2. Subsidy scam trial: court
grants bail to suspect
• One of the suspects of fuel subsidy
fraud, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, who was
earlier denied bail due to his history of
unresolved criminal allegations and
multiplicity of identity, on Monday
regained his freedom before another
judge of a Lagos High Court.
3. • This came after the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed
separate charges of banking fraud against
him.
• The accused allegedly obtained separate
loans of N230 million and N430 million from
Stanbic IBTC Plc in 2010 with forged
documents.
4. Oluwaseun ogunbambo, One of the Fuel Subsidy scam suspect
(2nd right) and Economic and financial Crimes Commission's
officials during the arraignments of the suspect at Ikeja High court,
Lagos by the EFCC
5. • Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo had on August 1
denied Mr Ogunbambo bail after he was
arraigned along with Habila Theck and their
firm, Fargo Energy Limited, on six counts of
fraudulently collecting N976.6m from the
Federal Government purportedly as
payment for subsidy on importation of
petrol.
6. • While Mr Theck was granted bail, Mr
Ogunbambo’s bail application was refused.
• The accused however was on August 19,
released on bail by Justice Lateefat Folami,
a vacation judge, who the accused turned
to during the original judges’ annual
vacation.
• Mr Ogunbambo had asked Justice Folami
for bail on the grounds of health. The judge
had granted the bail despite admitting that
his grounds of ill health were
“unmeritorious”.
7. • Justice Onigbanjo had ordered that Mr
Ogumbambo be remanded in Ikoyi Prisons,
saying “his multiple identities and his
propensity to get multiple passports each
time one was seized,” were weighty
enough to warrant the denial of the bail.
• The judge also refused the bail application
on the grounds of the accused person’s
“previous and unresolved criminal
allegations”.
8. • Rather than granting bail, Justice
Onigbanjo granted an accelerated hearing
of the trial, saying the suspect’s criminal
history had “cast a huge question” and
doubt on his claim that he would not “take
flight” and be available to attend trial.
• Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, had
earlier told the court about the difficulty
encountered by the commission in arresting
Mr Onigbanjo and charging him to court.
9. • Mr Jacobs said Nigerian and British passports
were seized from him in 2010 when he was
granted administrative bail during his
investigation for the alleged banking fraud.
• “He was invited and released on bail but jumped
bail and that has stalled the trial since 2010,” he
said.
He added that despite the seizure of his
passports, Mr Ogunbambo was found to still be
travelling abroad.
• The EFCC lawyer had said, “Even if he deposits
a passport with this court, this will not guarantee
his presence because he will go and get another
one.
10. • “He uses different names and changes
names as he likes.
• “In the UK passport his name is Benson
Oladayo Adetokunbo Shobowale. But in
this case, he is Oluwaseun Ogunbambo.”
• Apart from using forged documents to
obtain loans from the Stanbic Bank, Mr
Ogunbambo was also said to have been
caught with cash at an Irish airport, a
matter which he said was still under
investigation.
