Mamman Ali, the son of former PDP National Chairman Ahmadu Ali, was re-arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday for alleged N2.2 billion oil subsidy fraud.
The younger Ali was re-arrested in front of an Ikeja Special Offences Court along with a man named Christian Taylor and a business called Nasaman Oil Services Ltd.
The defendants were charged with an amended 49-count offense that included forgery, the use of false documents, conspiracy to obtain money through false pretenses, and obtaining money through false pretenses.
However, they entered a not guilty plea to each charge.
After the defendants entered a plea, EFCC counsel Samuel Atteh asked the court for a trial date so that the prosecution could call witnesses and present the evidence it needed to prove its case.
Kolade Obafemi, the defense attorney, asked the judge to grant the defendants’ request to remain free on bail.
He said, “We beg your lordship’s indulgence that the defendants’ bail be permitted to continue.
However, the EFCC attorney claimed that the defendants’ appearance in court for a trial was crucial for the prosecution.
In order to protect our interest in having the defendants appear for trial, Mr. Atteh said, “We leave the decision regarding bail to the discretion of this honorable court.”
The defendants’ bail papers could not be immediately presented to the court by the defense attorney.
As a result, the judge ruled that the defendants must remain in EFCC custody while their formal bail application is made and the bail papers are presented.
Mr. Dada set a trial date of May 30 for the case.
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The defendants were first presented to Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo for arraignment.
However, Mr. Onigbanjo withdrew from the case due to health reasons, which led to Mr. Dada being given the case again.
In one of the counts, the EFCC claimed that the defendants had conspired to defraud the Federal Government of N750 million by misrepresenting a subsidy accruing to Nasaman Oil Services Ltd. under the Petroleum Support Fund for the importation of 10,031,986 liters of Premium Motor Spirit that Nasaman Oil Services Ltd. had claimed to have purchased from SEATAC Petroleum Ltd. of the British Virgin Islands and brought into Nigeria through MT Liquid Fortune.
According to the commission, the defendants were aware that the representation was untrue.
The commission claims that on November 9, 2011, in Ikeja, the defendants committed the crimes while two other people—Oluwaseun Ogunbambo and Olabisi Abdul-Afeez—were still at large.
Sections 1(3) and 81(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act of 2006, as well as Sections 363 (3)(1) and 264 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, are all violated by the alleged offenses.
