The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on (EFCC) Tuesday continued with its case against a group of eight men and their companies over alleged illegal Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) deal.
The accused are MT Good Success, Hepa Global Energy Limited, Adedamola Ogungbayi, Olaniran Olabode, Suraju Gasali, Moses Emmanuel, Wilson Bonsi, Padoun Jacob, Okaraodi Uche and Onyeogo Happy.
The EFCC alleged that the men and their companies dealt in about 1,459 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit without obtaining lawful authority.
According to the anti-graft commission, the offence was in violation of Sections 19(c) and 17 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap M17, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The accused persons were last Thursday re-arraigned before Justice Okon Abang on five counts in relation to the offence.
They had been admitted to bail in the sum of N5m each with two sureties each in like sum.
At the resumed trial on Tuesday, the EFCC presented its fifth witness, Mr. Olaofe John, a laboratory technician and an expert in petroleum products quality control.
John told the court that his company received two petroleum products samples, labelled A and B, from the EFCC on May 5, 2014, with a cover letter asking that the samples be analysed.
The witness told the court that his analysis revealed that the samples were genuine Premium Motor Spirit which passed the recommended quality tests.
The samples, the cover letter and John’s report submitted to the EFCC were admitted as exhibits by the court.
One of the earlier witnesses, Stanley Ambi, an auditor with SGS Inspection Services Limited, a company specialised in qualitative and quantitative inspection of petroleum products and oil vessels, had told the court that his company had no record of having carried out any inspection on the vessel named MT Success between January and March, 2014.
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