A Lagos businessman, Akintoye Akindele, accused of offering a bribe of N150 million to the Police to escape justice in an alleged fraud, has denied committing the alleged offence.
Akindele, who is the Managing Director of Duport Midstream Company, pleaded not guilty to the one count charge at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja on Tuesday.
The Inspector General of Police, through his counsel, Mr Simon Lough, SAN, had brought the charge against the defendant on the allegations that he offered police N150 million to suppress investigations in respect of a petition against him by Summit Oil International Limited.
The charge indicated that Akindele made a part payment of N50 million to a team of investigators led by one Ibrahim Ezekiel Sini of the Federal Investigation Bureau.
In the summit oil petition, the defendant was alleged to have conspired with others and diverted the sum of $5, 636, 397, and another N73, 543, 764 belonging to the company.
However, when the charge was read to him, Akindele denied and pleaded not guilty.
The Police counsel thereafter applied for an adjournment to enable him to assemble his witnesses to establish his case against the defendant.
However, counsel to the defendant, Mr Henry Eni-otu and Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi from Law Corridor, made a strong case for the defendant to be admitted to bail on liberal conditions.
Among others, the counsel drew the attention of the court to the fact that their client had been in the custody of Police for more than three weeks over the said petition.
Eni-otu pleaded with the court to invoke Section 158 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, to admit the defendant to bail and assured that Akindele would not breach any of the bail conditions.
In a short ruling, Justice Hamza Muazu acceded to the request of the lawyers and granted bail to their client in the sum of N500 million and two sureties in the like sum.
The two sureties must, however, be owners of landed property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with verifiable title documents.
As of the time of this report, lawyers to the defendant and his friends and associates were on the verge of perfecting his bail conditions for him to return to his house.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for trial.
Recall that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, had charged Akintoye, the chairman of Duport Midstream Company, to court for allegedly offering a police officer a bribe of N150 million.
According to the court document filed on August 18, Mr Akindele was charged with offering a bribe to a Superintendent of Police (SP), Ibrahim Sini, investigating his $5 million fraud case.
Mr Egbetokun is the claimant, and Mr Akindele is the sole respondent in the suit.
The police said the investigation followed a petition submitted to the Inspector-General of Police FIB by Summit Oil International Limited.
Dr. Akindele’s ordeal began with a petition to the Nigeria Police Force that alleges he sold crude oil to Duport Midstream Company Limited, a firm he currently serves as interim managing director, and received payment for it.
He reportedly failed to account for the transaction when confronted and opposed all attempts by the board-appointed forensic auditor to look into anomalies in the company’s financial records.
The police said his offence was punishable under section 118 of the penal Code Law.
Dr. Akindele, who is also the founder of Platform Capital,
has been in police custody for about three weeks and was charged before the High Court of the FCT, Abuja on Friday, August 18, 2023.
Earlier in the week, the 49-years-old Lagos businessman had sued the inspector-general of police, the Nigeria Police Force, Summit Oil International Limited, Dr Zulikat Wuraola Abiola, Duport Energy Limited and Mr Oluwatosin Odusanya, in a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos for allegedly detaining him beyond the limit provided by the constitution.
But a court showed that police alleged that Akindele made an initial payment of N50 million out of the N150m he offered to facilitate his “escape” from custody and to enable him to flee abroad.
This bribery charge against Akindele, according to a report, might have accounted for his continued detention until investigations were concluded.
Sources confirmed that the N50m was paid from an account named ‘Duport Midstream Company Limited’.
Sources also said other directors and shareholders did not know of the existence of this account. [EverydayNg/National Waves]
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