“All Efforts To Recover Funds Have Failed”: EFCC Arraigns Oil Pennhydro-Pell CEO Over ₦750m Polaris Bank Loan Scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate, on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, arraigned Ugochukwu Joseph Nwaemere, Executive Director of Pennhydro-Pell Oil and Gas Limited, before Justice E.A. Obile of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on charges of conspiracy, forgery, and obtaining money under false pretence to the tune of ₦750 million.

Nwaemere was docked on a 10-count charge relating to an alleged fraudulent loan obtained from Polaris Bank Limited under the guise of executing a non-existent contract on the Bodo-Bonny Road Project.

One of the charges reads:
“That you, Ugochukwu Joseph Nwaemere, being the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Pennhydro-Pell Oil & Gas Limited, and Osaogba Christian Izuchukwu (now at large), being the Executive Director of the same company, on or about the 17th of April, 2023, at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of ₦750,000,000.00 from Polaris Bank Limited… under the false pretence that you were awarded a contract for the dredging and stock-piling of 100,000 tonnes of sharp sand for the Bodo-Bonny Road Project, a claim you knew to be false.”

Upon reading the charges, Nwaemere pleaded “not guilty.”

Prosecuting counsel, C. Okorie, requested a trial date, while defence counsel, U.C. Ngeleoka, informed the court of a pending bail application and urged the court to admit the defendant to bail to enable him stand trial.

Justice Obile ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre and adjourned the matter to June 21, 2025, for ruling on the bail application.

Nwaemere’s arrest followed a petition alleging that he, along with a co-conspirator still at large, secured a ₦750 million loan from Polaris Bank in April 2023 based on forged documents. One such document, allegedly used in the loan process, was titled “Pennhydro-Pell Oil & Gas Invoice No: 142,” dated November 29, 2022, and purportedly cleared by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.

EFCC investigators discovered that the project used to obtain the loan was fictitious, and all efforts by the bank to recover the funds have so far failed.