Wanted oil marketer’s lawyer tackles EFCC

Posted by admin EFCC Politics, Headlines, Oil Politics Friday, August 9th, 2013

A legal practitioner, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, who is a counsel for a subsidy fraud suspect, Mr. Seun Ogunbambo, on Thursday, described the declaration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Ogunbambo as a wanted person as unconstitutional.

Oluyede said in a statement that there was no basis for declaring his client wanted because there was no valid bench warrant issued by the Lagos High Court, in Ikeja, where the accused was being tried.

The EFCC, through its Head, Media Unit, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, had on Tuesday declared wanted Ogunbambo and Habila Theck, who are both standing trial along with their firm, Fargo Petroleum and Gas Limited, respectively for N976.6m fuel subsidy fraud.

Uwajaren had said the need to declare both men wanted arose when the EFCC was unable to execute a bench warrant issued on them by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo on June 25, 2013 when they failed to attend their trial.

But Oluyede said on Thursday that the bench warrant issued by the judge was not signed.

He said, “Therefore, in the absence of a valid warrant from the trial court EFCC has no basis to declare Seun Ogunbambo and Habila Theck, wanted. The warrant, even if signed, after our motion to set aside the order had been filed and served, would be invalid.”

The lawyer said declaring the two men wanted “has occasioned distress and business loss to our clients”.

He said, “This has occasioned distress and business loss to our clients. It is now obvious that EFCC is persecuting Seun Ogunbambo and not prosecuting him.

“The EFCC has no justifiable reason or authority to declare them wanted.

“EFCC is playing media and branding games with the livelihood of innocent Nigerians as if completely oblivious of the constitutional provision, in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, to the effect that everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty.”

Apart from the alleged N976.6m fuel subsidy fraud, Ogunbambo is facing separate charges of about N4.46bn fuel subsidy fraud alongside Mamman, son of former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmadu Ali; and Christian Taylor, before Justice Onigbanjo.

He and his firm, Adeline Investment, are also facing separate N430m bank fraud charges before another judge, Justice Olabisi Akinlade, of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja.

Both Justices Onigbanjo and Akinlade had separately denied bail to Ogunbambo, but the Court of Appeal, Lagos reversed their decisions earlier in the year.

On February 14, 2013, Onigbanjo had granted an ex-parte application filed by the EFCC, ordering that the accused person’s assets be frozen pending the completion of his trial.

-Punchwp_posts