Oil magnate Babatunde Olukunle Oyefolu and his company, Plural Oil Marketing Limited, have been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged N2 billion fraud at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
Other directors of the company facing prosecution by the anti-graft agency are Babayemi Isaac Olatunde and Ezekiel Abaki.
In a statement issued on Saturday, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale said the defendants were brought before trial judge Rahman Oshodi on Friday.
The accused persons are facing charges bordering on conspiracy, theft, and possession of stolen property.
“The defendants – Plural Oil Marketing Limited, Babatunde Olukunle Oyefolu, Babayemi Isaac Olatunde and Ezekiel Abaki were arraigned on a four-count charge of alleged conspiracy, theft, and possession of stolen property involving 894,111 litres of base oil valued at N2,000,000,000 (Two Billion Naira),” he stated.
In one of the counts, the EFCC alleged that the defendants, “sometime in 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired among yourselves to unlawfully convert 894,111 litres of base oil, property in which Providus Bank holds a special interest.”
Another count further accused them of having “dishonestly retained in Plural Oil Marketing Limited’s Keystone Bank account the sum of N2,000,000,000.00 (Two Billion Naira), being funds fraudulently converted.”
According to the statement, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following their plea, the prosecution counsel, Z. B. Atiku, asked the court to fix a trial date and requested that the defendants be remanded in a correctional facility pending the commencement of trial.
However, the defence counsel, Suleiman Usman, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court that bail applications had already been filed and served on the prosecution.
He urged the court to grant bail on liberal terms and assured the court that the defendants would be present at all subsequent proceedings.
In his ruling, Mr Oshodi granted the defendants bail in the sum of N20 million each with one surety.
The court stated that the surety must provide proof of means of livelihood.
It also directed the second defendant to deposit his passport, while the third defendant was ordered to submit a valid passport photograph and sign an undertaking not to travel outside Nigeria while the trial is ongoing.
The prosecution was also instructed to notify the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
The judge granted interim bail pending the fulfilment of the bail conditions and ordered that the defendants be produced in court on the next adjourned date.
The trial has been scheduled to begin on 29 April.