John Abebe Remanded In Prison For Forgery In Crude Oil Deal

-

Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling, people standing


Businessman and brother of deceased former First Lady, Stella Obasanjo, Mr. John Abebe, has been arraigned before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja on 4 counts bothering on forgery and intent to mislead.
Abebe entered a 'Not guilty' plea when the charges were read to him in court Thursday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo.
The EFCC in the indictment alleged that the businessman “knowingly forged” a November 30, 1995 letter written by BP Exploration Nigeria Limited to Inducon (Nigeria) Ltd.
It said Mr. Abebe “illegally inserted” into page 2 of the said letter the following statement: “Also note that the ‘Buy-Out Option’ only applies to the pre-production stage of the NPIA. The $4m buy-out is thus irrelevant from production of oil in any of our fields.”
According to the EFCC, Mr. Abebe also attempted to “pervert the course of justice” by tendering the allegedly forged November 30, 1995 letter “as a fabricated evidence” in court, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/224/2010 between Dr. John Abebe, Inducon Nigeria Limited and Statoil Nigeria Limited.
The EFCC accused him of making an attempt to “mislead the court” by using fabricated evidence, contrary to Section 120 (2) of the Criminal Code Cap C17, Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.
The EFCC prosecutor told the court that by attempting to pervert the course of justice, Abebe violated Section 126 (2) of the Criminal Code Cap C17, Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.
The prosecutor added that forgery was a violation of Section 467 of the Criminal Code Cap C17, Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.
Justice Mojisola Dada, while adjourning the case to enable the defence counsel, Mr. Uche Nwokedi (SAN), to file an application for his client’s bail, ordered that Abebe be remanded in Ikoyi Prison.
Abebe, his company Inducon have been locked in a lengthy litigation against British Petroleum (BP) and Statoil over disputes arising from profit sharing in the latter’s oil exploration and production profits in Nigeria.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Court Stops National Assembly From Taking Over Bauchi Assembly

-
Image
As the National Assembly received a report from the committee it sent to Bauchi State to probe the leadership crisis rocking the state assembly since its inauguration last month, the state high court on Monday issued an order of interim injunction ordering that the present Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Abubakar Suleiman and Danlami Kawule respectively,   should continue leading the assembly pending the determination of the suit before it. Justice Muazu Abubakar, who issued the order, fixed October 3, 2019, for hearing of the motion and substantive application filed by the speaker, deputy speaker and other 11 members of the assembly who participated in the assembly election. Abubakar said after listening to and considering the submissions made by the lawyers of the applicants Barrister Jibrin Sa'id Jibrin, A.S Idris and U.K Adam, he hereby ordered that status qou between the parties in the suit be maintained until the determination of the motion on notice. I
Read more

Population of Doctors in Nigeria Hits 74,543

-
Image
  The number of registered medical doctors in Nigeria has risen to 74,543. According to the federal government statistics, as at 2018, the stock of professionally regulated health workers in Nigeria health sector has also recorded a significant increase. The population equates to 36.3 percent of medical doctors per 100,000 population (doctor to population ratio of 1: 2753). Fifty-nine percent of the registered medical practitioners were in good standing with 35 percent being females. While presenting the statistics at a one-day workshop on Nigeria Health Workforce for Universal Health Coverage organised by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Abuja, Deputy Director, Human Resource Department, Shakuri Kadiri, said there is a variation in the distribution of medical doctors by state of practice from the reported 2012 density. He said: "The density of medical doctors presented is based on the number of doctors in good stan
Read more

Drug Insecurity: House Urges FG to Fund Indigenous Drug Research

-
Image
The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the federal government to invest more in the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development in order to encourage local and indigenous research. The House also urged the government to revisit the National Drug Policy as a way to promote and boost the medical industry. It directed its Committees on Health Institutions, Health Care Services and Science and Technology to organise a round table discussion to chart a probable course for the development of locally made drugs. The resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion titled: 'Need to check the Rise of Drug Insecurity and to encourage Indigenous Production of Drugs in Nigeria', which was moved by Hon. Dennis Idahosa at the plenary. Moving the motion, Idahosa said the House is aware that China has recently been inflicted with the coronavirus disease which has paralysed its economy, thus rendering it unable to produce or
Read more