Cletus Ibeto, Billionaire Industrialist, Knows Fate On May 27 Over Alleged N4.8bn Fraud

<h4>Cletus Ibeto<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that Justice Oyindamola Ogala of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja&comma; Lagos&comma; on Monday&comma; April 15&comma; 2024&comma; adjourned the alleged N4&period;8 billion fraud brought against a businessman&comma; Chief Cletus Ibeto&comma; till May 27&comma; 2024&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to a statement signed by Dele Oyewale&comma; Head&comma; Media &amp&semi; Publicity and made available to OpenLife&comma; the matter&comma; which was initially before Justice I&period;O&period; Ijelu&comma; of the Lagos State High Court&comma; Ikeja&comma; suffered several adjournments due to the absence of the defendant to take his plea with respect to the 10-count charges raised against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission&comma; EFCC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was charged alongside his companies&comma; Ibeto Energy Development Company and Odoh Holdings Ltd&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ibeto had approached the appellate court &comma; following the bench warrant issued against him by Justice Ijelu pending his arraignment&period; The defendant&comma; through his lawyer&comma; Chief Wole Olanipekun&comma; SAN&comma; had also approached the appellate court&comma; challenging the jurisdiction of the High Court to hear the matter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the resumed sitting on Monday&comma; defence counsel&comma; Adebayo Oshodi&comma; prayed the court to withdraw the application for stay of proceedings&comma; pending the determination of the appeal and the one challenging the court’s jurisdiction filed by Onyechi Ikpeazu&comma; SAN&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also told court that he had filed a notice of preliminary objection&comma; challenging the jurisdiction of the court&comma; and prayed the court to allow him to move the application&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; prosecution counsel&comma; Rotimi Jacob&comma; SAN&comma; opposed the application on the grounds that the defendant had filed an appeal on the same issue before the Lagos Division of Court of Appeal&period; He also told the court that the appellate court had yet to decide on it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also informed the court that the defendant&comma; in his bid for out-of-court settlement&comma; had repaid the sum of N2 billion in installments to the Commission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After listening to both parties&comma; Justice Ogala ruled that hearing the defendant&&num;8217&semi;s application would amount to nothing because the same issue &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;is currently pending before the appellate court&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Judge further held &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is nothing to sway me to hear it in a hurry&period; The defendant is not here&period; The court of appeal will sit on it&period; I will not waste time writing a ruling&comma; while the case is still pending at the Appeal Court&period; If there was nothing in the Court of Appeal&comma; I would have heard the application&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Consequently&comma; Justice Ogala adjourned the matter till May 27&comma; 2024&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Judge further directed the parties to notify the Court on the outcome of appeal&comma; which has been fixed for May 7&comma; 2024&comma; at the appellate court&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;