Uzoma was arraigned before Justice A. T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The Port Harcourt zonal command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned an oil magnate identified as Azubuike Uzoma on charges bordering on illegal dealing in petroleum products worth N24,310,000.
Uzoma was arraigned before Justice A. T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The anti-graft commission in a statement released on Tuesday said that Uzoma was arraigned on three counts bordering on money laundering and illegal dealing in petroleum products.
One of the count charges read, “That you, Azubuike Uzoma (Trading under the name & style of ALVIN D INTERNATIONAL) sometime in June 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court took possession of the aggregate sum of N23,310,000 paid into your account with Keystone Bank Limited, when you reasonably ought to have known that the said fund formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity, to wit: Illegal dealing in petroleum products and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(2)(d) of the Money Laundering Act.”
However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him.
Following his not-guilty plea, the prosecution counsel, Abdulrahman Abubakar, asked the court to fix a date for trial and for the defendant to be remanded in a correctional centre.
The counsel for the defendant, C. J. Nmerem, did not oppose the prayers of the prosecution but urged the court to grant the defendant bail to enable him to prepare for his trial.
In his decision, Justice Mohammed granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1,000,000 and two sureties in like sum.
The court ordered that one of the sureties must be a civil servant with the Rivers State government not below grade level 14, and the other surety shall be a family member of the defendant.
The sureties must deposit two recent passport photographs with the court and must have verifiable addresses.
The judge adjourned the matter to January 22, 2024, for the commencement of trial.
Meanwhile, the EFCC said that Uzoma’s case started when operatives of the commission arrested him at Ndoni community in the Onelga Local Government Area of the state for alleged money laundering and others.
“Investigations showed that the defendant is into a fraudulent oil business by defrauding his clients into paying several amounts of money for the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from Warri depot. He neither supplied the products nor returned the clients’ money to them,” the commission said.
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