The Federal High Court in Abuja has discharged and acquitted AA Oil chairman Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and other companies in two separate money laundering cases filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Inyang Ekwo delivered the judgments on Thursday, ruling that the prosecution’s evidence was fundamentally flawed, failed to establish the allegations beyond reasonable doubt and conflicted with a previous directive from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
Court faults evidence against Aliyu Abubakar
In the case against Abubakar as the sole defendant, Justice Ekwo held that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence linking the businessman to the alleged offences.
The judge particularly faulted the testimony of the prosecution’s ninth witness, who admitted during cross-examination that photocopies, rather than original documents, were used in the forensic analysis of specimen signatures linked to Abubakar.
“I find that the evidence of PW9 is fundamentally flawed,” the judge said.
He consequently held that the prosecution had failed to discharge its burden of proof and ordered Abubakar’s discharge and acquittal.
Abubakar had also been charged alongside former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, in a separate case involving an amended 14-count money laundering charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/31/17.
Both men had pleaded not guilty. Although the court discharged Adoke, it had earlier ruled that the prosecution established a prima facie case against Abubakar on counts five, six, eight and nine, dismissing his no-case submission on those counts.
Court cites AGF’s directive in Malabu case
In the second case, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/268/16, the EFCC charged Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, A-Group Construction Company Limited, Rocky Top Resources Limited, Mega Tech Engineering Limited, Novel Properties and Development Company Limited, Carlin International Nigeria Limited and other defendants with money laundering and conspiracy.
The defendants challenged the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that the charges had been filed contrary to a directive and legal advice issued by the AGF at the time.
After examining the AGF’s letter, Justice Ekwo said it directed the prosecution to reconsider the charges because there was no evidence linking the defendants to the alleged offences.
The judge noted that the EFCC received the letter in September 2018 but proceeded to file charges in December of the same year.
He held that the AGF’s authority over public prosecutions was final and that the court could terminate proceedings where the office had issued relevant advice or a directive.
“The power of the AGF over any prosecution is final when it is issued,” the court held.
Ekwo described the decision to continue with the prosecution despite the AGF’s advice as a grave error, adding that no prosecuting agency was legally superior to the AGF in exercising the powers in question.
The court also held that evidence obtained while a suit was pending was inadmissible, comparing the practice to filing charges before searching for evidence to support them.
The judge subsequently discharged the defendants who had stood trial in the case. He declined to make any pronouncement against individuals who were at large, noting that they had not stood trial before him and that no issue concerning trial in absentia had been raised.
Background to the Malabu oil block case
The cases stem from the controversy surrounding the ownership and alleged fraudulent dealings involving Nigeria’s OPL 245 oil block.
The EFCC accused the defendants in one of the cases of money laundering and conspiracy in a 48-count charge involving alleged transactions worth about $1 billion and ₦673 million, according to The Nation.
One of the charges alleged that Malabu Oil and two of its directors, Seidougha Munamuna and former Minister of Petroleum Resources Dauzia Etete, also known as Dan Etete, directly or indirectly converted $401.54 million paid from the Federal Government’s escrow account with JPMorgan Chase Bank in London into Malabu Oil’s account with First Bank of Nigeria.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Adoke, who was appointed Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on April 6, 2010, was initially arraigned alongside Abubakar before Justice Binta Nyako. He was later re-arraigned before Justice Ekwo on June 17, 2020, over the same allegations.
The latest judgments bring the proceedings against Abubakar, Malabu Oil and the other defendants who stood trial to an end at the Federal High Court, subject to any further legal action.
