N1.4bn laundering charge: ex-NBA President Usoro discharged and acquitted

At last, justice appears to have been served in the two-year trial of a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro (SAN) charged with N1.4 billion money laundering offence.

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday discharged and acquitted the erstwhile NBA chief of the offences filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

EFCC had in 2019 under Mr Ibrahim Magu charged Usoro to court over alleged money laundering.

Persecondnews reports that Justice Rilwan Aikawa handed down the verdict in a judgment on Usoro’s no-case submission.

Aikawa held that the anti-graft agency had failed to establish any prima facie case against Usoro which could prompt him to enter a defence.

After taking the evidence of its second witness, the EFCC had closed its case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, in the alleged money laundering trial.

Counsel to the EFCC, Mr Uduak Kufre, who asked Justice Rilwan Aikawa to discharge the witness also told the court that the commission was pleased with the evidence it had put forward in the case.

The EFCC had called Idongesit Udom, a Deputy Manager at Zenith Bank as its first witness and Abdulrahman Arabo, the investigating officer at EFCC, as the second and final witness.