Court Convicts Oil Marketer For N81.2m Fraud

Justice Raliat Adebiyi of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced a petroleum marketer, Julian Ndubueze Ezeji and her company, Initial Energy Service Limited to 20 months imprisonment over fraud.

Justice Adebiyi convicted the defendant and his company after she found them guilty of a 14-count charge of criminal conversion and theft brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The anti-graft agency had arraigned the convict for swindling one Onyeka Okoye of the sum of  N81,250,000 in a phoney oil transaction.

The EFCC had told the court during the trial that the convict dishonestly converted to their personal use, several sums of monies belonging to their victims, Onyeka Okoye and Chikatina Petroleum Nigeria Limited, being payment for 574,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).

The commission had also informed the court that the convict fraudulently presented himself as a petroleum dealer and approached Okoye to supply his company petroleum products with a promise to remit the money into the complainant’s company account, he, however, failed to honour the promise

Their offence is contrary to section 285(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.