A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Monday granted bail to the Managing Director of Nadabo Energy Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Abubakar Ali Peters, over alleged N978.4m oil fraud.

Justice Christopher Balogun granted him bail in the sum of N100million with two sureties in like sum.

The judge said the sureties must have substantially valuable properties to be verified by the court’s Sheriff.

Justice Balogun before granting the defendant bail showed his displeasure with the attitude of the former counsel to the defendant, Emefo Etudo.

The judge said if he finds out at the end of the investigation that the court was misled to keep the defendant in prison, he would petition the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over the conduct of the counsel.

“I wish Chief Etudo is here and if at the end of this investigation I find out that Chief Etudo has misled this court I will write to NBA, to discipline him.”

“He has written two petitions against me, but he doesn’t know the law if he had known the law, he will know that you don’t petition a judge. If there is an error of law the only option left for you is to approach the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court,” Justice Balogun held.

In his submission before the court, counsel to the defendant, Olatunbosun Adekunle, said the defendant was just a victim of a lawyer-client relationship.

He said the former lawyer came to court to arm-twist the court to keep the defendant in prison as he prayed the court to ignore all the claims of the former counsel.

The prosecution counsel, Tope Banjo, said the court should decline the defendant’s bail application because he is a flight risk.

The defendant is standing trial on a 27-count charge of obtaining money by false pretense, forgery and use of forged documents preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Peters allegedly defrauded the Federal Government of Nigeria of N978.4 million by supplying 6, 505, 140.04 litres of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) instead of 19,488, 992 litres indicated in the contract.

"Exciting news! TheNigeriaLawyer is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest legal insights!" Click here! ....................................................................................................................... Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material and other digital content on this website, in whole or in part, without express and written permission from TheNigeriaLawyer, is strictly prohibited _________________________________________________________________ [Register Now] ILA Nigeria Branch Marks 10 Years With Infrastructure Financing As Theme For 7th Annual Conference The International Law Association - Nigeria Branch 7th annual conference on public-private partnerships for sustainable infrastructure financing, April 4-5 in Abuja. Details: https://ilanigeria.org.ng/conference _________________________________________________________________

NIALS' Compendia Series: Your One-Stop Solution For Navigating Nigerian Laws (2004-2023)

Email: info@nials.edu.ng, tugomak@yahoo.co.uk, Contact: For Inquiry and information, kindly contact, NIALS Director of Marketing: +2348074128732, +2348100363602.