The EFCC charges Market leader in Onitsha over purported N6.7 million scam
Obinna Calistus Okoli, the chairman of the Onitsha/Odekpe Plastic Market Association, has been charged by the Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with obtaining N6.7 million through false pretenses. The charges were brought before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, located in Awka, Anambra State.
EFCC charges Market leader in Onitsha over purported N6.7 million scam
On February 13, 2024, Okoli was arraigned with the Onitsha/Odekpe Plastic Market Association on a two-count accusation that involved getting something under false pretenses.
In one of the counts, it states: “That between May 2018 and July 2020 in Onitsha, Anambra State, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, you, Obinna Calistus Okoli (while
serving as Chairman of Onitsha/Odekpe Plastic Market Association) and Onitsha/Odekpe Plastic Market Association with intent to defraud induced one Mr. Joseph Okechukwu Enyiuche to deliver to you the sum of (N6,700,000.00) Six Million Seven Hundred Thousand Naira was paid to him under the false pretense that you would give him four shops in the planned lock-up stalls/shops to be built at water melon land. You knew this to be false, and as a result, you committed an offense against the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006’s Section 1 (1) (a), which is punishable under that same Act’s Section 1 (3).
When the accusations were read to them, they entered a not guilty plea.
Nuradeen Shehu Ingawa, the EFCC’s attorney, asked the court to set a trial date and remand the defendant to the Correctional Center in light of their pleas.
When defense attorney E. O. Igowe applied for bail orally, Ingawa fiercely objected, reminding the defense attorney that this was a court of records.
After upon, Justice Dimgba postponed the case until Friday, February 16, 2024 so that the bail application could be heard. The accused were placed under EFCC custody on remand.
When a petitioner claimed that Okoli had illegally taken N6.7 million from him to assist in securing four lock-up stores at a proposed mall to be developed at water melon property in Anambra State, the defendant was taken into custody by agents of the EFCC’s Enugu Zonal Command.
The petitioner claims that after paying for the stores, he learned that the defendant had no more stores that could be assigned to him, and that all of his attempts to get his money back had failed.
