The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, on Thursday, arraigned Olalekan Adewoye, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Sunsteel Industries Limited, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja over alleged financial fraud amounting to $680,622.65.
Adewoye was arraigned alongside two companies linked to him — Sunlek Investments Limited and Sunsteel Industries Limited — on a two-count charge bordering on stealing and obtaining property by false pretence.
According to the EFCC, the alleged offence took place between 2013 and 2014, involving funds meant for construction materials supplied by Hexagon Im-und Export GmbH & Co. KG, a German company.
One of the counts reads:
“That you, Olalekan Adewoye, Sunlek Investments Limited and Sunsteel Industries Limited, sometime between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with a dishonest intent, stole and converted, for your own use, the aggregate sum of $680,622.65 (Six Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Six Hundred and Twenty-Two Dollars, Sixty-Five Cents), property of Hexagon Im-und Export GmbH & Co KG, a German Company, being the value of construction materials supplied to you; and you thereby committed an offence, to wit, obtaining property by false pretence, contrary to and punishable under Section 1(1), (2) and (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006.”
Adewoye pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when read in court.
Prosecuting counsel Abdulhamid L. Tukur thereafter requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendant in custody. However, defence counsel Olusegun O. Jolaawo, SAN, informed the court of a pending bail application and pleaded for the defendant to be granted bail, noting that Adewoye had complied with the terms of the EFCC’s administrative bail.
Justice Dada ruled that the defendant should continue to enjoy the administrative bail granted by the EFCC. The court further directed him to submit his international passport and documents of two landed properties to the court’s registry as part of the bail conditions.
The case was adjourned to June 3 and June 19, 2025, for commencement of trial.