Oil marketer jailed 10 years, to return N754m to FG
Justice Latee Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Thursday sentenced the Managing Director of Ontario Oil and Gas Limited, Mrs. Ada Ugo-Ngali, to a jail term of 69 years for a fuel subsidy fraud of N754m.
But the jail term would run concurrently for 10 years. The judge also ordered the return of the N754m to the Federal Government.
But the jail term would run concurrently for 10 years. The judge also ordered the return of the N754m to the Federal Government.
Justice Okunnu had on January 13, 2017 convicted
Ugo-Ngali, Ontario Oil and Gas Limited and its Chairman, Mr. Walter Wagbatsoma,
of eight counts pressed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
The judge had been unable to pass the sentence on
the judgment day as Ugo-Ngali slumped in court after being convicted and just
before the judge could pass the sentence.
The convict was subsequently rushed out of the
courtroom and taken to Havannah Hospital in Surelere from where she was later moved
to the intensive care unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,
Idi-Araba.
Ugo-Ngali came to court on Thursday straight from
LUTH and on a wheel chair, with plasters on her body.
In passing the sentence, Justice Okunnu rejected
the plea of the convict’s lawyer, Mr. Edoka Onyeke, praying that the sentence
should be non-custodial in view of his client’s health.
“I have considered the plea of the defence counsel
for a non-custodial sentence of the 2nd defendant. I have to say that the request
to grant a non-custodial sentence must be rejected and I can only exercise my
discretion on the length of time the convict will spend in prison,” Justice
Okunnu held.
She subsequently sentenced the convict to a
cumulative jail term of 69 years, which would, however, run concurrently for
only 10 years.
The judge said the jail term would begin to read
from January 13, 2017, when Ugo-Ngali and her accomplices were pronounced
convicted.
Wagbatsoma, who is the first convict in the case,
is said to be currently under house arrest in the United Kingdom, where he is
being held for money laundering, relating to a £12 million National Health
Service Trust Fund.
Punch
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