N66m Scam: Owuru Gets Bail

A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, on Monday granted bail to a former presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Owuru, in the sum of N10 million.

Chief Owuru was arraigned before Justice Suleiman Aliyu on August 2, 2013,?by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on a five-count charge bordering on alteration, forgery and obtaining money by false pretence.

?Aside the N10million, other conditions of the bail include provision of a surety who must be a senior legal practitioner with a minimum of 20 years experience, an affidavit of?proof of means by the surety and should sign an undertaking, mandating him to appear in court regularly for trial.

Justice Aliyu adjourned till October 10, this year, for hearing, even as the court also ordered that the accused person be remanded in the EFCC custody, pending the perfection of his bail conditions.

Earlier in his submission, counsel to the accused, Granville Abibo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had urged the court to grant his client bail on self-cognizance.

Abibo described?his client (Chief Owuru) as an elder in the legal profession, pointing out that he was called to bar in 1984 and had been in practice since then.

He, therefore, prayed the court to consider his (Owuru’s) position in the law profession and as a former presidential candidate.

?It would be recalled that Owuru allegedly obtained the sum of N60million from one Ikechukwu Eze through a phooey land deal.

The complainant (Eze) had alleged that sometime in March 2011, he paid the sum of N60 million through Skye Bank, Olu Obasanjo Road branch, Port Harcourt, to Owuru (a Barrister) for a property located at Nzimiro Street, Amadi Flat, Port Harcourt.

?In the process of taking possession of the property, it was discovered that a portion had been sold to another person.

At this point, the accused allegedly asked for another N6 million to settle the other buyer, one Chief Austin Omire, which Eze allegedly obliged him.

?One of the counts reads: ?”That you, Ambrose Owuru on or about the 7th day of March 2011 at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud did obtain the sum of N60 million from Ikechukwu Eze on the pretence that you have sold to him four plots of land situated at Plot 44A, Amadi Layout, Port Harcourt a pretext which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related ?Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act”.

Another count reads: “That you, Ambrose Owuru on or about the 7th day of March 2011 at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did utter a forged “Certificate of Occupancy” dated 20th of March 1990 purportedly? issued by the Rivers State Lands and Survey covering Plot 44A, Amadi Layout, Port Harcourt, and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(2) of the Act.