The police on Thursday arraigned the President of
an oil firm, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited,
Uche Ogah, and an ex-employee of the United Bank
for Africa, Deji Somoye, before a Tinubu
Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, for alleged fraud.
an oil firm, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited,
Uche Ogah, and an ex-employee of the United Bank
for Africa, Deji Somoye, before a Tinubu
Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, for alleged fraud.
The oil firm and the bank were also joined in three
counts bordering on forgery and conspiracy
preferred against the defendants by the police.
The police said Ogah allegedly forged a
Memorandum of Understanding between Masters
Energy Oil and Gas Limited and Mut-Hass
Petroleum Limited sometime in March 2011.
He and some other persons said to be at large were
also accused of forging the signature of one Mrs.
Bridget Adeosun.
The alleged forgery was reportedly committed in
Ikeja, Lagos.
The police also alleged that the bank aided Masters
Energy Oil and Gas Limited to open an account in
the name of Mut-Hass Petroleum to perpetrate a
fraud without applying its internal control procedures
in the opening of the account.
The police had claimed that UBA allowed the said
account to be opened sometime in 2011 at its
regional office in Palmgrove, Lagos, in breach of the
provisions of the Financial Institutions Act 2004.
The defendants were brought before a Chief
Magistrate, Mrs. Kikelomo Ayeye, by a police
prosecutor, ASP Henry Obiazi.
Obiazi told the court that the offences contravened
sections 363 (3)(u), 408 and 409 of the Criminal
Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charges read in part, “That you, Masters Energy
Oil and Gas Limited, Uche Ogah, and others at large
sometime in March 2011 at Ikeja, in the Lagos
Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves
to wit: forgery.
“That you, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited,
Uche Ogah, and others at large, on the same date,
time, place and in the aforementioned magisterial
district, did forge the signature of one Mrs. Bridget
Adeosun and a document known as MoU between
Mut-Hass Petroleum Limited and Masters Energy
Oil and Gas Limited, with an intent that it may be in
any way used or acted upon as genuine.
“That you, Deji Somoye, United Bank for Africa and
others still at large, sometime in August 2011, at
UBA regional office, Palmgrove, in the Lagos
Magisterial District, did knowing that Masters
Energy Oil and Gas Limited design to commit an
offence, failed to use all reasonable means to
prevent the commission or the completion of the
crime.”
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the
charges and were admitted to bail in the sum of
N200,000 each with one surety each in like sum.
The case was adjourned till August 4, 2016.
