A business big shot, Roland Uche Ogbonna, and his company, Elgusto Classic International, are presently swimming in murky water.
On Friday, August 12, 2016, Ogbonna and his outfit were arraigned before a Lagos Federal High Court by the Nigerian Customs Service Board for an alleged unlawful importation of furniture.
The businessman was accused of importing 511 sets of prohibited furniture from China on July 20, 2016.
Ogbonna operates Elgusto Classic International at kilometre 43, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos.
According to the charge read to him, the business mogul was alleged to have on August 1, 2016, broken the Customs’ seal placed on the company’s warehouse without authority, with an intent to evade prohibition, and removed the sets of the furniture valued at N100 million.
The offences, according to the prosecutor, Julius Iyiola Ajakaiye, are contrary to and punishable under sections 47(1)(a)(ii), 145(5), 164(a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act, Cap. C45, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The defendant alongside is company, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
But upon the defendant’s plea of not guilty, Ajakaiye urged the court to remand him in prison’s custody, and a date for trial.
However, lawyer to the defendant, P. C. Dike, urged the court to admit his client bail in the most liberal terms. But his submissions were disregarded by the presiding judge, Justice AbdulAziz Anka, who said there is no application to that effect before him.
Justice Anka, however, told the defendant’s lawyer that anytime he bring the bail application will be heard provided the both parties agreed on a date.
The judge while adjourned the matter till October 19, for trial, ordered that the defendant be remanded in prison’s custody.
