Justice O. M. Anyachebelu of the Anambra State High Court sitting in Awka has convicted and sentenced Engineer Nnaemeka Nwawka, Managing Director of Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, and the Sage Nebefeife Foundation to fourteen years’ imprisonment each for stealing, conversion, and gratification amounting to ₦25 billion.
They were jailed after being found guilty on a ten-count charge bordering on stealing, conversion, and gratification.
Count One reads: “That you NNAEMEKA NWAWKA, JUDE ANNIEKWE CYRIL, and THE REGISTERED TRUSTEES OF SAGE NEBEIFE FOUNDATION, sometime between 23rd April and 21st December 2012 in Anambra State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted to your personal use the aggregate sum of ₦82,856,934 (Eighty-Two Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Four Naira) only, which sum was transferred from Vhelbherg International Limited’s company account domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank, Account No. 0000777216, into the account of Sage Nebeife Foundation domiciled in First Bank, Account No. 2017452111.”
Count Two reads: “That you NNAEMEKA NWAWKA, JUDE ANNIEKWE CYRIL, and THE REGISTERED TRUSTEES OF SAGE NEBEIFE FOUNDATION, sometime between 8th January and 24th May 2013 in Anambra State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted to your personal use the aggregate sum of ₦29,620,733 (Twenty-Nine Million, Six Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty-Three Naira) only, which sum was transferred from Vhelbherg International Limited’s company account domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank, Account No. 0000777216, into the account of Sage Nebeife Foundation domiciled in First Bank, Account No. 2017452111.”
They pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them, prompting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through its counsel, Victor Ukagwu, to proceed to full trial. The trial lasted ten years. The EFCC called four witnesses and tendered several documentary pieces of evidence, which were admitted and marked as Exhibits P1 to P24.
The evidence showed how Nwawka ensured that contracts were awarded to his friend’s companies from Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, how monies were paid to the companies, and eventually returned to him through his foundation, and how he withdrew the said monies for personal use.
Counsel to the first and third defendants, U. N. Udechukwu, SAN, and counsel to the second defendant, E. S. C. Obiora, SAN, held briefs for their clients, offering defences on how the contracts were handled. However, Justice Anyachebelu found two of the defendants guilty and convicted them accordingly.
The court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and therefore sentenced Nwawka and his foundation to 14 years’ imprisonment. The court also ordered the convict and his foundation to refund the sum of ₦140,900,000 (One Hundred and Forty Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) to Orient Petroleum Resources Plc.
Nwawka and his co-travellers were sentenced following a petition by one of the investors in the company, Chief Cletus Ibeto, who alleged that he invested the sum of ₦25 billion into Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, but that Nwawka, through the award of suspicious and bogus contracts to his friend’s companies, siphoned most of the funds back through his Sage Nebefeife Foundation.
