By Emma Njoku
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, yesterday, told the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, how Mr Abubakar Ali Peter and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, allegedly obtained about N760 million from the Federal Government ‘by false pretences with forged documents’.
In a session which lasted over five hours, Bawa told Justice Sedotun Ogunsanya that the defendant was paid a subsidy of N1.4 billion by the Federal Government when he ought to have been paid about N600 million for the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, imported sometime in 2012.
Bawa, who tendered about seven documents as exhibits before the court to back up his claim, said the defendant claimed to have imported 12,000 metric tons of PMS, which is an equivalent of 16.8million litres, “while our investigation confirmed that only 6,000 metric tons were imported which is about 8 million litres.”
“He (Mr Abubakar Ali Peter) was paid about a subsidy of N1.4 billion, when ordinarily he ought to have been paid about N600 million. And, of course, that is what we are telling the court that he obtained, allegedly, by false pretences with forged documents, about N760 million.”
Bawa said his agency wrote to the Petroleum Products Price and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), asking them to re-compute the actual payment to the defendant and “they wrote back that the company was paid more than N1.4 billion when they should have been paid about N600m.”
The EFCC boss tendered documents on correspondences his agency had with Sky Bank, Enterprise Bank, Corporate Affairs Commission and Stacco Insurance Company, among others, which were all at variance with the documents the EFCC got from Nadabo Energy Limited for the fuel subsidy transactions.
The defence counsel, Osage Isiramen, raised objections to some of the documents tendered by the EFCC, which the anti-graft agency obtained from various bodies on the defendants’ transactions, but the judge overruled his objections and admitted the documents as exhibits.
Justice Ogunsanya adjourned the case till November 1, 2021, to enable the defence counsel study and respond to the documents tendered by the EFCC.