Justice Oyindamola Ogala of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Wednesday 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).
Justice 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 having stolen from his alleged victim, Chief Daniel Chukwudozie by the Commission.
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 Ltd.
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, Jacobs informed the court that the defendants and the complainant had met with the EFCC and resolved to settle the matter out of court.
The senior lawyer said, “After the court’s last sitting, the parties met with the EFCC to find ways to settle the matter out of court. This led to the defendants refunding N3.2 billion to the Commission.
“However, two issues are still outstanding: the allegation of forgery and the $3 million he denied collecting from the complainant.
“The EFCC has instructed me to withdraw this case in the spirit of reconciliation while the Commission decides what to do about the outstanding issues. I hereby urged the court to strike out the charge.
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
Oshodi said, “I can confirm to the court that an agreement has been reached among all the parties, and the matter has been settled out of court. I, however, deny that any issues are outstanding.”
After listening to the lawyers, Justice Ogala struck out the charge.
