Subsidy Fraud: Court Admitts Fresh Evidence In Trial Of Nadabo Energy Boss Over N1.4bn

The trial of Abubakar Ali Peters, Managing Director of Nadabo Energy Limited, over alleged N1.4 billion petroleum subsidy fraud resumed on Tuesday at the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja. During the proceedings, the court admitted further documentary evidence tendered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as the case against him continued.

Justice Ismail Ijelu admitted the documents as evidence in the trial of Abubakar Ali Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited. The defendants are facing a 27-count charge that relates to alleged forgery and obtaining money under false pretences from the Federal Government through the Petroleum Support Fund, PSF, scheme.

The matter was previously before Justice C.A. Balogun, but it was reassigned to Justice Ijelu after the earlier judge retired from the bench.

The EFCC alleges that the defendants used forged documents to fraudulently obtain N1,464,961,978.24 in petroleum subsidy payments. In one specific charge from April 3, 2012, they reportedly claimed a N978.4 million subsidy for importing 19.49 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), though investigators discovered that only about 6.5 million litres were actually brought into the country.

To facilitate these false claims, the anti-graft agency accused the defendants of forging a marine insurance certificate that was purportedly issued by Staco Insurance Plc. Facing these allegations in court, the defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against them.

At Monday’s hearing, the prosecution team led by S.K. Atteh presented its third witness, EFCC investigator Adaobi Amanda Obiakor. She walked the court through how the agency carried out its investigation into the alleged subsidy fraud.

Obiakor said the probe was triggered by petitions dated January 5, 2012, from the Minister of Petroleum Resources and several civil society groups, all alleging large-scale fraud in the subsidy system. Following this, the EFCC wrote to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, for relevant records. The agency complied and provided documents on marketers under the scheme, including Nadabo Energy Limited. The petitions, EFCC-PPPRA correspondence, and PPPRA’s responses were tendered in court. Defence counsel Paul Daodu, SAN, raised no objection, and Justice Ijelu admitted them as exhibits.

The witness told the court that investigators found allocation records issued to Nadabo Energy in August 2011, as well as subsequent import permits linked to the company. She added that the transactions were funded through Enterprise Bank, which led the EFCC to write to the bank on February 8, 2012. In its reply dated February 18, 2013, the bank said one of the documents sent for verification was not issued by it and provided what it described as the genuine version. The court admitted the EFCC-Enterprise Bank correspondence and certified copies of the related banking documents.

Obiakor further testified that subsidy payments were tracked through Sky Bank Plc, now Polaris Bank. The EFCC’s letters to the bank and other financial records were also admitted without objection. Other exhibits included shipping documents for MT Evridiki and MT St. Vanessa, trade papers showing Petrolcam Trading (PTY) Limited as trader and Nadabo Energy as marketer in a deal worth about $4.78 million, plus Corporate Affairs Commission records and related filings.

The prosecution also sought to tender an email said to have been sent by Afeni Awani to former EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa, along with a certificate of identification. The defence opposed the email’s admission, arguing it was sent to a personal address and did not meet the requirements of Section 84 of the Evidence Act for electronic evidence. Justice Ijelu dismissed the objection and admitted both the email and the certificate. The court further admitted a transaction summary prepared by Bawa and the defendants’ extra-judicial statements.

On Tuesday, the defence began cross-examining Obiakor. She confirmed she was part of the EFCC team but noted her name was not on the investigation report already in evidence. She identified Exhibit P27, a January 20, 2012 letter to Nadabo Energy’s Managing Director, which she said was prepared and signed by Olaolu Adegbite. On Exhibit P29(a), Peters’ extra-judicial statement, she admitted it did not show it was taken in her presence, though she maintained it was given voluntarily on January 28, 2012, and February 8, 2013, without a lawyer present. She also said she did not author or sign several of the tendered documents, and her name did not appear on exhibits linking her to the probe. She said she joined the Lagos depot visit but was not part of the Port Harcourt depot visit. Justice Ijelu thereafter adjourned the trial to October 12 and 13, 2026.