Court Strikes Out N135bn Debt Case Against Ifeanyi Ubah

Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has struck out the charge filed against Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Uba and his company, Capital Oil and Gas Limited by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) over an alleged N135 billion debt.

Justice Oweibo threw out the eight-count charge of making false claims, obstruction and lying after the counsel to AMCON, Oluwaseun Onabowu withdrew it.

Onabown told the judge that the party had reached an out-of-court settlement on the contentious issues in the matter.

Ubah, who represents Anambra South senatorial district, was accused of conspiring to make false claims about the actual values of certain assets transferred to AMCON under a consent judgment obtained in 2012 contrary to Section 54(1) of the AMCON Act.

Ubah and his firm were also alleged to have obstructed AMCON from implementing the AMCON Act in realising part of his alleged outstanding debt of N135 Billion by frustrating the sale of a property at Banana Island, Lagos.

He had failed to appear before the court since the charge was instituted against him in 2019.

The court, at its last sitting, had directed that criminal summons be issued to the Senator and his company to compel them to attend court yesterday.

Although he failed to appear in court; he was, however, represented by his lawyer.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, Onabown informed the court that based on consent Judgments reached in other sister cases in Abuja, he urged the court to strike out the charge filed against the defendants.

Also, counsel to the defendants, Mrs Ifeoma Esom, told the court that an agreement had been reached with the complaint.

Consequently, Justice Oweibo in a bench ruling struck out the the change.