Justice O. M. Anyachebelu of the Anambra State High Court has convicted and sentenced Engineer Nnaemeka Nwawka, Managing Director of Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, and the Sage Nebefeife Foundation to 14 years’ imprisonment each for offences involving stealing, conversion and gratification amounting to N25 billion.
The judgment, delivered in Awka, followed their conviction on a 10-count charge bordering on fraudulent conversion of company funds.
According to the charge, the defendants—Nwawka, Jude Anniekwe Cyril and the registered trustees of Sage Nebefeife Foundation—fraudulently converted various sums of money transferred from Vhelbherg International Limited’s account with Standard Chartered Bank into the Foundation’s account with First Bank between 2012 and 2013.
In one of the counts, the court heard that between April 23 and December 21, 2012, the defendants converted N82,856,934 to personal use. Another count alleged that between January 8 and May 24, 2013, they similarly converted N29,620,733.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, prompting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to proceed to full trial through its counsel, Victor Ukagwu. The trial spanned 10 years, during which the prosecution called four witnesses and tendered documentary evidence admitted as exhibits P1 to P24.
Evidence presented in court indicated that Nwawka facilitated the award of contracts from Orient Petroleum Resources Plc to companies linked to his associates. The prosecution established that payments made to those companies were allegedly routed back to him through the Sage Nebefeife Foundation and subsequently withdrawn for personal use.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, advanced arguments on behalf of their clients, maintaining that the contracts were lawfully executed. However, Justice Anyachebelu held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The court consequently sentenced Nwawka and the Foundation to 14 years’ imprisonment and ordered them to refund N140,900,000 to Orient Petroleum Resources Plc.
The case originated from a petition by Chief Cletus Ibeto, an investor in the company, who alleged that he invested N25 billion in Orient Petroleum Resources Plc but that substantial sums were siphoned through suspicious contract awards and diverted via the Sage Nebefeife Foundation.
