New and curious facts have revealed that the main reason Mr. Uche Ogah is desperate to be the governor of Abia State is to secure immunity against his prosecution for some pending criminal charges.
Latest findings have also exposed the fact that the recent constitutional cum legal crisis in the state owes largely to the litany of criminal charges against Ogah, whose only escape route might be to emerge the governor of Abia State, protected against any form of prosecution following Section 308 of the constitution which guarantees his immunity.
Although there are concerns about alleged conspiracy theories from high places, the most disturbing, according to sources, is the arbitrary use of the judiciary to realise what amounts to an anathema to constitutionalism and the rule of law.
On Thursday, June 16, 2016, the police in Lagos had arraigned Ogah, his company, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, before a Tinubu Magistrate Court on a three-count charge bordering on forgery and conspiracy preferred against the defendants by the police.
The police said Ogah forged a Memorandum of Understanding between Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited and Mut-Hass Petroleum Limited sometime in March 2011. That he (Ogah) and some other persons said to be at large were also accused of forging the signature of one Mrs. Bridget Adeosun. The alleged forgery was reportedly committed in Ikeja, Lagos.
The police said a bank aided Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited to open an account in the name of Mut-Hass Petroleum to perpetrate a fraud without applying its internal control procedures in the opening of the account. The police claimed also that UBA allowed the said account to be opened sometime in 2011 at its regional office in Palmgrove area of Lagos, in breach of the provisions of the Financial Institutions Act 2004.
Ogah was arraigned before a Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Kikelomo Ayeye, by a police prosecutor, ASP Henry Obiazi, who told the court that the offences contravened sections 363 (3)(u), 408 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charges read in part, “That you, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, Uche Ogah, and others at large sometime in March 2011 at Ikeja, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to wit: forgery.
“That you, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, Uche Ogah, and others at large, on the same date, time, place and in the aforementioned magisterial district, did forge the signature of one Mrs. Bridget Adeosun and a document known as MoU between Mut-Hass Petroleum Limited and Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, with an intent that it may be in any way used or acted upon as genuine.
“That you, Deji Somoye, United Bank for Africa and others still at large, sometime in August 2011, at UBA regional office, Palmgrove, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did knowing that Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited design to commit an offence, failed to use all reasonable means to prevent the commission or the completion of the crime.”
Although Ogah and his co-accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and were admitted to bail in the sum of N200,000 each with one surety each in like sum, he is billed to return to court on August 4, 2016, for the commencement of trial. It is against this backdrop that Ogah is pushing, albeit through subterranean means, to be governor of Abia State.
Presently, there is a legal lockdown in the state pending the hearing of the appeal filed by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. But the Abia State debacle is believed to present yet another sad episode in the democratic evolution of the country, with critical institutions being used as canon folders.
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