Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed thirteenth of February, next year for possible arraignment of the CEO, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.
Today’s arraignment could not go on as planned due to his absence in court.
The senator and his company, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, are to be arraigned on a four-count charge of fraud and misrepresentation of facts.
When the court opened for hearings, lawyer to the federal government, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, informed the court of a pending four-count charge against the defendants and urged the court to accept the same for the purposes of a plea.
Mr Ubah’s lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate, however, informed the court that his client had not been served with the charge.
Mr Agbakoba also told the court that a mediation move was ongoing to resolve the case out court since it is all about money.
But, Counsel to the second defendant, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ajibola Oluyede, told the court his client had been served and that is why they have filed a notice of preliminary objections challenging the competency of the charge.
Responding, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Adegoke, told the court that if the defendant was trying to avoid court proceedings, he would not hesitate to ask for an arrest warrant to enable the prosecution produce him in court.
Ruling on the issues raised, Justice Oweibo said that in as much as the prosecution had failed to produce the defendant in court, the case stood adjourned.
In the charges filed before the Federal High Court in Lagos, the prosecution said the N135bn emanated from a July 2013 consent judgment between Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited and AMCON but accused Ubah of frustrating AMCON’s efforts to recover the judgment debt.
The prosecution alleged that in a bid to defeat the realisation of the judgment credit, Ubah and Capital Oil “made false claims in relation to the actual values of certain assets transferred to AMCON under the consent judgment delivered in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/714/2012.”
