EFCC to arraign businessman Cletus Ibeto for N4.8 billion fraud

Chief Cletus Ibeto, a businessman, and his company, Ibeto Energy Development Company, will be arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on 10 counts today, Thursday, October 5. The counts include obtaining by false pretences, fraudulent conversion of property, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and deception.

According to Channels TV, the two individuals and Odoh Holdings Ltd., another company associated with ibeto, will be brought before Justice Ismail Ijelu of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja.

A copy of the charge, signed by Gbolahan Latona, Head, Legal of the EFCC in April 2023, was obtained by our correspondent.

Count 1 alleges that between June 2016 and May 2017 within the court’s jurisdiction, Chief Cletus Ibeto, Ibeto Energy Development Ltd, and Odoh Holdings Ltd obtained from Dozzy Oil & Gas Ltd and Sir Daniel Chukwudozie the sum of N4.8bn by false pretence and with intent to defraud, purporting same to be consideration for 22.6536 hectares of land which he claimed to have at the end of Reclamation Road Layout

Defendants are accused of fraud and forgery in counts 2 and 3, respectively. Count 2 alleges that the defendants duped the victim out of N2.5bn by offering fake land documentation in exchange for 14.1 ha.

Count 3 alleges that on or around January 30, 2018, the defendants created a fake Deed of Sublease (No. 47, Page 47, Vol. 280 of the Lands Registry, Rivers State) between Odoh Holdings Ltd and Ibeto Development Ltd, in which they falsely claimed that Odoh Holdings Ltd acquired a leasehold interest in respect of 22.6536 acres of land.

These actions are illegal under the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, as well as Sections 365(3d) and (e) and 366 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act of 2006.

There is no possibility of a fine for this crime, which carries a sentence of seven to twenty years in prison.