Police declare alleged serial fraudster, Ogunbambo, wanted

                       

Ogunbambo is facing different charges of fraud.
The Police Special Fraud Unit, SFU, has declared alleged serial fraudster, Seun Ogunbambo, wanted for subsidy payment fraud.
In a statement on Tuesday, the police said that Mr. Ogunbambo had absconded and all efforts made to locate him have proved abortive.
The police said that a petition by the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments submitted to the Commissioner of Police, SFU, alleged that a permit was granted to Eurafric Oil and Coastal Services Limited import fuel between 2010 and 2011.
“The company claimed that it imported 85,519,068 litres of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) into the country in six transactions,” the SFU said in the statement issued by Ngozi Isintume-Agu, the Police Public Relations Officer.

“Based on this, it applied for payment and the sum of N6,130,006,149.30 (N6.13 biillion) was paid as subsidy by the Federal Government but it was later discovered that Eurafric did not execute the transaction as claimed, rather it traded off the permit to a third party company named Tubbs Marine Services Limited in the sum of N65million.
“The wanted suspect, Seun Ogunbambo, the Managing Director of Fargo Petroleum Limited, operating with the license of Tubb Marine Services did not import any product based on the permit but fraudulently arranged forged documents with which he applied and received payment of over N2 billion as subsidy claims thereby defrauding the Federal Government of Nigeria,” the statement said.
“The suspect is on the run. All efforts made to locate him in his last known address No. 2, Olamijuyin Avenue, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, and 95 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, proved abortive.
“He is hereby declared wanted by the office of the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, 13 Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos,” it added.
The latest statement by the SFU adds to a lengthy list of fraud allegations against Mr. Ogunbambo who is already facing multiple trials of subsidy fraud before an Ikeja High Court.
He is also facing a N430 million fraud against Stanbic IBTC bank before Justice Olabisi Akinlade of an Ikeja High Court.
Last week, Mr. Ogunbambo’s trial before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of an Ikeja High Court was stalled after he sought a transfer of the trial to another judge, accusing the trial judge of bias against him.
Justice Onigbanjo had, a month earlier, struck out his application to quash the subsidy fraud charges against him.
Alongside Habila Theck and their company, Fargo Energy Limited, Mr. Ogunbambo is appearing before Justice Onigbanjo over an alleged N979.6 million fuel subsidy fraud.
He is also appearing before the judge, together with Mamman Ali, son of Ahmadu Ali, a former Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, and Christian Taylor, over an alleged N4.4 billion petrol subsidy fraud.