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Lagos High Court Issues Bench Warrant for the Arrest of Cletus Ibeto over N4.8B Fraud allegations.

A state high court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has issued a warrant of arrest against Cletus Ibeto, a businessman, over his failure to appear before the court for trial.
The order was made by Justice I.O. Ijelu of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday, November 3, 2023,  for his failure to appear in court for his arraignment over the fraud allegations against him.

On October 5, 2023, the matter was adjourned till November 3, 2023, for arraigment of the Defendant alongside his company, Ibeto Energy Development Company and Odoh Holdings on  10-count charges bordering on obtaining by false pretences, fraudulent conversion of property, criminal breach of trust, forgery and deception. 

The adjournment was granted following an application by his lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, who stated that the matter could be resolved between the Complainant and the Defendants if given some time to do so.  
Responding to the application, prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, said the EFCC gave the Defendants the opportunity to go and resolve their differences with the Complainant even before the charges were filed, but they did not seize the opportunity. 

After listening to both parties, at the last sitting, the judge stated that the defence counsel seemed to be trying to deceive the court but graciously granted the application and the matter was adjourned till November 3, 2023 for arraignment of the defendants.

In an interesting turn of events on friday, 3rd November, 2023, Ibeto Cletus was still not present  in court but represented by D.A. Awosika, SAN, who apologised for the absence of his client o  grounds of an underlying ailment.
The prosecution counsel  informed the court that the matter was for arraignment and recalled that the defendants had been absent at the two previous sittings on 28 September and 5th October 2023, respectively.  Learned SAN further stated before His Lordship that on the 5th of October,  Ikpeazu, SAN, represented the defendants and also pleaded with the court for adjournment on the grounds that he wanted to talk to the prosecution to do plea bargain. The court granted the application but insisted that the defendant must be present in court on the next date, irrespective of whatever steps parties take to resolve the matter.
Counsel for the defendants, D.A. Awosika, SAN, stated that he was not in court to disrespect the court, and that defendants would always come before the court to take their pleas. He argued that the defence had an application before the court challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case. He further argued that the said that the said application ought to be heard before the plea could be taken.

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