The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday began the trial of an oil marketer, Mamman Ali, charged to court for an alleged N4.4 billion fuel subsidy fraud.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mamman, the son of a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, is being tried before a Lagos High Court in Ikeja.

He was charged alongside Christian Taylor, a Sierra Leone national, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, an oil marketer and Nassaman Oil Services Ltd., before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.

The defendants are facing a 13-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence, forgery, uttering and use of forged documents.

The EFCC alleged that they had between January and April 2012, fraudulently obtained N4.4 billion from the Federal Government for the purported importation of 30.5 million litres of Premium Motoring Spirit (PMS).

On Wednesday, EFCC counsel, Mr Francis Usani, called the first prosecution witness to testify against the defendants.

The witness, Mr Victor Chidok, Head of Lagos Zonal Office of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), confirmed that Nassaman Oil Services Ltd. participated in the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).

Chidok said the PSF was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2006 to modulate the price of petroleum products in the domestic market.

He said the PPPRA was saddled with the responsibility of regulating the price of the products and ensuring that oil marketers import the volume of products allocated to them.

NAN reports that the matter was adjourned till Feb. 13 for continuation of trial.