Court suspends bench warrant orders made against Cletus Ibeto over alleged N4.8bn fraud
Court of appeal, Lagos division Tuesday suspended the enforcement of warrant of arrest issued against businessman, Cletus ibeto by the Lagos state high court.
The Justice Muhammed Mustapha-led panel of appellate justices adjourned till Sept 16 and suspended the order by the lower court, to enable further out of court settlement moves by the parties in the case.
Recall the EFCC had filed a 10-count charge of conspiracy, fraud, forgery and fraudulent use of documents against the defendant alongside his two companies, Ibeto Energy Development Company and Odoh Holdings Ltd over an alleged N4.8 billion fraud.
This followed the Lagos High Court sitting in the Ikeja ordering of the arrest of Cletus Ibeto, businessman, and owner of Ibeto Energy Development Company for allegedly refusing to appear in court to stand trial over fraud allegations.
Justice Ismail Ijelu issued the bench warrant for his arrest after a motion moved by the counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, who informed the judge that the defendant had flagrantly failed and refused to appear in court despite repeated hearing notices served on him.
But the first defendant Ibeto had filed a preliminary objection against the charge citing lack of territorial jurisdiction and other grouses, a position it says is supported by the attorney general of Lagos.
A new judge at the Lagos state high court sitting in Ikeja, Justice Oyindamola Ogala took over hearing of the alleged N4.8 billion fraud trial involving Cletus Ibeto, the Chairman of Ibeto Energy Development Company, .
The chief judge, Kazeem Alogba had reassigned the defendants’ case file to Ogala following a petition against Justice Ismail Ijelu who earlier presided over the case.
The Lagos director of public prosecutions at the ministry of justice Babajide Martins told justice Oyindamola ogala that the state government was appearing before it as an interested party, pursuant to Section 211 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which empowers it to take over criminal proceedings that has been instituted by another authority. He said the state was also coming into the matter based on a request written by defendants.
