The trial of Abubakar Ali Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, for an alleged ₦1.4bn fraud continued on Wednesday before Justice Christopher Balogun of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja.

During today’s sitting, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, made history as the first chairman of the Commission to give evidence in Court.

Bawa, who is testifying as the fifth prosecution witness, PW5, had begun his examination-in-chief on June 3, 2015, long before his appointment as the EFCC Chairman.

Before today’s proceedings, Bawa had given evidence against the defendants,  who pleaded “not guilty” to the alleged fraud, stating that Nababo Energy Limited allegedly obtained the sum of ₦1,464,961,978.24 from the Federal Government as oil subsidy with forged documents.

Bawa had also told the Court that, after studying the documents submitted to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) where the defendants claimed they imported about 14,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the EFCC conducted an investigation which revealed the contrary.

“Contrary to the claim of the defendants as par Exhibit B, which they submitted to PPPRA to claim subsidy, the defendant imported only 4,850 metric tonnes of PMS as opposed to 14,000 metric tonnes that he claimed to have imported,” Bawa had said.

At the last sitting on February 23, 2021, Justice Balogun had admitted in evidence an email correspondence between Bawa and Ullrich Afini Awani of Global Commodities African as well as the Certificate of Identification.