Alleged N3.6bn Fraud: Ex-NDDC Director, Tuoyo Omatsuli Knows Fate March 3

Tuoyo

By JUMOKE SANNI

Justice D. E. Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Friday, December 5, 2025, adjourned till March 3, 2026 for judgment in the alleged N3.6bn fraud involving a former Executive Director, Projects, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Tuoyo Omatsuli.

Omatsuli is standing trial alongside Don Parker Properties Limited, Francis Momoh, and Building Associates Limited on a 46-count amended charge bordering on conspiracy, gratification and money laundering to the tune of N3.645bn brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the charges preferred against them, thereby leading to their full trial.

In the course of the trial, prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho SAN, had called 16 witnesses and tendered 34 exhibits, including bank statements, properties’ documents, corporate filings and an earlier final forfeiture order granted against several assets connected to the defendants.

Following the no-case submission filed by the defendants, the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, reviewed the evidence and directed that all defendants must enter their defence, having found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against them.

At the resumed sitting on Friday, Iheanacho, in his final address, recalled that the EFCC received an intelligence indicating that Starline Consultancy Services, a company engaged by the NDDC to recover statutory levies owed by oil and gas companies, had paid out large sums in suspicious circumstances.