By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, Lagos judicial division, on Monday struck out the fraud charge proffered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Abdullahi Babalele, the son-in-law to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for being defective and disclosing no prima facie case.
The judge while raising the issue of jurisdiction in his ruling, held that the EFCC went forum shopping (looking for a court that would grant it favourable judgment) when it filed the case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, instead of Abeokuta where the offence of the alleged payment of the sum of $140,000.00 was said to have been committed .
The court also held that the proper venue for the trial should have been at Abeokuta and not Lagos.
The judge held that in the event that he was wrong on this score, and that it had jurisdiction to entertain the case, the No case submission filed and argued by the Babalele ‘s counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, (SAN), succeeds in its entirety on the grounds that the prosecution failed woefully to prove any element of the offence charged, or adduce any evidence linking the defendant with the offence charged .
Besides, the prosecution witness (PW1)contradicted himself when he testified that he gave the said $140,000 to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his house at Abeokuta, Ogun State, whereas in his written extra judicial statements before the EFCC which were admitted as exhibits in court during trial, he had stated that he gave the money to an unknown person at Obasanjo Library, Ota. The court held that this was a material contradiction in the evidence presented by the prosecution.
The court noted that PW1 in his oral testimony in court testified that it was the defendant that transferred the Naira equivalent to his bank accounts, but from the bank statements and under cross examination by defence counsel, Ozekhome, it was not the defendant that transferred the said money to PW1’s accounts, but the said money was transferred by one Jamiu Amosu and Jaybid Global Services Ltd. No reason was proffered by the prosecution for this fundamental discrepancy in its case.
The court therefore held that the charge filed by EFCC against the defendant was incompetent as the charge alleged that it was the defendant (Babalele) that procured and aided PW1 to make the said payment, without any scintilla of evidence to prove same.
“There was no evidence linking the said money transferred to PW1 to any illicit transaction which is one of the cardinal grounds for a money laundering charge to be sustained,” the judge said.
Consequently, the defendant Babalele was discharged and acquitted by the court.