For a Lagos businesswoman, Oluremi Ebun Philips, the CEO of Omritas Energy Limited, it was a lost battle to extricate herself from the charge of stealing N57,690,000 hanging on her neck as Justice I.O. Ijelu of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Thursday, December 12, 2024, convicted and sentenced her to 17 years imprisonment for the said N57,690,000 ( Fifty Seven Thousand, Six Hundred and Ninety Naira) fraud.
Philips was previously standing trial before Justice S.O. Solebo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, following her arraignment on January 27, 2022.
However, the trial could not be concluded before the retirement of Justice Solebo in November 2022, a development that resulted in the re-assigning of the case file to Justice Ijelu.
She was on May 22, 2023 re-arraigned before Justice Ijelu alongside her company, Omritas Energy Limited, on a five-count charge bordering on stealing and issuance of dud cheques to the tune of N57,690,000.
Count one reads: “Oluremi Ebun Philips and Omritas Energy Limited, sometime in 2016, at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted and stole the sum of N57, 690,000.00, property of AYM Shafa Limited meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) which you failed to supply.”
Count two reads: “Oluremi Ebun Philips and Omritas Energy Limited, on or about the 10th of April 2017 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, knowingly issued a Diamond Bank cheque of Nigeria Plc for the sum of N14,298,075 payable to AYM Shafa Limited, which when presented for payment was dishonoured on the grounds that no sufficient funds were standing to the credit of the account.”
The defendant, again, pleaded “not guilty” to all the counts preferred against her.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, T.J. Banjo called three witnesses through whom several documentary evidence were presented in court to prove the case against them.
The defence also presented three witnesses during the trial.
Delivering judgment , Justice Ijelu held that the prosecution proved the case against the defendants beyond every reasonable doubt and convicted them on counts one to five.
The Judge, thereafter, sentenced the first defendant to nine years imprisonment on count one, with an option of fine of N2million to be paid within 90 days, and two years each on counts two to five.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
The second defendant was fined N250,000 on count one, and N100,000 each on counts two to five.
The court further ordered the restitution of N57,690,000 to be paid to the victim within 90 days.
The company was also ordered to be wound up within 90 days, if it fails to fulfil the restitution.
The convicts bagged their imprisonment when they fraudulently converted and stole the sum of N57, 690,000.00, property of AYM Shafa Limited meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO). They neither supplied the products nor returned the money to the victim.
