Dr John Abebe, the in-law to the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has bagged seven years imprisonment for forgery and laundering.
Justice Mojisola Dada of Ikeja Special Offences Court gave the verdict on Saturday with an option of fine to the tune of N50 million to be paid within 30 days in lieu of imprisonment.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arraigned Abebe, who is the younger brother to the late former First Lady, Stella Obasanjo before the court for forgery.
EFCC claimed that the businessman “illegally inserted” into page 2 of the said letter “the following statement, “Also note that the ‘Buy-Out Option’ only applies to the pre-production stage of the NPIA. The $4m buy-out is thus irrelevant from production of oil in any of our fields.”
According to the anti-graft agency, Mr. Abebe also attempted to “pervert the course of justice” by tendering the allegedly forged November 30, 1995 letter “as a fabricated evidence” in court, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/224/2010 between Dr. John Abebe, Inducon Nigeria Limited and Statoil Nigeria Limited.
He was arraigned on four counts.
Justice Mojisola Dada handed the judgement after it was established that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution led by Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN had arraigned the defendant on July 26, 2018 on three- count charge bothering on money laundering and forgery.
Punch
