offences bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, forgery, and use of forged documents to the tune of N1,464,961,978.24.
The defendant allegedly obtained the money from the Federal Government by falsely claiming that it represented the subsidy accrued to them, the EFCC spokesman said.
They have, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
The case has suffered several adjournments since it began before the trial judge then at the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere on November 26, 2020.
At the resumed hearing of the case, the prosecution counsel, S.K. Atteh, could not continue with the examination of the fifth prosecution witness (PW5), Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the trial judge informed that he had a seminar to attend.
This led to the adjournment of the case until December 7, 2020.
When the case was called up at about 11:12am on Monday, it was stood down by the trial judge till 12:30pm.
After the court resumed sitting at about 1:30pm, Atteh announced his appearance for the prosecution and Kabeer Osunkunle for the defendants.
Bawa, who is the EFCC investigating officer of the case, entered the dock to continue with his examination-in-chief during which the prosecution requested some exhibits from the court.
The trial judge, who noted that in the aftermath of all that happened to courts at the Igbosere division, where many courts and documents were burnt during the EndSARS protests, said, “We secured exhibits very well because of the fire incident.”
The judge, thereafter, stood the case down and ordered one of the court officials to get the exhibits requested by the prosecution.
He later adjourned until December 8 and 9 in order to allow for the exhibits to be fetched out by court officials for the continuation of the trial.
“The trial has taken too long already,” Justice Balogun said.