Court strikes out fraud charge against Ibeto
A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, has struck out the alleged N4.8 billion fraud charge instituted against the embattled Chairman of Ibeto Energy Development Company, Chief Cletus Ibeto, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Trial judge, Justice Oyindamola Ogala struck out the charge after she was informed by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, that the businessman had refunded N3.2 billion of the money he was accused of stoling from his alleged victim, Chief Daniel Chukwudozie by the EFCC.
The anti-graft agency had filed a 10-count charge of conspiracy, fraud, forgery, and fraudulent use of documents against Ibeto and his companies Ibeto Energy Development Company and Odoh Holdings Limited.
However, the planned arraignment of the defendant has been stalled on several occasions due to his failure to appear in court, although his lawyers represented him.
This prompted the former trial judge, Justice Ismail Ijelu, to accede to the prosecution’s request on November 3, 2023, to order the arrest of the businessman for allegedly refusing to appear to take his plea despite many undertakings by his lawyers to produce him in court.
However, the case file was resigned to Justice Ogala in February 2024, by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, after the defendants accused Justice Ijelu of bias and challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case.
At the resumed hearing of the case, yesterday, Jacobs informed the court that the defendants and the complainant had met with the EFC and resolved to settle the matter out of court.
While the defence counsel, Adebayo Oshodi, confirmed to the court that the matter had been settled and his clients had refunded some money, he denied that there were any outstanding issues yet to be resolved.