The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared the Managing Director of Fargo Petroleum and Gas Limited, Seun Ogunbambo, wanted over an alleged N976 million oil subsidy scam.
This was disclosed in a notice posted by the Commission on Friday.
The EFCC accused the defendant of “allegedly defrauding the Federal Government of Nigeria in bogus oil subsidy claims to the tune of Nine Hundred and Seventy-Six Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Ten Naira, Twenty-Eight Kobo (N976,653,110.28).”
According to the EFCC, Ogunbambo was standing trial before a Lagos State High Court but allegedly disappeared after being released on bail.
“His co-defendants, Mamman Nasir Ali and Christian Taylor, were convicted and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment each on Tuesday, May 27, 2025,” the Commission stated in a release signed by Dele Oyewale, Head, Media & Publicity, EFCC.
Anyone with useful information regarding his whereabouts is advised to contact the Commission at its Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Gombe, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Benin, Kaduna, Sokoto, Makurdi, Ilorin, Maiduguri, Uyo, or Abuja offices, or through the hotline: +2348093322644, by email at info@efcc.gov.ng, or at the nearest police station.
Backstory
Recall that on May 27, 2025, the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, convicted and sentenced two oil marketers, Mamman Nasir Ali and Christian Taylor, to 14 years’ imprisonment each for a N2.2 billion oil subsidy fraud.
- Ogunbambo was identified as being at large in part of the charge.
One of the counts reads: “Nasaman Oil Services Ltd, Mamman Nasir Ali, Christian Taylor, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo (now at large), and Olabisi Abdul-Afeez (still at large), on or about the 9th day of November 2011 at Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, conspired to obtain the sum of N749,991,273.36 (Seven Hundred and Forty-Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Ninety-One Thousand, Two Hundred and Seventy-Three Naira, Thirty-Six Kobo) from the Federal Government of Nigeria by falsely claiming that the sum of N749,991,273.36 represented subsidy accruing to Nasaman Oil Services Ltd under the Petroleum Support Fund for the importation of 10,031,986 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which Nasaman Oil Services Ltd purported to have purchased from SEATAC Petroleum Ltd of the British Virgin Islands and imported into Nigeria through MT Liquid Fortune Ltd Ex MT Overseas Lima, which representation you knew to be false.”
According to the EFCC statement, the defendants were initially arraigned on a 49-count charge bordering on conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence, forgery, and the use of false documents.
- They were arrested by the Commission and arraigned for obtaining the sum of N1,480,074,125.61 from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
- The EFCC accused them of claiming that the sum represented a subsidy accruing to Nasaman Oil Services Ltd under the Petroleum Support Fund for the importation of 20,492,982.50 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
- The judge sentenced the defendants to 14 years’ imprisonment each, according to the EFCC.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of identified assets and accounts linked to the fraud.
Additionally, the judge issued a warrant for the arrest of both Oluwaseun Ogunbambo and Olabisi Abdul-Afeez, two other suspects still at large.
