By SCM Reporter
IKEJA, Lagos – A Slick asset manager has been jailed for more than two years after pulling off a massive £300,000 (N822 million) oil fraud in Nigeria.
Minnis Uchenna Howard and his firm, Howard Minnis Asset Management Limited, were brought to justice at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja after a bitter legal battle spanning nearly three years.
The court heard that Howard’s firm pocketed a staggering N822,422,260 from a local company, Krystal Lubes Limited, in 2023. The cash was supposed to secure a mountain of industrial lubricants—specifically 900,000 litres of SN900 Base Oil and 500,000 litres of SN500 Base Oil.
Instead of delivering the goods, Howard “dishonestly converted” the fortune for his own use, leaving the victims completely high and dry.
Howard initially tried to brazen it out, pleading “not guilty” when first arraigned by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), back in November 2023.
But after prosecutors threw the book at him—calling four witnesses and burying the defence under a mountain of documentary evidence—Howard finally cracked. Facing an amended charge last week, he threw in the towel and pleaded guilty.
Presiding judge Justice R.A. Oshodi sentenced Howard to two years and four months behind bars.
His company was hit with a N10 million (£3,700) fine, and the judge ordered Howard to cough up full restitution of the N822.4 million to his victims within a year.
The court also ordered that N45 million (£16,500) already clawed back by EFCC investigators be returned to the swindled firm within seven days.
