A Nigerian billionaire, Walter Wagbatsoma, has been
convicted of fraud by a Lagos court.
Adaoha Ugo-Nnadi, convicted alongside Mr.
Wagbatsoma for fuel subsidy fraud, fainted in the dock Friday as the judge
began to read the sentence for her conviction forcing the proceedings to be
rescheduled to Monday.
Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi, Mr. Wagbatsoma, and their company,
Ontario Oil and Gas, were convicted on an eight-count amended charge of fuel
subsidy fraud before the Ikeja Division of the Lagos High Court.
The minimum sentence for the crime is seven years
while the maximum is 20 years.
Mr. Wagbatsoma, the first convict, is currently
under house arrest in the United Kingdom where he is accused of money
laundering.
Justice Lateefat Okunnu, however, discharged and
acquitted the third defendant, Babafemi Fakuade, an employee of the Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.
“The case of the prosecution against the first,
second, and fourth defendants has been proved beyond reasonable doubt and they
are convicted on each of the eight counts,” the judge said.
As soon as Mrs. Okunnu returned after a 30-minute
recess to read her sentencing, Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi, who was seated in the dock,
collapsed in a heap leaving her relatives scrambling for water to resuscitate
her.
The judge directed that a
medical doctor be summoned and announced she would read her final judgment on
Monday.
The convict, crying and
retching on the floor inside the dock, was carried into her waiting Sports
Utility Vehicle, and rushed to a hospital.
It was a dramatic end to a
day that began with the suspects strolling around the courtroom in an ebullient
mood before the judge’s arrival around 9.20 a.m. Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi, decked in an
immaculate blue attire, slapped the arm of a friend telling her to “cheer up,”
and a few moments later laughed at a seemingly hilarious joke shared by her
lawyer.
The defendants were first
arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in 2012 for
fraud, forgery, and conspiracy amounting to N1.9 billion in the fuel subsidy
scheme.
They were later
re-arraigned in 2013 after the trial judge was elevated to the Court of Appeal,
and then again in 2016 on an eight-count amended charge.
They had pleaded not guilty
to all the charges.
SUBSIDY FRAUD
The judge said the
prosecution had accused Mr. Wagbatsoma, Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi, and Ontario Oil and Gas
of collecting N942 billion as subsidy payment instead of N602 million.
Mr. Wagbatsoma is the
chairman of the company while Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi is the managing director.
The judge also said the
prosecution gave evidence that the convicts discharged “a much lesser quantity”
of petrol in their transaction with the government and presented a forged shore
tank certificate.
“The fourth defendant
defrauded the federal government of N340 million,” she said.
A prosecution witness gave
evidence that, in the first transaction, Ontario Oil paid N37 million for 12
million litres of fuel in a throughput agreement with Integrated oil and Gas,
but later collected subsidy for 19 million litres.
In the second transaction,
the company collected subsidy for 19 million litres while they paid a
throughput agreement with Obat Oil worth N28 million for 10 million litres of
fuel.
“Both the first and second
defendants signed the cheque for the throughput agreement,” the judge quoted
the witness as saying.
Another prosecution
witness, Obinna Ukonu, a store officer at Integrated Oil and Gas, gave evidence
that Ontario brought in 12 million litres of fuel via a mother vessel, MT
Pacific, and then a daughter vessel, MT Union Brave. The same quantity was
“trucked out” by the company.
“I find that there is
credible, concrete evidence that the quantity of petrol discharged was 12
million litres,” said the judge.
“Evidence by the
prosecution is that the product was discharged into one tank which cannot
contain more than 16.5 million litres because of an inbuilt floating roof that
takes about two million litres.”
An exhibit that the judge
described as “very damaging” to the defendants’ case was Exhibit D1, a
calibrated report which showed that the tank in question cannot contain more
than 18 million litres of fuel.
CONVICTED IN
ABSENTIA
In 2012, when the convicts
were first arraigned, Mr. Wagbatsoma was absent.
Rotimi Jacobs, the EFCC
counsel, told the then judge, Habeeb Abiru, that he had fled to the U.S. to
avoid trial.
When he eventually returned
to face trial, the judge imposed a N450 million bail on him.
In July last year, despite
the court holding his international passport and other travel documents, Mr.
Wagbatsoma was arrested in Germany and extradited to the UK to face money
laundering charges.
He is currently under house
arrest in the UK.
On Friday, the judge said
Mr. Wagbatsoma during his testimony tried to distance himself from the running
of Ontario Oil and Gas.
“The first defendant while
testifying laboured to convince the court that he was not involved in the day
to day running of the fourth defendant, but he signs the cheques,” Mrs. Okunnu
said.
“He is of sound, literate
mind. Over and over again, he informed the court he sits on the board of 27
companies. He knew what he was doing when he signed those cheques, and there is
evidence that he used the money from the subsidy payment.”
For Mrs. Ugo-Nnadi, the
judge described her as the “operating mind and the alter ego” of the company.
“She had full knowledge of
the entire exercise.”
The judge also said she had
no doubt that the company forged shore tank certificate, used for the subsidy
payment.
“I find the first, second,
and fourth defendants guilty of forgery. All three of them conspired as there
was a meeting of minds,” she said.
The case against Mr.
Fakuade, who was discharged and acquitted, was that he signed and embossed the
PPPRA stamp on a forged document, the judge said.
“There is nothing that
shows that he was aware of the real document that showed the actual amount of
fuel discharged. It was simply gross negligence on his part.”
BEG FOR MERCY
Before she began reading
the sentencing for the crimes, the defence lawyers said they would make a “plea
allocotus” – to beg the judge to temper justice with mercy.
The lawyer said Mrs.
Ugo-Nnadi had been having “very serious health challenges” but has managed to
be attending all the trial proceedings.
“It is our humble plea that
a custodial sentence will do serious damage to her health as a result of the
crowding in the prison and three or four doctors to hundreds of inmates,” the
lawyer said.
He said his client is a
mother of “very young children” and a prison stay would deprive her children of
her “mother and father” roles.
He also said the
embarrassment and loss of businesses the second defendant had suffered is
enough restitution for her crime.
“The second defendant
throughout the trial has suffered psychologically. She has been the butt of
publications online, written press, television. She has suffered so much.”
But Mr. Jacobs said
anything short of sending the convict to prison would make a mockery of the
fight against corruption.
“It will send a wrong
signal that custodial sentence is the preserve of the poor and the rich cannot
go to jail,” said Mr. Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria.
“The purpose of our
criminal law is to ensure that those who contravene the law do not escape the
consequences of the law.”
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