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| Walter Wagbatsoma |
The bid by oil marketer Walter Wagbatsoma to extricate himself from the N1.9 billion subsidy fraud brought against him and others by the EFCC suffered setback on Friday October 10, 2014.
An Ikeja High Court presided over by Justice Lateefat Okunnu dismissed application of no case submission by Wagbatsoma maintaining there are clear cut evidence to nail him and others.
Out of the four accused in the fraud only Ezekiel Ejidele, an Accountant with Akintola Williams Delloite was discharged by the court because there was no evidence linking him to the economic crime. Justice Lateefat Okunnu discharged Ejidele, after upholding his no-case submission application.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ejidele was charged alongside Walter Wagbatsoma, Adaoha Ugo-Ndagi and Fakuade Babafemi, a staff of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA).
They are facing a nine-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining property by false pretences, forgery and uttering.
The defendants had all filed their respective no-case submission applications, urging the court to discharge them.
But in her ruling, Okunnu held that the prosecution had not been able to provide sufficient evidence linking Ejidele to the alleged offences. The judge said:” In my humble view, there is no evidence linking the fourth defendant (Ejidele) to the crime. “I hereby uphold his no-case submission and he is accordingly discharged.”
Okunnu, however, dismissed the applications of the other defendants, (Walter Wagbatsoma, Adaoha Ugo-Ndagi and Fakuade Babafemi) adding that sufficient evidence had been established against them. She said the EFCC had alleged that the marketers imported 12.4 million litres and 10 million litres of petrol (PMS) in two transactions between July and November 2010.
The judge said the prosecution claimed that they had received subsidy payment for 19 million litres and 15 million litres respectively by forging the shore tank certificate.
Okunnu noted that Babafemi, who was supposed to oversee the discharge of the product, failed to do so but later signed the said certificate used for the alleged fraud.
The judge also held that the court had jurisdiction to entertain the case contrary to the argument by the defendants’ counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).
“The applications of the other defendants are hereby dismissed. I hereby call upon them to present their defence. The case was adjourned to November 26, 2014 for the defendants to open their defence.
Source: The Capital
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