NAN
Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on Monday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of an oil marketer, Mr. Oluwaseun Ogunbambo.
The trial judge issued the warrant following the defendant’s continuous failure to appear in court for trial.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Ogunbambo for allegedly collecting N979.6m fuel subsidy without supplying the product.
Arraigned alongside Ogunbambo are Habila Theck and their company, Fargo Energy Limited.
They were arraigned on July 31, 2012 on a six-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretences, forgery and use of forged documents.
At the last adjourned date, the EFCC had accused Ogunbambo of using delay tactics to stall the commencement of his trial by pretending to be sick.
But counsel to the oil marketer, Mr. Mobolaji Akintunde, had then told the court that his client had sustained a spinal cord injury after falling from a bathtub.
Akintunde told the court that Ogunbambo was presently receiving treatment at the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
He presented a medical report signed by one retired Brigadier General J.A. Aremu, to back up his claim but Justice Onigbanjo ruled that the authenticity of the medical report should be verified.
At the resumed hearing on Monday, counsel to EFCC, Emmanuel Jackson, told the court that though the medical report had been verified to be authentic, but there was nothing in it to suggest that the oil marketer is not fit to continue with his trial.
