N1.4bn Subsidy Fraud: Oil Firm Asks Judge to Disqualify Self over Alleged Meeting with EFCC Boss

Wale Igbintade

An oil firm, Nadabo Energy Limited, has asked a Judge of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, Justice Christopher Balogun, to recuse himself from further presiding over a law suit over his alleged meeting with the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa. 

The allegations of bias were made in an affidavit in support of a Motion on Notice sworn by  Abubakar Peters, the managing director of Nadabo Energy Limited, and a defendant in a suit marked ID/118C/2012.

According to the deponent, the EFCC chairman on March 31, 2022, few minutes after giving evidence before the court, allegedly held  a meeting with Justice Balogun, the presiding Judge, in the office of Justice Kazeem Alogba, the Chief Judge of Lagos State.

Peters in the affidavit noted that several online publications, including THISDAY Newspapers, widely reported the meeting with the EFCC, through their official Facebook page, which he did not deny but rather described it as a “routine and courtesy visit.”

He said the outrage generated over the meeting has cast doubt on the expected neutrality of Justice Balogun to be an unbiased umpire in adjudicating the case.

According to Peters, Bawa was a principal superintendent of the EFCC when he investigated the N1.4billion subsidy fraud allegations against him and as a result of his investigations, Bawa now elevated to the post of the chairman of the anti-graft agency is the star witness in the case.

Bawa commenced his evidence-in-chief as PW5 on the June 3, 2015, and did not conclude till December 20, 2021. 

According to the affidavit, “At the conclusion of his evidence-in-chief, the cross-examination by the defence counsel commenced immediately on the December 20, 2021. He subsequently testified under cross examination on January 25, March 31 and May 18, 2022.

“After the court proceedings of the March 31, 2022, I did not immediately leave the High Court premises at Ikeja, Lagos State.

“On my way to the car park within the premises of the court , few minutes after the case number ID/118C/2012, wherein I am standing trial, was adjourned to May 17 and 18, 2022, and I saw the trial Judge, Justice C. A. Balogun, exiting the office of the Chief Judge of High Court in Lagos State. 

“Few days after March 31, 2022, I read it in the news of the visit of Abdulrasheed Bawa to the office of the Chief Judge of the Lagos High Court with a registrar from the chambers of the trial Judge (Balogun) just immediately after he had testified under cross-examination as PW5 on March 31, 2022”. 

While responding, the EFCC in an counter-affidavit deposed to by Samuel Daji, a legal officer, denied the allegations of bias. 

The anti-graft agency denied that the EFCC chairman visited and held a meeting with the trial Judge.

The EFCC, however, admitted that its chairman had a meeting with the Chief Judge of Lagos State on the said day.  

“Visit of the executive chairman of the EFCC to the Hon. Justice Kazeem Alogba, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, on March 31, 2022, was a routine scheduled courtesy visit which is a normal practice among heads of government institutions.

“There is no fact to show that Hon. Justice Balogun was at the meeting between the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, and the Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, on the said day,” the EFCC said. 

Peters and his firm, Nadabo Energy Limited are being tried by the EFCC on a 27-count charge bordering on using forged documents to obtain N1.4billion from the federal government as oil subsidy.

The trial began on December 10, 2012, and the EFCC has so far called five prosecution witnesses.