Justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered an accelerated trial of the four bloggers charged with defaming and cyberstalking the management of GTCO (Guaranty Trust Holding Company), including its Group CEO, Mr. Segun Agbaje.

The four accused—Precious Eze, Olawale Rotimi, Rowland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami—are facing 10 amended charges for allegedly publishing false information about the company through various social media platforms.

At the resumed hearing of the matter on the 13th and 14th of November, Justice Faji also dismissed the bail applications, citing the serious nature of the alleged offences, which include charges that could lead to up to 14 years in prison.

The judge also held that one of the defendants – Precious Eze has shown the tendency to commit a similar offence again if let out as he is currently charged with a similar offence in another court and was only on bail when he went ahead to commit the alleged offence for which he is now standing trial.

Justice Faaji also highlighted the potentially destabilizing impact such actions could have on the banking sector, particularly since some of the charges involve cross-border activities on the Internet.

The defense counsel, Afolabi Adeniyi, had at the last hearing of the matter while moving an application for bail for the accused persons argued that the defendants should be granted bail on liberal terms, emphasizing that the charges were bailable and that the accused were willing to face trial.

Opposing the application, the prosecution Counsel, Chief Aribisala, SAN, urged the court to reject the bail request, highlighting the risk of the defendants absconding and stressing the need for an expedited trial.

In delivering his ruling, Justice Faji not only denied bail but also ordered an accelerated trial, underlining the gravity of the charges.

He also noted that the defendants’ actions challenged the authority of regulatory bodies, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which had approved GTCO’s audited statements.

The matter has been adjourned until the 10th and 12th of December for continuation of the trial.

A former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote, says all the 17 strategic investments undertaken by the board of the agency under his leadership are very successful and progressing except one, contrary to what he described as the deliberate disinformation being fed to the public by some persons he described as disgruntled.

Engr. Wabote, who spoke to THEWILL on Wednesday morning, dismissed reports of his purported arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying he honoured the anti-graft agency’s invitation on its investigation into the $35 million equity contribution of the NCDMB into the Energy Infrastructure Park project promoted by Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, whose CEO, Mr Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, is also behind the completed and ready to commission Duport Midstream refinery project in Edo State, where NCDMB is also invested. The Atlantic International Refinery project, which is located in Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa state, is currently stalled because of funding issues on Akindele’s part.

Speaking again on Wednesday afternoon, Wabote, who led the NCDMB between 2016 and 2023, dismissed claims of any misappropriation of funds during his term at the NCDMB.

THEWILL checks revealed that 16 of the 17 projects of the board under his leadership as Executive Secretary are running efficiently with some awaiting official commissioning except the Atlantic International refinery project which currently has financial issues. NCDMB owns 40% of the business. Despite successfully fabricating and completing the refinery in Dubai, Atlantic’s plan to ship it to Bayelsa and complete the project had been hampered by issues between Akindele and his partners in the Duport Midstream refinery, where he had hoped to raise cash from their daily turnover to fund his financial obligation in the project. Akindele and his partners in Dupont are currently in court over their dispute, THEWILL can report.

Though further checks showed that the site for the refinery project including the staff facility, is ready, Atlantic International has been unable to raise more funds to pay off about $700,000 balance owed by the Dubai-based fabricator to facilitate the shipment of the refinery to the site. THEWILL checks also showed that NCDMB and Atlantic International are in talks on the best way to move the project forward.

Wabote, who spoke glowingly of his achievements at the helm of affairs at the agency, declined to comment on our findings on the Atlantic International refinery project because it is now a subject of investigation.

The NCDMB under me got involved in 17 different investments ranging from gas projects to refineries. Out of this 17,16 are progressing and some have been completed. An example is the Watersmith Refinery which made a profit after tax of N23bn in 2023. 30% of this belongs to the NCDMB as a dividend. The refinery is also expanding from 5,000 to 10,000bpd. Hopefully, it will be commissioned by the first quarter of 2025”, he said.

Wabote insists that the NCDMB investments in the business ventures under his tenure are very lucrative and would yield great returns for the agency and the country. “We designed all the projects we invested in, in a way that allows us to cash out in 5 years because our role at the NCDMB is to catalyse these businesses”, he added.

Below are some of the partner projects of the NCDMB.

THE WILL

The FBI has launched a manhunt for suspected Nigerian fraudsters who allegedly swindled Orion, an energy company, of millions of dollars, specifically $60 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings on August 10.

Although the SEC withheld the names of the fraudsters and their personal identifying information to avoid spooking them into hiding before their arrest, law enforcement agents told Peoples Gazette that the fraudsters were of Nigerian descent.

The suspects stole $60 million from Orion, a Luxembourg-based company that produces carbon black, a major material for making tyres, ink, batteries, plastics and more.

An SEC filing showed that the suspect targeted an Orion employee in the scheme and used him as bait to make fraudulent wire transfers from the company to other accounts under their control, a criminal tactic that many Nigerian fraudsters have adopted.

“Orion S.A. (the “Company”) determined that a company employee, who is not a named executive officer, was the target of a criminal scheme that resulted in multiple fraudulently induced outbound wire transfers to accounts controlled by unknown third parties,” SEC filing stated on August 10. “As a result of this incident, and if no further recoveries of transferred funds occur, the Company expects to record a one-time pre-tax charge of approximately $60 million for the unrecovered fraudulent wire transfers.”

In a similar scheme, Ramon Abbas, also known as Ray Hushpuppi to his millions of Instagram fans, and his partner Woodberry, whose real name is Olalekan Ponle, were jailed for coordinating multimillion-dollar scams involving business email compromise schemes by the U.S. government.

The two fraudsters are serving their respective sentences at the Fort Dix correctional facility for scamming individuals and companies in similar fraud schemes.

In October, The Gazette reported that the FBI contacted their Nigerian counterpart, EFCC, to track down two fugitives wanted for scamming the American healthcare system of $13 million.

Babatunde Shodiya and Yinka Jamiu targeted at least four Minnesota-based health service providers and tricked them into paying $13 million to a manipulated account rather than the intended beneficiaries.

* The Gazette