Solamon Alternative Energy - WorldStage News | Fuel subsidy fraud: Court refuses young Tukur

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Solamon Alternative Energy
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Subsidy scam trial court grants bail to suspect

• One of the suspects of fuel subsidy fraud,
  Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, who was earlier denied bail
  due to his history of unresolved criminal
  allegations and multiplicity of identity, on
  Monday regained his freedom before another judge
  of a Lagos High Court.

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• This came after the Economic and Financial Crimes
  Commission (EFCC) filed separate charges of
  banking fraud against him.
• The accused allegedly obtained separate loans of
  N230 million and N430 million from Stanbic IBTC
  Plc in 2010 with forged documents.

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• Oluwaseun ogunbambo, One of the Fuel Subsidy scam
  suspect (2nd right) and Economic and financial
  Crimes Commission's officials during the
  arraignments of the suspect at Ikeja High court,
  Lagos by the EFCC

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• Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo had on August 1 denied
  Mr Ogunbambo bail after he was arraigned along
  with Habila Theck and their firm, Fargo Energy
  Limited, on six counts of fraudulently collecting
  N976.6m from the Federal Government purportedly
  as payment for subsidy on importation of petrol.

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• While Mr Theck was granted bail, Mr Ogunbambos
  bail application was refused.
• The accused however was on August 19, released on
  bail by Justice Lateefat Folami, a vacation
  judge, who the accused turned to during the
  original judges annual vacation.
• Mr Ogunbambo had asked Justice Folami for bail on
  the grounds of health. The judge had granted the
  bail despite admitting that his grounds of ill
  health were unmeritorious.

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• Justice Onigbanjo had ordered that Mr Ogumbambo
  be remanded in Ikoyi Prisons, saying his
  multiple identities and his propensity to get
  multiple passports each time one was seized,
  were weighty enough to warrant the denial of the
  bail.
• The judge also refused the bail application on
  the grounds of the accused persons previous and
  unresolved criminal allegations.

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• Rather than granting bail, Justice Onigbanjo
  granted an accelerated hearing of the trial,
  saying the suspects criminal history had cast a
  huge question and doubt on his claim that he
  would not take flight and be available to
  attend trial.
• Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, had earlier
  told the court about the difficulty encountered
  by the commission in arresting Mr Onigbanjo and
  charging him to court.

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• Mr Jacobs said Nigerian and British passports
  were seized from him in 2010 when he was granted
  administrative bail during his investigation for
  the alleged banking fraud.
• He was invited and released on bail but jumped
  bail and that has stalled the trial since 2010,
  he said.He added that despite the seizure of his
  passports, Mr Ogunbambo was found to still be
  travelling abroad.
• The EFCC lawyer had said, Even if he deposits a
  passport with this court, this will not guarantee
  his presence because he will go and get another
  one.

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• He uses different names and changes names as he
  likes.
• In the UK passport his name is Benson Oladayo
  Adetokunbo Shobowale. But in this case, he is
  Oluwaseun Ogunbambo.
• Apart from using forged documents to obtain loans
  from the Stanbic Bank, Mr Ogunbambo was also said
  to have been caught with cash at an Irish
  airport, a matter which he said was still under
  investigation.