Anambra Court Jails Orient Petroleum MD, Two Others 14 Years Over N25billion Fraud
Anambra Court Jails Orient Petroleum MD, Two Others 14 Years Over N25billion Fraud
The defendants were jailed after being found guilty on a 10-count charge bordering on stealing, conversion and gratification.
The Anambra State High Court sitting in Awka has convicted and sentenced the Managing Director of Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, Engineer Nnaemeka Nwawka, alongside Jude Anniekwe Cyril and the Registered Trustees of Sage Nebefeife Foundation, to 14 years’ imprisonment each for fraud involving N25 billion.
They were found guilty by the presiding judge Justice O. M. Anyachebelu.
The defendants were jailed after being found guilty on a 10-count charge bordering on stealing, conversion and gratification.
Count one of the charges reads: “That you Nnaemeka Nwawka, Jude Anniekwe Cyril and the Registered Trustees of Sage Nebeife Foundation sometimes between 23rd April to 21st December, 2012 in Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court fraudulently converted to your personal use the aggregate sum of N82,856,934 (Eighty Two Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty Six Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty Four Naira) only which sum was transferred from Vhelbherg International Limited company account domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank account No. 0000777216 into the account of Sage Nebeife Foundation domiciled in First Bank account No. 2017452111.”
Count two reads: “That you Nnaemeka Nwawka, Jude Anniekwe Cyril and the Registered Trustees of Sage Nebeife Foundation sometimes between 8th January to 24th May, 2013 in Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court fraudulently converted to your personal use the aggregate sum of N29,620,733 (Twenty Nine Million, Six Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty Three Naira) only which sum was transferred from Vhelbherg International Limited company account domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank account No. 0000777216 into the account of Sage Nebeife Foundation domiciled in First Bank account No. 2017452111”.
The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them, prompting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through its counsel, Victor Ukagwu, to proceed to full trial. The trial lasted 10 years, during which the prosecution called four witnesses and tendered several documentary exhibits marked P1 to P24.
According to evidence presented before the court, Nwawka allegedly ensured that contracts were awarded to companies linked to his associates from Orient Petroleum Resources Plc. The prosecution told the court that payments were made to those companies and that the funds were later channelled back to him through Sage Nebefeife Foundation, after which he allegedly withdrew the monies for personal use.
Counsel to the first and third defendants, U. N. Udechukwu, SAN, and counsel to the second defendant, E. S. C. Obiora, SAN, represented their clients and offered defences regarding how the contracts were awarded and executed. However, Justice Anyachebelu held that the prosecution had established its case beyond reasonable doubt.
In his judgment, the court convicted and sentenced Nwawka and his Foundation to 14 years’ imprisonment.
The court also ordered the convict and his Foundation to refund the sum of N140,900,000 (One Hundred and Forty Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) to Orient Petroleum Resources Plc.
The case originated from a petition submitted to the EFCC by an investor in the company, Chief Cletus Ibeto, who alleged that he invested N25 billion in Orient Petroleum Resources Plc.
He claimed that Nwawka, through the award of suspicious and bogus contracts to companies linked to his associates, siphoned a substantial part of the investment funds and routed them back through Sage Nebefeife Foundation.
With the conviction and sentencing, the court has brought to a close a decade-long prosecution centred on allegations of financial misconduct and diversion of company funds running into billions of naira.
