Shareholding dispute: EFCC files criminal charge in ‘purely civil’ business disagreement between IIHL, R28 chiefs
By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
A disagreement that sprang up in a purely business transaction between the Managing Director of Intermediate Investment Holdings Limited (IIHL), Mr. Ufoma Joseph Immanuel (UJI) and his business partner Adebisi Adebutu, the owner/alta ego of R28 Holdings Ltd, has snowballed into a legal issue as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed a criminal charge against Mr Ufoma Joseph Immanuel in what is a purely a civil transaction.
Adebisi Adebutu had petitioned the EFCC following a disagreement in a business transaction between him and Immanuel.
The matter concerned a shareholding dispute between UJI and his company, IIHL on the one hand and R28 and Adebisi Adebutu on the other hand.
In a shocking development on the dispute, the EFCC had on March 11, 2026, arraigned Mr. Immanuel, alongside his company, IIHL, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos, on a two-count charge of forgery and obtaining money to the tune of $1.5 million by false pretence.
In the charge brought before Justice Dada, the EFCC alleged that Immanuel, who is the alta ego/Managing director of Chappal Energy, induced Adebutu to invest $1.5 million in IIHL between April 2022 and October 2023 for purported investments in Chappal Petroleum Development Company Limited, business development cost in IIHL, and capital cost in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited.
The Commission had alleged that the defendant promised Adebutu that the investment would be reimbursed, alongside a $2.25 million development capital fee and 22.4 per cent shares in Intermediate Investment Holdings Limited, a promise which later turned out to be false.
According to the Anti-graft agency, Immanuel forged the Term Sheet with the signatures of Sheriff Oluwo and Olaniran Osatuyi, to induce Adebutu and R 28 to pay the sum of $1.5million for shares in IIHL.
Whereas the EFCC filed a criminal charge against Immanuel at the Ikeja court, a similar suit was filed by Adebutu at the Supreme Court of Mauritius against IIHL, UJI, and Ocorian (Mauritius) Limited on the same subject matter which is purely civil in nature.
However, contrary to the forgery allegation by the EFCC, Adebutu and R 28, in a similar suit filed before the Supreme Court of Mauritius, are seeking 22.4 percent of the shares in IIHL by virtue of the same term sheet, which EFCC alleged was forged by Immanuel.
Also, in the suit before the Supreme Court of Mauritius, there is no allegation that the purported forgery instigated R28’s agreement to consummate the transaction with UJI (Immanuel) and IIHL. R28 did not deny the transaction.
In a summons for bail, his counsel, prayed the court for an order admitting him to bail in the most liberal terms pending trial.
The counsel asserted that Immanuel is a key player in the oil and gas sector and cannot be described as a flight risk. He further submitted that the defendant is not a fugitive, given that he voluntarily appeared in court when he became aware of the criminal charge against him.
But in a ruling on May 7, Justice Dada dismissed the preliminary objections and bail application filed by the IIHL boss. Subsequent applications for his bail have been turned down despite that the case against him is bailable.
Meanwhile, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, presided over by Justice Josephine Obanor, had on September 11, 2025 granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the EFCC and other respondents from inviting, questioning, arresting, detaining or otherwise acting against Immanuel or Chappal Energies.
Despite the restraining order of the court made on 11th September 2025, the EFCC, acting on the petition by Adebutu, arrested Immanuel and arraigned him and his company before another judge on criminal charges despite the fact that the transaction which led to the dispute is purely civil.
Furthermore, in flagrant disobedience to the order of the court, the EFCC had declared Immanuel wanted and published his photo via its social media handle, whereas he was fully reachable through his established official addresses, phone lines and electronic contacts.
