The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, on Tuesday, 13 November, 2012, arraigned six suspects at a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, before Justice Adebisi Akinlade, over N3.8million carrot seed scam.  The six suspects: Dave Akanni Joel (alias Dave Bobby Mamello), David Omowunmi (alias Haastrup Ogedengbe), Oluwole Adegbite (alias James Tokunbo), Yusuf Adegoke (still at large), Oyebisi Olasukanmi (still at large) and Dr Ouldslimane (still at large) were arraigned on a five count charge bordering on intent to defraud and conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence from Rear Admiral B.J.C. Noshiri (Rtd).
The accused persons   fraudulently sold a carrot seed business idea to the retired military officer. In the process, they collected the sum of N3,800,000,00 ( Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira only)  in various instalments from Noshiri for the regularization of the business; supply of carrot seeds to Al-Camac Beverages Production Company based in Jedda, Saudi Arabia and for accessing the sum of $7million earmarked by Al-Camac Beverages Production Company for the business.
When the charges were read to them, they all pleaded not guilty. Defence counsel,  Mahmud  Atanda, informed the court that he had filed an application for bail for the accused persons and urged that the application be heard. Prosecution counsel, A.B.C Ozioko, said he was not against the request for a short adjournment but opposed having any of the accused persons remanded in EFCC custody, stressing that the Commission’s facilities in this regard are over-stretched.
Justice Adebisi Akinlade, after listening to all their submissions, adjourned the case till 3 December, 2012 and ordered that the suspects be remanded in Prison custody.
In a similar vein, one Etchie Joseph was on Tuesday arraigned before Justice Adebisi Akinlade of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on a three count charge for offences bordering on attempt to obtain money by false pretence and possession of fraudulent documents.
One of the charges reads: “Etchie Joseph ( a.k.a Stanley Oberman) on or about the 30th day of October, 2007 at Pulsenet Cybercafé No. 24 Opebi Road, in Ikeja within the Ikeja Judicial Division had in your possession a document containing false pretence to wit: an e-mail dated 25th day of September 2007 purportedly to be written by Stanley Oberman and falsely represented that Stanley Oberman had the sum of $5,450 ( Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty United State Dollars) to be transferred to Dale”.
Joseph was arrested by Operatives of the EFCC at a cybercafé in Lagos for falsely presenting himself as Stanley Oberman and representing himself as a white man to one Veronica Pena. Joseph claimed to be residing at LA Grange, KY 40031, United States of America.  In his statement, he confessed that he actually tried to defraud Pena but was not successful and was about to give up when he was arrested.
However when the charges were read to him, the  accused pleaded not guilty, prompting the prosecution counsel, Francis Usani to ask the court to fix a date for trial.  However, defence counsel, O. F. Latona, told the court that he had not filed any application for bail because they got the notice of the arraignment rather late. He, therefore, pleaded for a short adjournment to argue the application.
Justice Akinlade scolded  Latona for the request.  “You have not presented any document before the court, not even a bail application and you are talking about adjournment?” she said.  She however adjourned the case till January 19, 2013 for hearing of bail application and ordered that the suspect be remanded in Kirikiri Maximum prison.