Operatives of the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC have arrested one Onwughalu Chikodi Godwin, a 30-year old businessman for allegedly stealing vegetable oil belonging to a company, Bro-kenn Agro Allied Industries, worth N30, 853, 800. 00 (Thirty Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-three Thousand, Eight Hundred Naira).
The company, engaged in the refining and processing of vegetable oil, alleged that Godwin, a major customer of the company, conspired with others at large to defraud the company of the said sum, being the value of oil stolen from the factory between January 9, 2024 and May 26, 2025.
According to the counsel to the company, Dr Mazi Udegbulem, the suspect and his cohorts fraudulently manipulated the refinery’s weighbridge system to facilitate and conceal their unlawful activities by filling jerry cans with water to manipulate weighbridge readings, draining the water at the refinery and refilling the jerry cans with stolen vegetable oil.
“The practice in the company is that, if a vehicle is coming in to lift oil which has been paid for by a customer, it must be inspected at the entrance of the company and the weight determined at the weighbridge. After the weighing of the vehicle and the determination of its weight, which will be recorded, the oil will be loaded, and the vehicle will be taken back to the weighbridge again to ascertain the weight after loading. The difference between the empty vehicle without oil and when oil is loaded into it will give the net weight,t, which is the value of the oil loaded in the vehicle”, he said.
Udegbulem further alleged that, sometime in May, 2025, the company noticed the fraudulent scheme being perpetrated by the suspect and his cohorts and one month later, the suspect visited the company with his Sienna bus loaded with 115 gallons of empty jerry cans, out of which 40 jerry cans were filled with water. The suspect allegedly paid for one ton of oil,l which will be filled into 63 gallons of 18 litres each.
“By coming with 115 gallons, Godwin was aware that 115 gallons would be too much for the one ton of oil which he paid for, but he put in the extra gallons because he already had a plan to steal oil from the factory. The extra 52 gallons will be used to carry the stolen oil”, he said.
According to him, on that day, out of 115 gallons, 40 were filled with water and it manipulated the weighbridge and was allowed to pass and load oil. “Because the company was already on red alert, the vehicle was inspected, and they said that 40 gallons were seen to be filled with water. The difference between the first weight when it had 40 gallons of water and the second weight of the same vehicle when the water was removed was 960kg, which was the exact weight meant to dupe the company”, it said.
“The market value of 960kg of oil then was N2, 496, 000. 00, and this is approximately what the company loses on each trip Godwin visited the factory to buy oil, between January 2024 and May 2025”, he said,
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect and his cohorts gained the confidence and trust of the company and allegedly exploited that trust with the intent to defraud it.
The suspect will be charged in court as soon as investigations are concluded.
