The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the money laundering charges against former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Mohammed Adoke.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, on Friday, delivered a ruling on a no-case submission filed by the former AGF. Ekwo held that the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to establish a prima facie case against Adoke.
The EFCC had charged Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, a property developer, in 2017 alleging money laundering to the tune of N300 million.
Although there is no mention of the OPL 245 transaction in this case, the same particulars were also charged by the EFCC before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT high court in 2020.
While the EFCC admitted before Ekwo that it was a mortgage that Adoke took from Unity Bank, it alleged before Kutigi that the money was a bribe from the sale of the oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd in 2011.
On March 28, 2024, Kutigi pointed out the contradiction, while dismissing the charges against Adoke and other defendants, chiding the EFCC for wasting the court’s time for four years.
In his own ruling on Friday morning, Ekwo said the EFCC did not provide any evidence to prove the essential elements of the offence against Adoke, who was listed as first defendant.
He, therefore, upheld the no-case submission and discharged and acquitted Adoke.
Justice Ekwo, however, ruled that the second defendant, Aliyu, has to open his defence because he has a case to answer on some of the charges against him.