The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Sunsteel Industries Limited, Olalekan Adewoye, has been arraigned at the Lagos State High Court, sitting in Ikeja for alleged fraud.
Adewoye was arraigned on two-count charge before Justice Mojisola Dada by the Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), alongside his companies, Sunlek Investments Limited and Sunsteel Industries Limited.
The charges bordered on stealing and obtaining property by false pretence to the tune of $680,622.65 (N1,094,868,967), according to a statement by EFCC’s Head Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale on Friday.
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Oyewale explained that after the charges were read to Defendant, he pleaded “not guilty”, following which the prosecution counsel, Abdulhamid L. Tukur, applied for a trial date and asked that the defendant be remanded in a correctional centre.
Responding, he said that the defence counsel, Olusegun O. Jolaawo SAN, informed the court of a pending bail application and further prayed the court to admit the defendant to bail, stating that “he has never jumped the administrative bail granted him by the EFCC.”
After listening to both parties, the presiding Judge, Justice Dada ordered that the defendant should continue to enjoy the administrative bail earlier granted him by the EFCC.
The court also ordered that he should deposit his passport and documents of two landed properties with the court’s registry.
The judge, subsequently, adjourned the case till June 3 and 19, June 2025 for commencement of trial.
Meanwhile, one of the two-count charges read: “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.”
In a related development, the anti-graft agency has secured the conviction and sentence of one Mustapha Abubakar before Justice A. Bello of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna.
Abubakar was prosecuted on a one-count charge, bordering on theft to the tune of N3,597,000.00 (Three Million, Five Hundred and Ninety-seven Thousand Naira) only.
The charge reads: “That you, Mustapha Abubakar on or about the 12th of December, 2022 in Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court intentionally caused damage to the property of Zenith Bank Plc in the sum of N3,597,000.00 (Three Million, Five Hundred and Ninety-seven Thousand Naira only) while using their bank code and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 306(b) of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under Section 307 of the same Law.”
He pleaded “guilty” when the charge was read to him, prompting prosecution counsel, M.Arumemi to urge the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
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Justice Bello, thereafter sentenced him to two years imprisonment or to pay N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) fine. In addition, he forfeited iPhone 11 Pro, being the tool of his crime to the Federal government.
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