The Federal Government has arraigned Babatunde Adesanya and Akinpelu Abass at a Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly defrauding the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia of €2.3 million COVID-19 funds.
Representing the Federal Government, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami arraigned the suspects on Monday.
The suspects were arraigned on a 10-count charge before Justice Anwuli Chikere.
Adesanya, 50, is a master’s degree holder in Cell Biology while Abass, 41, is the managing director of Musterpoint Investment Nigeria Limited. They were arrested by the cybercrime unit of the Nigerian Police Force and INTERPOL in September.
The suspects were alleged to have cloned the corporate website of ILBN Holdings BV, Holland to defraud one Freiherr Fredrick Von Hahn, a representative of the German state.
Force spokesman Frank Mba had in a statement in September said the suspects collaborated with one Eduardus Boomstra and Geradius Maulder, their Holland-based cohorts, “specialised in identity theft, cyber-stalking, cloning of corporate websites amongst other cyber mischiefs to defraud unsuspecting members of the public across the world”.
The suspects, Mr Mba continued, “obtained from Mr Freiherr Fredrick Von Hahn the sum of 1.5m Euro and another 880,000 Euro as advanced payment for the supply of COVID-19 PPEs valued at 14.7million Euros.”
When the PPE was not delivered, the German representative visited the corporate office of ILBN Holdings BV in Holland to seek reasons for the delay in supplying the items.
He was told the company never did business with him and that the transaction was a scam.
