A Nigerian and Ghanaian suspected to have forged documents in order to claim ownership of $48 million Crude Oil imported into Ghana last year by Dimaond Shipping have found themselves in the grips of the law.
The accused persons, Sylvester Ofodeme Ikenna, 35, an engineer and operations manager of Zicokem, and 43-year-old Dennis Ofori-Tarteh who claims to be a business executive, were put before an Accra Circuit Court.
An alleged accomplice, 46-year-old Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Shipping limited, whose name is yet to be released by the police, is at large.
They were charged with conspiracy to steal, possessing forged documents, attempting to steal and deceit of public officer in a court presided over by Mrs. Adwoa Coleman.
They have denied any wrongdoing and have been each granted GH�30,000 bail with a surety, while the case has been adjourned to June 14, 2011.
Narrating events leading to the arrest of the accused persons, Superintendent Abichem Boye told the court that in August 2010, a Nigerian company called Sahara Group of Companies transported crude oil valued at $48 million to Tema Oil Refinery.
He said after sometime, two different companies, Uviesa Oil Wells and Zicokem Limited, in furtherance of a common criminal objective to claim the proceeds, said the oil belonged to them.
The accused persons also emerged, claiming ownership of the same crude oil with all kinds of documents from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.
According to him, checks on one of the said documents from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation indicated that they were forged and added that the accused persons had continuously propagated falsehood on various radio stations in Accra such as Radio Gold, Joy FM and Asempa FM recently.
The police officer said the situation caused a lot of embarrassment to the nation, leading to the arrest of Sylvester at Asempa FM where he went for a programme. He said further investigations led to the arrest of Dennis Ofori while the third accused person, sensing danger, fled to Nigeria.
He said they were arraigned after police investigations.
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