After a seven-year trial, Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed the money laundering charges filed against a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ekwo upheld Adoke’s “no-case” submission against the money laundering charges against him, saying the EFCC had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
Persecondnews recalls that the EFCC had charged Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, a property developer, in 2017 alleging money laundering to the tune of N300 million.
In 2020, the EFCC also brought the same charges before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT high court, despite the fact that the case did not mention the OPL 245 transaction.
While the EFCC admitted before Ekwo that it was a mortgage that Adoke took from Unity Bank, it alleged before Kutigi that the money was a bribe from the sale of the oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd. in 2011.
On March 28, 2024, Kutigi pointed out the contradiction while dismissing the charges against Adoke and other defendants, chiding the EFCC for wasting the court’s time for four years.
Ekwo also upheld the no-case submission, and as a result, he was discharged and acquitted.
However, Ekwo ruled that Aliyu Abubakar, the second defendant, had to open his defence, insisting he has a case to answer.
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