A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Thursday, January 26, 2017 sentenced Walter Wagbatsoma, an oil magnate to 10 years in prison for fuel subsidy fraud.
He was sentenced along with, Adaoha Ugo-Nnadi, a colleague in his Ontario Oil and Gas company.
The judge also ordered that Ontario Oil and Gas refunds N754 million to the Nigerian government.
Ontario Oil and Gas is one the companies indicted in fuel subsidy fraud in an investigation instituted by former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The judge said that the sentence would start to count from January 13, 2016.
Wagbatsoma made a name for himself in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. He is a co-founder of Ontario Oil and Gas. He began his career in Shell Petroleum Development Company in the 1990s. He later moved to banking where he worked in Zenith Bank, Ecobank, FSB International Bank, and Trade Bank
In 2012, the oil magnet was honoured as one of the business people in Nigeria “with a heart of gold” by the Nigerian leadership awareness non-profit organization, Business Leadership Awareness Group (BLAG). The organisation’s citation said that Wagbatsoma “made an overwhelming success of his energy business but never forgot to invest back into the lives of less privileged in the society.”
