1 month ago
8 ARTICLE AD
The Managing Director of Dana Air, Hathiramani Ranesh, failed to appear in court on Thursday for his scheduled arraignment on a case of N1.3bn alleged fraud.
Ranesh, Dana Group PLC and Dana Steel Ltd, who are listed as 1st to 3rd defendants in a charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/101/2021, are facing a six-count brought against them by the Federal Government.
But the MD didn’t appear in court, prompting the Attorney General of the Federation to request an order of arrest from Justice Obiora Egwatu of an Abuja High Court.
The AGF’s counsel Mojisola Okeya, made the oral application before the trial judge.
Okeya urged the court to issue an arrest warrant for Ranesh.
But Ranesh’s lawyer, Bidemi Ademola-Bello, objected the prosecution’s request.
Ademola-Bello stated that he had filed a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter, adding that the prosecution had also been served.
However, the prosecution counsel insisted that the court couldn’t take the preliminary objection, saying that the defendant was supposed to show up for his scheduled arraignment before the court could entertain any other application.
In his ruling, Justice Egwuatu asked Ademola-Bello to refer the court to any section of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, that makes provision for his request.
The judge also ordered the parties to address the court in the next adjourned date on whether the preliminary objection ought to be taken before arraignment and adjourned the matter until November 4.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, office of the AGF, Moshood Adeyemi, in the charge filed at the court accused the defendants of committing a crime on the property of the Dana Steel Rolling Factory in Katsina between September and December of 2018.
They were alleged to have conspired to remove, convert, and sell four units of industrial generators: “three (3) units Ht of 9,000 KVA and 1 unit of 1,000 KVA; all valued at over N450 million, which form part of the Deed of Asset Debenture that were charged as collateral security for a bond issued in your favour, which Deed is still subsisting at all material times”.
The defendants and others at large were also accused of conspiring to fraudulently divert N864m from House No. 116, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Isolo-Lagos, between April 7 and 8, 2014.
The funds were said to be part of Ecobank bond proceeds intended for the resuscitation of production at the Dana Steel Rolling Factory in Katsina and other unapproved purposes.
The cumulative amount involved in the charge stands at N1,374,300,000.
