The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, appeared before an Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Wednesday to give evidence in the N1.4 billion fraud trial involving an oil company, Nadabo Energy.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Saidu Ateh, Bawa analysed the email correspondences of the defendants and found out that contrary to their claim, “they took about 6m litres PMS from the mother vessel to their chartered vessel.”
Bawa said the email correspondences confirmed that the same quantity was discharged at Port Harcourt.
“In addition, the email also informed us that one Mr Jide Akpan was the agent of the vessel. We invited the said Akpan and during the course of our interrogation with him, he confirmed that the first defendant through the second defendant deferred the vessel and paid for it,” he said.
Before his appointment as EFCC chairman, Bawa appeared before the court as a prosecution witness last year.
The EFCC had accused Abubakar Ali Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy, of allegedly using forged documents to obtain N1,464,961,978.24 from the Federal Government as oil subsidy after allegedly inflating the quantity of premium motor spirit purportedly supplied.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the prosecution’s fraud charge.
Bawa in his previous testimony had told the court that based on investigation carried out on the defendant’s dealings with Staco Insurance Company, “the certificate of marine insurance used by the defendant for the transaction in question was forged”.
The matter was adjourned by Justice Balogun for continuation of trial.
