By Deborah Nnamdi
A Lagos businesswoman, Oluremi Phillips, was on Thursday sentenced to 17 years in prison for defrauding an indigenous oil and gas firm, AYM Shafa Limited, of N57,690,000.
Justice Ismail Ijelu of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja passed the judgment after finding the convict and her company, Omritas Energy Limited, guilty of a five-count charge which bordered on theft and issuing dishonored cheques totaling N57,690,000.
Philips reportedly converted and stole N57,690,000 belonging to AYM Shafa for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) fraudulently. They neither supplied the products nor returned the money to the victim.
They were first arraigned before Justice Sherifat Solebo of the same court on 27 January 2022, but the trial could not be completed before Solebo retired in November of that year. The case was reassigned to Ijelu.
The charge reads in part: “Oluremi Ebun Phillips and Omritas Energy Limited, sometime in 2016, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted and stole the sum of N57,690,000.00, the property of AYM Shafa Limited, which was meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) that was never delivered.
“Oluremi Ebun Phillips and Omritas Energy Limited, on or about April 10, 2017, in Lagos, knowingly issued a cheque from Diamond Bank for the sum of N14,298,075.00 payable to AYM Shafa Limited, which was dishonored due to insufficient funds in the account.”The convicts pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution, led by T.J. Banjo, called three witnesses and submitted several documentary pieces of evidence to support the case. The defense presented three witnesses.
The court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted the accused on all five counts.
