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Mrs Ada
Ugo-Ngali (L) in custody; collapsed (R)
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Justice Latee Okunnu of
the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Thursday sentenced the Managing Director
of Ontario Oil and Gas Limited, Mrs. Ada Ugo-Ngali, to a jail term of 69 years
for a fuel subsidy fraud of ₦754m.
Media
report continues:
But
the jail term would run concurrently for 10 years.
The
judge ordered the return of the ₦754m to the Federal Government.
Justice
Okunnu had on January 13, 2017 convicted Ugo-Ngali, Ontario Oil and Gas Limited
and its Chairman, Mr. Walter Wagbatsoma, of eight counts pressed against them
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The
judge had been unable to pass the sentence on the judgment day as Ugo-Ngali
slumped in court after being convicted and just before the judge could pass the
sentence.
The
convict was subsequently rushed out of the courtroom and taken to Havannah
Hospital in Surelere from where she was later moved to the intensive care unit
of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba.
Ugo-Ngali
came to court on Thursday straight from LUTH and on a wheel chair, with
plasters on her body.
In
passing the sentence, Justice Okunnu rejected the plea of the convict’s lawyer,
Mr. Edoka Onyeke, praying that the sentence should be non-custodial in view of
his client’s health.
“I
have considered the plea of the defence counsel for a non-custodial sentence of
the 2nd defendant. I have to say that the request to grant a non-custodial
sentence must be rejected and I can only exercise my discretion on the length
of time the convict will spend in prison,” Justice Okunnu held.
She
subsequently sentenced the convict to a cumulative jail term of 69 years, which
would, however, run concurrently for only 10 years.
The
judge said the jail term would begin to read from January 13, 2017, when
Ugo-Ngali and her accomplices were pronounced convicted.
Wagbatsoma, who is the first convict in the case, is said to be currently under house arrest in the United Kingdom, where he is being held for money laundering, relating to a £12 million National Health Service Trust Fund.
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