Subsidy scam: Oil marketer bags 10 years in jail

Justice Adebukola Banjoko of an FCT High Court sitting in Gudu has sentenced an oil marketer, Jubril Rowaye to 10 years imprisonment for defrauding the Federal Government of about N1.05 billion under the Petroleum Subsidy Fund scheme.

Justice Banjoko on Friday convicted Rowaye along with his company, Brilla Energy Limited and another firm, Alminnur Resources Limited, to which the permit to import 10,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) into Nigeria was issued in 2011.

The defendants were rearraigned on amended charge on February 12, 2016 after the initial first defendant, the director of Alminnur Resources Limited, ýAlhaji Saminu Rabiu, had died after the prosecution closed its case.

They were said to have at various times forged different bills of lading for PMS that was not supplied in a bid to claim the subsidy on fuel.

Rowaye had earlier been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by Justice Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos High Court on March 16, 2017 over fuel subsidy scam of N963.7 million.

Justice Banjoko found him guilty of 14 out of the 17 counts preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2012. For offences of conspiracy and fraud charged under the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each (to run concurrently) without an option of fine.

The court also sentenced him to seven years each for the other 12 counts of conspiracy, forgery of documents and using the documents as genuine to facilitate the act of obtaining N1.05 billion from the Federal Government.

The court however added that the seven years imprisonment on each of the 12 counts, totalling 84 years jail term, must run consecutively but with an option of N5 million on each of the counts; making it N60 million fine option for the 12 counts.

Justice Banjoko also made an order of restitution, directing that the convicts should refund to the Federal Government the equivalent of losses it suffered in the transaction.

The court held that although there was evidence that the defendants supplied the 10,000MT of PMS to the Federal Government, evidence showed that the product was not sourced from Netherlands as indicated in the contract paper and as claimed in the documents submitted by the defendant to facilitate payments for the importation under the subsidy scheme.