Court remands businessman Akintoye Akindele over ‘$35m contract fraud’

The federal high court in Abuja has remanded Akintoye Akindele, chief executive officer (CEO) of Duport Midstream Company Limited, at the Kuje correctional centre.

On Tuesday, Akindele was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a four-count charge bordering on money laundering and contract fraud.

The anti-graft agency accused Akindele of allegedly collecting $35 million from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to build a 2,000 barrel-per-day refinery, jetty, gas plant, data centre, and tank farm at Okpoama community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa state.

The EFCC alleged that Akindele received the funds through the bank account of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited and funneled the monies into four of his companies and bureau de change outlets.

The companies are Platform Capital Investment Partners, Duport Midstream Company Ltd., Puisance Afrique Dynamics Ltd., Adamantine Petrochemical & Refinery Ltd.

“That you, Akindele Akintoye, and Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited, between December 2020 and February 2021, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, indirectly retained the sum of $16,006,000 (Sixteen Million, Six Thousand United States Dollars), being part of the funds dishonestly converted from the money paid by the NCDMB to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited as investment, knowing the said sum constituted proceeds of unlawful activity, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act,” one of the counts reads.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

THE BAIL APPLICATION

After the ‘not guilty’ plea, Ekele Iheanacho, counsel to the EFCC, asked the court to remand Akindele in the custody of the correctional centre and seek a trial date.

However, Emmanuel Esadio, counsel to the defendant, told the court that a bail application has been filed and served on the prosecutor.

In his response, Nwite said it will take a 48-hour period for the bail application to be considered.

Esadio requested that his client be remanded in the custody of the anti-graft agency.

However, Iheanacho opposed the request, arguing that the EFCC lacked adequate facilities.

The EFCC counsel said the defendant had demonstrated untrustworthiness by collecting his international passport and claiming that it is in the court’s custody.

“The defendant cannot be trusted. He has shown tendencies that suggest he may commit another crime,” Iheanacho said.

“Additionally, there is no medical evidence before the court to support claims of ill health.”

The trial judge remanded the defendant at Kuje correctional centre and adjourned the case to December 31, 2024.

PREVIOUS REMAND ORDER

In March 2024, a federal high court in Abuja remanded Akindele at the Kuje correctional centre.

The inspector-general of police had arraigned the defendant on a four-count charge for allegedly diverting $5,636,397.01, and N73,543,763.25, belonging to Summit Oil International Ltd.

Akindele and his company were said to have committed the act between 2017 and 2021 when they allegedly converted the said sum received from Shell Petroleum Company to personal use.

Akindele had pleaded not guilty to the charge.