Fuel subsidy scam: Court strikes out case against 2 persons, companies

A Lagos High Court, on Tuesday, struck out the charges of fraud filed by the Eco-nomic and Financial Cri-mes Commission (EFCC) against two persons and two oil companies.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that defendants allegedly benefitted from the fuel subsidy scam.Justice Samuel Candide-Johnson struck out the case after the prosecution counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that he had instruction from the Attorney-General of the Federation to withdraw the charges.'The charges preferred against the defendants in this case were mis-construed. The evidence available to the prose-cution clearly shows that the defendants did not commit the offences for which they are charged,' Oyedepo said.The counsel also informed the court that the charges had not been served on the defence.In his ruling, Candide-Johnson held that at the instance of the prose-cution, the suit, dated July 20, 2012 was struck out.The Federal Government committee probing into the fuel subsidy scam had alleged that the defendants collected about N2.5 billion from the government as subsidy for the importation of petrol without supply-ing the fuel.The defendants, Duro-sola Omagbenigun and Peter Mba, Integrated Resources Ltd and Pinnacle Oil and Gas, allegedly claimed to have imported petrol from Europe.The government, in a four-count charge signed by Mrs Olabisi Fatunde, on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation, had said the accused committed the crime between 2010 and 2011.
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