Former Nigerian Bar Association President Joseph Daudu (SAN) has requested that the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja deny the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Justice Minister Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) his attempt to end a high-profile oil theft trial involving the multinational oil trading giant Trafigura Beheer BV and Trafigura PTE Limited.
Daudu, who is representing the nominal complainant, Nadabo Energy Limited, appeared before Justice Mojisola Dada on Thursday. He said that the case was brought under Lagos State’s Criminal Code Law (Cap. C17, 2003), not the federal penal system.
Daudu declared, “The notice of discontinuance brought by the AGF’s office is unconstitutional,” citing a violation of Section 211(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
He said that because the prosecution started in Lagos State, the Attorney General of Lagos State, not the Federal Government, has sole authority over it.
According to reports, following a plea by Trafigura’s attorney requesting that the Federal Government take over the case, the AGF, operating through the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), issued a notice of discontinuance.
Daudu, however, argued that the action was “ultra vires, null, void, and constitutionally defective.”
“This notice should be set aside because it is fundamentally flawed and cloaked in incompetence,” he argued.
According to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Trafigura and five other individuals stole Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) from Nadabo Energy for about $8,442,806.09, which is the main focus of the case (ID/7980c/2018).
Among the other defendants are Jil Engineering and Oil Services Ltd., Rembrandt Ltd., Osahon Asemota, Yusuf Kwande, and Mettle Energy and Gas.
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Prior to this, all defendants had entered not guilty pleas.
With the prosecution calling 17 witnesses, the trial had made great progress. Justice Dada ordered the accused to present their defense after dismissing the defense’s no-case argument.
The contentious notice of discontinuance was issued after Trafigura’s legal team asked the AGF to end the case rather than continue with their defense.
After the prosecution sought for the notice, the judge later released the defendants.
The lead attorney for Trafigura, Bode Olanipekun (SAN), had claimed that the defendants had previously been charged with similar crimes before Justice Sedotan Ogunsanya and had requested that the new case be dismissed for double jeopardy.
However, Justice Dada rejected the application as without merit, ruling that there was no relationship between the two cases.
Trafigura’s attorney started defense proceedings after multiple court decisions ordered the trial to begin, named three witnesses, and then asked the AGF to take over the case, a move that Daudu vehemently resisted.
