Justice Latifat Okunnu of the State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced two oil marketers – George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah, owners of Rocky Energy Limited to eight years imprisonment on a 26-count amended charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery to the tune of N789.6million.<\/p>\n
The convicts were prosecuted alongside one Adamu Maula, owner of Downstream Energy Sources Limited, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.<\/p>\n
They were said to have imported 10, 862 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, for which they were paid the sum of money by the Petroleum Support Fund, PSF.<\/p>\n
However, investigation revealed that the documents used by the defendants were forged<\/p>\n
Counsels to the defendants, in separate no-case submissions, had urged the court to dismiss the charge against their clients for lack of merit.<\/p>\n
However, in the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, presented 11 witnesses, including Abdulrasheed Bawa, an investigator with the EFCC, and tendered documents in evidence.<\/p>\n
In his judgment on January 26, Justice Okunnu found Ogbonna and Morah guilty and sentenced them to eight years imprisonment each.<\/p>\n
The judge ordered the convicts to return the money they fraudulently collected to the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
Maula and his company, Downstream Energy Sources Limited, were, however, discharged and acquitted by the court.<\/p>\n
In his reaction to the judgment, Jacobs thanked the court for allowing justice to prevail during course of the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justice Latifat Okunnu of the State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced two oil marketers – George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah, owners of Rocky Energy Limited to eight years imprisonment on a 26-count amended charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery to the tune of N789.6million. The convicts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42060,17,7829,13300,42061],"yoast_head":"\n