Managing Director, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah

The police in Lagos State on Tuesday accused the Managing Director, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi Uba and four principal officers of the company, of concealing facts in order to get a release order from a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Uba and the others are currently in the custody of the Special Fraud Unit of the police in the state for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government to the tune of N43bn through the fuel susbsidy scheme.

Counsel for the police, Mr. Aderemi Adekile, told the court presided over by Justice Okon Abang on Tuesday that the suspects refused to inform the court that they were being remanded by “an order of a court of competent jurisdiction”.

Adekile said this while explaining to the court his inability to comply with an order of the court directing the police to file a reply to the applicants’ motion on notice before 12pm on Tuesday.

Abang had on October 15 ordered that the ex parte motion filed by the applicants’ counsel, Dr. Joseph Nwobike, (SAN), be converted to motion on notice and served on the police for them to reply to it if they so wished.

But Adekile told the court that he had not been able to file his reply which he said was being delayed because of his inability to “extract exhibits” from the police record.

He also said, “I will like to call the attention of this honourable court to a very important matter.

“The point is that the applicants in this case have concealed the facts from this honourable court that there was an order of court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to which the applicants are being held by the Special Fraud Unit of Nigeria Police Force.”

The SFU on October 11 obtained an order of a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos which was presided over by Mr. Martins Owumi to remand the suspects for 14 days to enable it to complete the investigation of the alleged fraud.

The court adjourned till today (Wednesday) for hearing of the motion on notice.