N57m fraud: Ebun-Phillips says diesel price crash forced her to sell products after deal fell through

ARINZE NWAFOR, Lagos

A businesswoman, Oluremi Ebun-Philips, charged with N57 million fraud has told an Ikeja Special Offences Court that she sold off her product after a crash in the price of diesel which caused her deal with AYM Shafa Ltd to fall through.

Ebun-Phillips, on Wednesday, told the court that her company, Omritas Energy Ltd, could not get the drivers of the nominal complainant, AYM Shafa Ltd, to load the AGO (Diesel) it supplied due to a crash in price from N160 per litre to N140 per litre.

She said the drivers of AYM Shafa Ltd pulled out of her depot and refused to load protesting the base amount of the diesel.

Ebun-Phillips said, “The product (Diesel) we bought for N160, now the product is everywhere and it is going for N140 per litre.”

She said her company had already agreed to sell the diesel for N205 per litre before the price crash.

The witness said that following the refusal of the AYM Shafa drivers, the diesel stayed with her company for more than 60 days and she was paying for the demurrage

She told the court that she eventually sold off the diesel after the market price crashed down further to N105 per litre and her company had already accumulated losses.

Ebun-Phillips told the court that after she had sold off the product, she received a letter of a 7-day ultimatum from the Head of Legal for AYM Shafa Ltd, Christian Ekemezie to refund AYM Shafa Ltd the money it paid for the diesel it did not load.

The witness said that after the 7-day ultimatum elapsed, she received a summons from the Federal High Court, Ikoyi ordering her to close down her company, which she challenged in court and had thrown away.

However, Ebun-Phillips said that while at the Federal High Court, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) petitioned her about owing AYM Shafa and detained her for 13 days only to free her after she agreed to pay back the amount bit by bit.

Addressing the EFCC’s allegation of fraud, the defence counsel, Akin Olatunji, called for an exhibit from the court which was read out by the witness to contain a mandate card bearing the name and signature of her late husband and chairman of Omritas Energy Ltd, Oluwasegun Philips.

Olatunji asked the witness to read the court exhibit detailing the amount the EFCC alleged her company stole.

The witness replied, “The alleged money stolen is N57 million but according to the cheques, it should be N52 million. There is a calculation error; a figure that should be 360 is instead shown as 366.”

“This has made the records show N59 million,” she added.

Olatunji asked the court to issue a subpoena to get the Access Bank representative connected to the fraud allegation in court.

Justice Ismail Ijelu questioned the appropriateness of the defence counsel’s request for a subpoena from a criminal court instead of a witness summons.

Olatunji said his request for a subpoena instead of a witness summons is because the Access bank representative identified as Mr Uyoyou will not come to the court of his own volition unless there is a consequence for disobedience.

The judge adjourned the matter to May 7, 2024, for the cross-examination of Ebun-Phillips by the prosecution and the continuation of the defence.