Ochuko Momoh, wife of a former Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, Haruna Momoh, heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday when a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja discharged and acquitted her.
Ochuko and five others have been standing trial over an alleged N3 billion fraud.
However, in a judgment delivered on Thursday, Justice Taiwo Taiwo acquitted Ochuko and the other five accused on money laundering related charges.
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Justice Taiwo, who held that the prosecution failed to discharge the burden of proving its case against the defendants beyond all reasonable doubt, also ordered the discharge of an earlier interim forfeiture order made against Ochuko Momoh and her two firms – Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms.
The Judge noted that the case of the prosecutors, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was based on mere speculation and conjecture.
The ICPC had brought Ochuko Momoh alongside Blessing Azuka-Agozi, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Energopol Nigeria Limited, Blaid Construction Limited, and Blaid Farms Limited before a Federal High Court in Abuja to be tried on a 22-count charge.
The ICPC, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/278/2019, accused Ochuko of laundering funds estimated at about N3 billion through her companies – Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms.
Azuka Agozi was alleged to have reneged on her promise to provide ICPC’s investigators with documents relating to the contracts Energopol Nigeria Limited allegedly executed for the PPMC, for which it was allegedly paid huge sums.
The ICPC accused Stanbic IBTC of failing to report suspicious transactions in the accounts of Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms to the relevant authorities as required by law.
In May 2019, a Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Binta Nyako, faulted the decision of ICPC to freeze Blaid Construction Limited and its director, Mrs. Ochuko Momoh’s bank accounts.