The Federal Government has re-arraigned a former managing director of the defunct Gulf Bank Plc Babajide Rogers before the Federal High Court in Lagos over an alleged N15,761,176.24 fraud.
Also arraigned before Justice Daniel Osiagor were the managing director of Ibom Power Company, Gareth Wilcox (a Briton), former director of the bank, Johnson Ajeyeba; Lyk Engineering Company and lawyer Uche Uwechia who was the former legal advisor and secretary to the defunct Gulf Bank Plc.
The defendants were docked on a 28-count amended charge bordering on stealing and fraud.
They were accused of fraud, appropriating various sums of money from the defunct Gulf Bank to using Ibom Power Company and Lyk Engineering Limited, bridging loan facilities and taking overdraft facilities without due process, among others.
Adeyeba, Rogers and Uwechia, alongside others at large, were accused of recklessly granting a loan facility of N450 million to Ibom Power Company Limited without adequate security and contrary to the accepted practice.
At the resumed hearing of the case, the prosecutor Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) told the court that the charge was first filed in 2013 and suffered several setbacks.
Jacobs also informed the court that the defendants allegedly committed the offences on April 1, 2001, in Lagos.
He further claimed that the third defendant, while being indebted to Gulf Bank, willfully made a statement denying the liability of the fourth and fifth defendants in respect of the dollars and naira loans granted them by the defunct Gulf Bank PLC, knowing the same to be false, to avoid the repayment of the loan granted.
The defendants however pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Osiagor adjourned the case to December 13 for trial.
