Court Refuses Capital Oil Boss, Others Bail

Ubah

The detained Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi Ubah, and four principal officers of his company monday suffered a setback in their bid to regain freedom.

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Lagos, refused their ex-parte application in which they sought to be released by the police.

Also detained are Nsikan Usoro (Head of Trading), Godfrey Okorie (Depot Manager), Chibuzor Ogbuokiri (General Manager, Operations) and Orji Joseph Anayo (Executive Director, Operations).

They were arrested on October 9 by men of the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the police for allegedly defrauding the country of N43.291 billion through the fuel subsidy scheme.

Last Thursday, a Magistrate’s Court in Tinubu, Lagos, presided over by Magistrate Martins Omowunmi, granted a request for remand, which was brought pursuant to Section 264 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos by the police, and ordered that they be kept in police custody for 14 days.

The police said they were being investigated for offences bordering on economic sabotage, obtaining money by false pretences and stealing.

They were accused of defrauding the Federal Government of the said sum “by falsely pretending that the company had imported and sold 53,874 million litres of petrol during the 2011 fiscal year through 26 transactions”.

Monday, their lawyer, Joseph Nwobike (SAN), argued the ex-parte application with which he sought their release pending the determination of the substantive suit challenging their continued detention.

Listed as respondents in the application were the Inspector General of Police (IG), Commissioner of Police, SFU, and Francis Idu Alonyenu (a Chief Superintendent of Police).

The application marked: FHC/C/CS/1203/2012 contained two prayers.

The first was for an order directing the respondents to admit the applicants to bail or release them from detention pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The second was for an order of interim injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from further arresting and detaining the applicants in relation to the same fuel subsidy issue pending the determination of the substantive suit.