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A witness yesterday told an Ikeja High Court in Lagos how the N1.2 billion subsidy fraud allegedly committed by the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of A.B.S. Investment Company Limited, Bamidele Aro, and his company was detected.
The defendants, Aro and Abiodun Bankole, as well as their company, A.B.S. Investment Company Limited, were arraigned by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on October 5 last year before Justice Lateefat Okunnu on an 18-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false
pretence and forgery. Lawal Ahmed, a detective with the EFCC, told the court that the defendants forged documents to claim N1.2 billion for oil subsidy without discharging 15,000 metric tonnes as claimed.
The witness, who was led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said investigation showed that haulage report that claimed 15,000 metric tonnes of petrol emanated from Societal General Company in Paris was false.
He told the court that the petroleum product actually emanated from Noble Clean Fuel Limited as against Societal General Company in the document presented to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, to claim subsidy fund.
The witness said investigators detected that the discharge date the petroleum product was said to have been discharged was also forged. Ahmed also said the ship-to-ship transfer said to have been administered by Quality Marine Services was altered, adding that there was no record of such transaction upon investigation.
He said: “The documents for subsidy claim submitted to PPPRA and used in collecting subsidy claims by the defendants were forged.”
The witness added that the product was not imported because there was no ship-to-ship transfer at all while the forged documents were also used to claim subsidy fund. Okunnu adjourned the matter to June 6 for further cross examination.
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