People were left in a state of shock at a court after a suspected oil thief fainted while on the accused box.
A suspect
The ongoing trial of a suspected oil fraudster, Ogbor Elliot, Managing Director, Danium Energy Services Limited, before Justice M. S. Hassan of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, could not continue today, as the suspect passed out while in the accused box.
The suspect had, on October 13, 2017, ‘fainted’ before a former trial judge, Justice O. Oguntoyinbo, who had to return the case file to the Chief Judge after he was accused of bias by the suspect.
During today’s sitting, the suspect fainted just as the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, presented a witness, Okechukwu Akugbe, an investigator with the EFCC, to give further evidence.
The judge then ordered first aid treatment to be administered on the suspect in court and adjourned to Wednesday, February 7, 2018 for continuation of trial.
Eliot is standing trial alongside Godwin Okoronkwo, Managing Director, Petrosol Energy Limited, on 10-count charge bordering on obtaining under false pretense, conspiracy and forgery to the tune of N7, 300,000,000(Seven Billion, Three hundred Million Naira).
The suspects, who are members of a syndicate of fraudsters, were arrested following a complaint received by the Commission from one Eddy Henshaw, an employee of Fidelity Bank Plc., on March 17, 2017.
The complainant, Henshaw, alleged that sometime between January and February, 2017, Danium Energy Services Limited, one of the bank’s customers that enjoy credit facilities, approached the bank to finance three different Purchase Orders for the sale of Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, to Total Nigeria Plc, with a cumulative value of N12, 134, 700,000(Twelve Billion One Hundred and Thirty-four Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira).
Henshaw further alleged that the bank financed two of the Purchase Orders for the sum of N4, 103, 100, 000.00 and N4, 015,800,000.009 respectively, after allegedly receiving confirmation from Total Nigeria Plc.
However, the purchase orders were discovered to have been forged when the bank approached Total Nigeria Plc for payment 21 days after financing the transaction.