A 31-year-old unemployed man, Joshua Ekeocha, has been nabbed for allegedly stealing the sum of $1,950,000, amounting to N300 million, meant for the payment for oil drilling services in N’Djamena, Chad Republic. He was arrested by operatives of the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan in Lagos State.
Upon his arrest and investigation, the police preferred against him a three-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony, to wit; stealing, before a Magistrates’ Court.
Addressing the court, the police prosecutor, Supol Chidi Okoye, stated that Ekeocha and others still at large committed the said offence on 22 and 27 May, 2014.
According to him, the accused collected the sum of $1,950,000 from Gambo Salisu, a Bureau de Change agent in Lagos while pretending to remit it into the account of SAS Petroleum and Dasub Nigeria Limited for the payment for oil drilling services in N’Djamena, Chad Republic.
The police prosecutor maintained that the accused, after collecting the money from Gambo Salisu, escaped and converted the money to his personal use, stressing that the accused was arrested at a hideout and charged to court when he could not give a satisfactory account of the money.
Disclosing that the police also impounded an SUV allegedly used in committing the crime, Okoye noted that the offences the accused committed are punishable under sections 409, 312 and 285 of the criminal laws of Lagos State, 2011.
Ekeocha, who pleaded not guilty to the crime, sought a bail from the court. This, Okoye raised objection to on the ground that the accused would jump bail and escape from Nigeria to join his in-law, who is also an accomplice in the matter, in London.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Y. R. Pinheiro, who stood in for Chief Magistrate Miss A. O. Awogboro, having listened to the arguments, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison till 7 November, 2014 when his bail will be considered.
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