EFCC opposes oil marketer’s bid to quash N967.6m fuel subsidy fraud charge

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday opposed an application by an oil marketer, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, seeking to quash a fraud charge preferred against him.
The anti-graft agency made the objection in a counter-affidavit filed by its counsel, Francis Usani, before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of an Ikeja High Court.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ogunbambo was charged with N976.6 million fuel subsidy fraud.
The EFCC is prosecuting him alongside one Habila Theck and a firm, Fargo Petroleum and Gas Limited.
The accused persons are facing a 10-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretences, forgery, uttering and use of forged documents.
In the 32-paragraph counter-affidavit, Usani urged the court to dismiss Ogunbambo’s application.
He said that the EFCC carried out a thorough investigation before preferring the charge.
Usani said: “The application is a ploy to waste the time of the court and to frustrate effective prosecution of this case.
“The trial of the accused persons has commenced, and the prosecution has called three witnesses and still has more to call.”
He said that issues raised in the application could be tried and determined in the course of the trial.
“The application is frivolous. It will be in the interest of justice that it is dismissed,” Usani added.
Ogunbambo had in the application filed by his counsel, Chief Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, urged the court to quash the charge against him.
He challenged both the competence of the charge and the court’s jurisdiction to entertain it.
NAN reports that the court has not fixed any date for ruling on the application.
However, it adjourned the substantive trial till October 22.