Oil Fraud Worth $1.6 Billion: Omokore Knows His End As Judgement Is Delivered Today

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja will rule on the trial of Jide Omokore, a friend of the late Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former petroleum minister, on Tuesday, February 7.

Omokere, Victor Briggs, Abiye Membere, and David Mbanefo were all charged with nine counts of theft for allegedly diverting $1.6 billion from the Federal Government’s proceeds from sales of petroleum products.

On July 4, 2016, Jide Omokere and his co-defendants were initially charged.
But on November 21, 2016, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission re-arrested the defendants before Judge Nnamdi Dimgba along with two of Omokore’s businesses, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Ltd, as a result of additional findings.

The Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act’s section 1(1)(b) and section 1(3) punishments were alleged to apply to some of the offenses.

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It should be recalled that on April 26, 2018, Mr. Olutaye Ayeni, one of the witnesses called by the EFCC, testified in court that he sold Jide Omokore cars worth $8 million, who then purchased them for friends and associates.

“We sold to the defendant Mercedes Benz S550 at a cost of N26 million in the name of Mbanefo David/Chief Omokore and another Mercedes M350 at a cost of Nneka Bricks,” said Ayeni, chief executive officer of Skymit Motors and the seventh prosecution witness.

“Skymit was given a credit for $1.26 million. A document that was already admitted into evidence before the court stated that additional payments received from the defendant’s Skye Bank account included $1 million on November 6, 2013, two payments of $ 1 million each on July 8, $ 1.5 million on August 11, and $ 1 million on September 17, 2014.