BY Onozure Dania

A Lagos High Court has adjourned till April 28, further hearing in the trial of an oil subsidy fraud suspect, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.

Ogunbambo was absent at the last hearing in the matter. It was, however, gathered that his absence was because he was in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital, after being attacked by four gunmen operating on a motorcycle on April 5.

According to a police report, the assailants allegedly ambushed Ogunbambo in his jeep near his house in Ikoyi, Lagos, at 8p.m.
The attackers pulled him out of his car, shot sporadically into the air during the operation, and physically assaulted him.

Ogunbambo was left unconscious and rushed to an undisclosed hospital by passers-by, where he was admitted following severe injuries.

Ogunbambo had, through his counsel, expressed fear in a petition he sent to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mariam Aloma-Muktar and Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Philips, last year, claiming that some influential people, among them a major oil marketer, were behind his travails over allegation of fuel subsidy scam, for which he is standing trial.

At the hearing on April 10, EFCC’s counsel told the court that the information at the commission’s disposal was that the suspect had fled to Canada but Ogunbambo’s lawyer, Raphael Oluyede, dismissed the EFCC’s claim, saying that his client was absent from court because he was recently attacked by some gunmen, who had wanted to abduct him.