US$48m crude fraud suspects granted bail

An Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs. Nana Adwoa Coleman has granted GH¢30,000bail with one surety each to two people who allegedly attempted stealing crude oil valued at US$48million with forged documents.

The two, Ofademe Ikenna Sylvester - a 35-year-old Operations Manager of Nigerian firm Zicokem - and Dennis Ofori Carter, a Ghanaian business executive, are to reappear on June 14, 2011.

They pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy, possessing forged documents, attempting to steal and deceiving public officers.

Police prosecutors told the court that in August last year, crude oil valued at US$48million was supplied to the Tema Oil Refinery by Sahara Group, a Nigerian oil firm.
According to the prosecution, the two accused persons and one other Nigerian, Dr. Iduh, who is on the run, in February this year submitted fraudulent documents claiming ownership of the consignment. Checks on the said documents from Nigerian authorities revealed that they were forged.

Chief Superintendent Boi Bi-Boi, representing the prosecution, told the court the US$48million crude was supplied to the Tema Oil Refinery by Sahara Group through Refinee Petroplus.

He said two different companies, namely Uviesa Oil Wellss Limited and Zicokem Diamond Shipping Company Limited, later emerged to claim ownership of the consignment.

According to the prosecution, each of the groups provided documents which, they claimed, emanated from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Chief Superintendent Bi-Boi said the accused persons then propagated the falsehood on various radio stations, thus “causing a lot of embarrassment to the whole nation”.
On April 1, Sylvester was arrested after one of those radio discussions on the issue, and investigations led to the arrest of Ofori, but Dr. Iduh left the country before he could be apprehended.

Atta Akyea, the defence counsel for Sylvester, expressed shock at the turn of events in the case, explaining that Sahara had initiated civil proceedings against the accused at the Accra Commercial Court and wondered why a civil case was “masquerading as a criminal one”.

“If the crude oil is not for them, the commercial court will determine that,” he said, and therefore questioned the rationale behind the move to criminalise the case.