Police To Arraign Dangote Workers For N451m Theft

The Police Special Fraud Unit on Monday stalled
the arraignment of eight members of staff of the
Dangote Sugar Refinery, Apapa, before a Lagos
State High Court in Ikeja due to their inability to
produce one of the defendants in court.

The defendant, Mr. Habib Mande, and his
company, El-Habib Property Nigeria Limited, were
scheduled to be arraigned alongside eight
workers of the sugar company for an alleged
theft.

The other defendants in the suit are Musa Sule,
Joseph Ukpah, Babatunde Ajao, Onyekwere
Chinedu, Alayande Rahaman, Omoro Ezekiel,
Zainab Adebanjo, Abugba Odion and Minnie
Mohammed.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Emmanuel Jackson,
told the vacation judge, Justice Sedotein
Ogunsanya, that he was ready to proceed with
the arraignment of the other defendants.
But the trial judge overruled him, insisting that all
the defendants must all be present in court for
their plea to be taken.

The judge, therefore, adjourned the matter till
August 7 for arraignment.
According to the information before the court, the
defendants were to be arraigned on an eight
counts bordering on stealing, forgery of cheque,
requisition form and uttering of false documents,
contrary to section 468 of the Criminal Code,
Cap.C.38, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

According to the charge, they were alleged to
have conspired among themselves “to commit a
felony, to wit: stealing of N451m, property of
Dangote Sugar Refinery.”

The offence was said to have been committed
between 2012 and 2016.
According to a petition by Dangote Sugar Refinery
Plc dated November 17, 2016 and addressed to
the Commissioner of Police, the alleged theft was
discovered during a routine audit check that was
conducted and still ongoing into the accounts of
Dangote Sugar Refinery, Apapa, Lagos.
The petition stated that a total of N67,906,150.00
was discovered to have been allegedly siphoned
out of the company’s account to one company
known as El-Habib Property Nigeria Limited for
the shipment of goods on their behalf.

The petition stated that further checks made on
the company revealed that El-Habib Property
Nigeria Limited had not been engaged for any
service since 2016 and neither was it having
pending claims with Dangote’s company.

“I alleged that the defendants carefully organised
a network to siphon the company’s money to a
total sum yet to be ascertained and shared with
El-Habib Property Nigeria Limited,” the petition
stated.

According to the petition, Dangote Sugar Refinery
pleaded with the SFU to use the wealth of
experience of its members of staff to ascertain the
extent of the alleged fraud committed and to
bring the defendants to justice.