An Ikeja Special Offences Court has sentenced a retired Navy Captain, Jerry Ogbonna, to 13 years imprisonment for stealing and obtaining N45 million by false pretence.
Justice Mojisola Dada also convicted Ogbonna’s company, Obyke System Consult Ltd, of the same offence and fined it the sum of N5million.
The judge further ordered both defendants to restitute the N45m to its owner, Diamond Bank Plc.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), counsel, Mr Franklin Ofoma told the court that Ogbonna and Obyke System Consult obtained the N45m from Diamond Bank Plc by falsely presenting to the bank that the money was mobilisation fee from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The duo previously appeared before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Lagos State High Court in 2016, but the case was struck out after several failed attempts to have him take his plea.
The matter was subsequently re-assigned to Justice Dada where they were arraigned on April 19, 2018 on a five-count charge, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Following a seven-year trial on charge ID/867C/14 the court delivered judgment on September 29, 2021.
In the course of the trial, the court heard that the N45m was, in March 2012, mistakenly paid into Ogbonna’s Diamond Bank Account by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), rather than into his Fidelity Bank.
The defendants withdrew same and failed to return it.
The judge upheld Ofoma’s contention that the defendants’ conduct violated the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and the Dishonoured Cheque (Offences) Act, 2004.
Justice Dada held: “The defendants knew or ought to have known of the falsity of the payment via Diamond Bank PLC and did not believe its truthfulness. All the arguments that the defendants were still being sold by the DPR hold more water. This is just a mere subterfuge to becloud the real issues at stake. But of course Justice cannot be rude or side-tracked.
“The issue is not whether the DPR was owing the defendants but that the defendants took N45m from Diamond Bank that was not meant to have been taken and have refused or neglected to pay back.”
The judge added: “The first defendant is hereby sentenced to three years imprisonment on count 1, seven years imprisonment on count 2 and two years’ imprisonment on count 5.
“All counts shall however run concurrently from today minus the period he had already spent in custody before he was released on bail.
“The second defendant on the other hand is hereby fined the sum of N5m on count five to be paid to the coffers of this court within 30 days of this judgment failing which its license shall be revoked and its operations shut down.
“The defendants are a forti ori hereby ordered to restitute the sum of N45m, property of Diamond Bank Plc fraudulently obtained back and the prosecution is hereby enjoined to employ all legal means within its power to ensure compliance.
“This is the judgment of the court.”
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