The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday dismissed the N600m money laundering case brought against Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.
The court discharged and acquitted Ikuforiji in the 56-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Ibrahim Buba in a ruling on a “no case submission” filed by the Speaker and his co-accused, one Oyebode Atoyebi held that the commission failed to prove any of the ingredients of the crime against both men.
The court also described the case of the EFCC against both men as full of mere speculation which could not take the place of facts.
He said the trial was anachronistic and that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ought to have treated the case as an aborted trial and discontinued.
Justice Buba held that the two witnesses called by the EFCC did more harm than good to the case of the prosecution, as they failed to prove and collaborate the charges and allegations against the accused persons.
The Lagos Speaker, Mr. Ikuforiji and his aide; Oyebode Atoyebi were charged to court by the EFCC, in December 2011.
The EFCC had alleged that the defendants had sometime between April 2010 and July 2011 conspired and accepted various cash payments amounting to N503 million from the House without going through a financial institution.
The EFCC had closed its case in June after presenting two witnesses against the speaker and his aide. One of the witnesses had told the court that Ikuforiji and Atoyebi collected N13.5m as honorarium, another N4.5m for renovating the speaker’s residence, and N1.5m for the speaker’s guest house every month for six consecutive months.
But the judge appeared more swayed by the argument of defence counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who heads Ikuforiji’s defence team, who presented a “No Case Submission” before the court.
He argued that based on the evidence adduced and presented by the Prosecution to the Court, no criminal liability had been established against the Defendants.
Justice Buba in his judgement granted the “No Case Submission” and accordingly acquitted and discharged the Defendants.
He said the court was firmly of the view that “all the monies received by the Defendants went through the standard procedures and that the monies were received for the use of the House of Assembly”.
Justice Buba, it will be recalled, is the same judge who in 2008 while at the Federal High Court in Rivers State, granted a perpetual injunction against the EFCC to prevent the anti-corruption agency from arresting or prosecuting former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili for corruption.
Ikuforiji, a two-time speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, is seeking to become governor of the state in 2015 on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
