A Federal High Court in Lagos has discharged and acquitted a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, of corruption charges.
In her judgment, the judge , Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, said the prosecution’s case was “feeble” and failed to provide “copious evidence” linking Mr. Fani-Kayode to money laundering.
Mr. Fani-Kayode, whose trial began in 2008 before Justice Ramat Mohammed, was arraigned by the E conomic and Financial Crimes Commission, E FCC , for allegedly laundering about N100 million while he was minister of culture and tourism and subsequently, aviation minister.
The allegedly laundered sum was, however, reduced to N2.1million on Nov ember 17, 2014 after the court dismissed 38 of the 40-count charge levelled against Mr. Fani-Kayode for want of proof.
T he EFCC prosecutor, Festus Keyamo, while urging the court to uphold the remaining two counts and to accordingly convict Mr. Fani-Kayode, said the former minister failed to exonerate himself of the allegations.
Mr. Keyamo pointed out that the object of the charge was that Mr. Fani-Kayode transacted in cash sums above N500,000, which was the threshold stipulated by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
Mr. Keyamo had argued that Mr. Fani-Kayode admitted making such transactions in his confessional statement of Dec. 22, 2008 made to the EFCC.
Mr. Keyamo had argued that the prosecution had discharged its duty once it established that Mr. Fani-Kayode transacted in large sums above the Money Laundering threshold, adding that it was left for Mr. Fani-Kayode to explain the source of the money.
“Once you cannot explain the source of the large sum of money found on you, you are guilty of money laundering. If the prosecution must show where the money is coming from, then the whole essence of the money laundering law is defeated.
“It is not in all cases that the burden of proof lies on the prosecution; the burden at this point shifts to the accused person,” Mr. Keyamo argued.
But Mr. Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), in his summary argument, maintained that Mr. Fani-Kayode made no confession to the EFCC, adding that the anti-graft agency failed to show that Mr. Fani-Kayode actually accepted a cash sum of N1million as alleged.
Mr. Adedipe said the EFCC also failed to show to the court the person who handed the cash sum to the accused person.
He said for the case of the prosecution to succeed, it had to be proven beyond reasonable doubts.
Premium times reportage.
Hmmmmmmmmm
As usual, I don't know why they bother charging these people to court.
ReplyDeleteI taya jor........All na ACTIVITY 101
Deleteobi finally
ReplyDelete#GODWIN™
obi finally
ReplyDelete#GODWIN™
Very nice.
ReplyDeleteAbracadabra
ReplyDeleteFFK d gods must love u!
Zeus especially.hehehehe
Am Happy for him.
DeleteShame to them that he yabbed scatter during Campaign and tot they will deal with him now.
Congratz Oluwafemi Fani OluwaKayode.
Pls go have fun with that chic, Spoil her silly and she will satisfy you too.
Ok, seen.
ReplyDeleteOk, good for u
ReplyDeleteOk
ReplyDeleteThe only country that requires ambigous facts before passing judgment.
ReplyDeleteNa the CHANGE i carry dey soak ijebu garri!
Shitty judge and judgement. Our judicial system is crap. The burden of proof was on the accused. Poor man wey steal maggi, dem go show im face for CrimeFighters.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I don't like this man
ReplyDeleteGood for him.
ReplyDeletehim mind go free now, i can imagine his sigh of relief
ReplyDeleteCongrats fkk. only people with money dey go off the hook.
ReplyDeleteThank God
ReplyDeleteAm happy for him
OK na
ReplyDeleteHe will sleep like a baby today.......free man walking
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteOnly in naija u still maggi u are sentenced to
death but still million u are discharged and acquitted. Smh
When people kept blaming Goodluck Jonathan for not fighting corruption, I wondered exactly what they wanted him to do. Isn't this a case of corruption, charged to court? What has come out of it? If the judge has been bribed, what can a president do about it? Which was why GEJ said that the only way to fight corruption is through technology, e.g IPPIS. People were abusing and laughing at him, but every learned person would know that without sophisticated technology, every other means of eradicating corruption will be dead on arrival bc it'll be dependent on same corrupt Nigerians
ReplyDeleteChop Kiss
DeleteGej even went further when he suggested these cases should be termed stealing they laughed too
DeleteSame way he tried to remove subsidy and they laughed,jeered and called him clueless.
DeleteAt least his December agenda of haunting down ghost workers was highly effective.
Our judiciary system is something one should cry about honestly.
ReplyDeleteNo corruption charges??? Our judicial system = the more you look the less you see!
ReplyDeleteEvery man wey no man and get money to spend dey innocent of all theft of Government money for Naija. Judges too wan live good life.
ReplyDeleteEFCC, make una go chase Yahoo boys and junior civil servants.
If the court had found him guilty, most pple would have said that Buhari is witch hunting him cos of all those his press statements during the campaign period.
ReplyDeleteHappy for him.
ReplyDelete