FUEL SUBSIDY SCAM: Court jails company MD 10yrs

The managing director, Ontario Oil and Gas Limited, Mrs. Ada Ugo-Nnadi was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail for her role in the fuel subsidy scam to the time of N754m.

Justice Lateefa Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja who passed the sentence also ordered the company to refund N754m to the Federal Government.

The sentence is to begin reading from January 13, 2017, when she and other in the case were pronounced guilty and convicted.

Others also sentenced along with her include Walter Wagbatsoma who is the chairman of the company who were charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on eight counts of fraud.

Justice Okunnu had to delay sentencing after they were convicted in January 13, 2017 as Ugo-Ngali collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital from the courtroom.

The trial judge who rejected the plea of Mr Edoka Onyeka, the defense counsel, for a non-custodian sentence in view of his client’s health, said, “I have considered the plea of the defence counsel for non-custodian sentence of the 2nd defendant. I have to say that the request to grant a non-custodian sentence must be rejected and I can only exercise my discretion on the length of time the convict will spend in prison”.

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She pronounced a cumulative jail term of 69 years for the convicts, but which would run concurrently for only 10 years.

Wagbatsoma however, is said to be currently under house arrest in the United Kingdom, for allegations that he laundered about £12m of the National Health Service Trust.

On their first appearance in court, on August 1, 2013, both convicts were accused by the EFCC of having defrauded the federal government of N1.9 billion collected for purportedly importing Premium Motor Spirit into the country.

Justice Okunnu held that, “According to a forensic audit by Akintola Williams Delloitte, the defendants did not remit an excess of N754m to the Federal Government.

“The first defendant knowingly received the sum in excess of what the fourth defendant (Ontario Oil and Gas Limited) was entitled to”.

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