By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
A former Managing Director of Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Robert Orya, has been sentenced to a total of 490 years on all the 49 counts preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for N2.4 billion fraud.
He was sentenced to 10 years on each of the 49-counts. The sentences are however to run concurrently, indicating that he will spend 10 years in prison.
The sentence was handed over on Thursday, February 5, byJustice F.E. Messiri of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
Messiri held that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt and found the defendant guilty as charged.
The trial judge then sentenced Orya, who served as the Managing Director of NEXIM from 2009 to 2016, to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the 49 counts.
He was arraigned in November 2021 by the EFCC on a 49-count charge bordering on fraud, as the anti graft commission accused him of abusing his position as the Managing Director of the bank to obtain over N1.4 billion from the institution through fraudulent loan awards.
The anti-graft agency alleged that while Orya was serving as the Managing Director, he incorporated a company that used the names of non-existent persons and others without their consent to obtain loans for the company, which were not paid for many years.
In one of the counts, the prosecution accused Mr Orya of inducing NEXIM to pay N488 million to Treasure Mix Construction Limited as a loan under the pretence that the directors of Luxurium Leisure Services Limited, a company with ownership traced to him, applied for and were the beneficiaries of the said loan.
The commission said Mr Orya took this action, with intent to defraud, on 21 September 2011, while serving as NEXIM’s director-general.
According to EFCC, Mr Orya perpetrated similar fraud by inducing NEXIM to pay N630 million to Treasure Mix Construction Limited under the same circumstances on 19 February 2013.
The commission said the actions constituted an offence contrary to section 1 (1)(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under section 1 (3) of the same Act.
He was also accused of incorporating the company, Luxurium Leisure Service Limited, using the names of non-existent persons and others without their consent, and proceeded to grant loans to the company, which remained unpaid for years.
Orya pleaded not guilty to all 49 counts, setting off a full trial that lasted four years and came to an end with Thursday’s judgment.
In the course of the four-year trial, the prosecution, led by Samuel Ugwuegbula, called seven witnesses.
The judge ruled on Thursday that the evidence tendered by the prosecution proved Mr Orya was guilty of all 49 counts.
