Fuel Subsidy Fraud Suspect, Opeyemi Ajuyah, Is Dead

SAN FRANCISCO, January 18, (THEWILL) – Mrs. Opeyemi Ajuyah, an oil marketer, who is standing trial for an alleged N1.1bn fuel subsidy scam, is dead.

Ajuyah is facing an eight-count charge alongside Abdullahi, son of late prominent businessman, Abdullazeez Arisekola-Alao, and Olanrewaju Olalusi before an Ikeja High Court.

They were charged alongside their companies, Majope Investment Limited and Axenergy Limited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The charges border on conspiracy, forgery and obtaining money under false pretences.

The EFCC alleged that the defendants fraudulently obtained the sum of N1,110,049,444.35 from the Federal Government under the guise that it was subsidy payments for 15,206,733 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit, which they purportedly imported into the country.

Her lawyer, Olanrewaju Ajanaku, received the news of her death on the telephone on Wednesday morning, on the premises of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, with shock, broke into tears.

Justice Lateefa Okunnu, trial judge, adjourned further proceedings in the case till March 1, 2017 .