The Federal High Court in Lagos State has further adjourned till April 2, the arraignment of Ifeanyi Ubah and his Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited over an indebtedness of N135bn to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.
The scheduled arraignment before Justice Nicholas Oweibo could not go on as Ubah was absent from court.
Counsel for the Federal Government, Kunle Adegoke, told the judge that the prosecution was having difficulty serving the charge sheet on Ubah, alleging that the businessman was evading service.
Adegoke applied for a court order to serve the charge sheet on Ubah, through his lawyer, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN.
Justice Oweibo granted the prayer and adjourned till April 2 for Ubah’s arraignment.
In the charges, the prosecution said the N135bn emanated from a July 2013 consent judgment between Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited and AMCON but accused Ubah of frustrating AMCON’s efforts to recover the judgment debt.
The prosecution alleged that in a bid to defeat the realisation of the judgment creditor, Ubah and Capital Oil “made false claims in relation to the actual values of certain assets transferred to AMCON under the consent judgment delivered in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/714/2012.”
The prosecution alleged that they “did obstruct the implementation of the provisions of the AMCON Act vis-a-vis the realisation of part of your outstanding debt of N135bn, by frustrating the sale of the landed property on Banana Island to Dayspring Development Company Limited, which property you both transferred to AMCON by virtue of the Consent Judgment delivered by this honourable court on the 1st day of July 2013.”
The defendants were said to have acted contrary to Section 54(5) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2010 (as amended).
