The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged and acquitted Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, former Head of Service (HoS) of the Federation, of alleged money laundering offences, six years after the trial began.
Justice James Omotosho, in a ruling on the separate no-case submissions filed by Oyo-Ita and her co-defendants, held that their applications were meritorious.
Recalled that the former HoS, her Personal Assistant, Ubong Effiok, and seven others had been facing alleged money laundering charge.
The EFCC had, on Feb. 28, 2020, filed the 18.counts against Oyo-Ita, Frontline Ace Global Services Ltd and Asanaya Projects Ltd as 1st to 3rd defendants.
The commission, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/20/2020, also named Garba Umar, Slopes International Ltd, Gooddeal Investments Ltd, Effiok and U & U Global Services Ltd as 4th to 9th defendants respectfully.
The defendants were being prosecuted for alleged fraud in relation to DTAs, Estacodes, conference fees fraud and receiving kick-backs on contracts to the tune of N570 million.
Justice Omotosho, in the ruling, held that the EFCC’s case “was built on the quicksand of speculations, suspicions and shoddy investigation.”
According to the judge, I must say here that the case presented by the prosecution has no weight whatsoever.
“Crucial elements of money laundering offences which are the establishment of a predicate offence were glaringly absent in this case presented by the prosecution,” Justice Omotosho said.
The judge held that Oyo-Ita, who was the 1st defendant in the 18-count charge, was not a shareholder or director in the companies allegedly linked to her.
Justice Omotosho also held that the monies allegedly given to the ex-HoS by the 3rd prosecution witness (PW-3) and PW-5 had not been shown to be proceeds of illegal activity.
“Those contracts were duly approved and executed as confirmed by PW-7 and PW-8.
“Even the Estacodes, Duty Tour Allowances (DTAs) and air tickets paid by PW-4 to 7th defendant (Ubong Effiok) for the benefit of 1st defendant (Oyo-Ita) have also been shown to have been duly approved and that the 1st defendant was not an approving authority.”
According to the judge, her alleged failure to fully disclose her assets was also not thoroughly investigated and the result is a case that is doomed to fail.
“In final analysis, the no-case submissions filed by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants on the one hand, the 4th – 6th defendants and the 7th to 9th defendants are meritorious.
“Consequently, these no-case submissions are hereby upheld,” Justice Omotosho ruled.
Earlier, the judge also ruled on the objections of Oyo-Ita, Umar and Effiok on the admissibility of their confessional statements which they argued were not obtained in compliance with Sections 15 and 17 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
The judge agreed with the defence that the objections raised by the 1st, 4th and 7th defendants touched on a mandatory statutory provision which had received judicial imprimatur by the Supreme Court.
He said that where a confessional statement is to be made, there must be a video recording session of the statement taking in the absence of the defendants’ lawyer.
“This court will toe the path of the Supreme Court by holding that these statements marked as Exhibits V – V3, Exhibits W-W1 and Exhibits PWXX-PWXX9 are hereby marked rejected and thus expunged from evidence,” he ruled.
Oyo-Ita, Umar and Effiok had alleged that their confessional statements were not made voluntarily.
The defendants, through their lawyers, argued that while the statements were being obtained, the defence lawyers were neither present nor had the prosecution been able to tender video recordings of the statement taking sessions.
Justice Omotosho then ordered a trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of their claims and reserved the ruling until today.
The former HoS wept profusely after the ruling.
Oyo-Ita, who was led out of the court by some young men, was overwhelmed with tear of joy.
Oyo-Ita and her co-defendants, who were first arraigned on March 23, 2020, before Justice Taiwo Taiwo (rtd.), pleaded not guilty to the 18 counts.
The case was, however, reassigned to Justice Omotosho after Justice Taiwo’s retirement.
The EFCC, in the trial, called eight witnesses and tendered documentary evidence to establish its case.
After the prosecution closed its case, the defendants opt for a no-case submission.
The defendants, who argued that the prosecution had failed to establish any ingredient of the offences against them beyond reasonable doubt to warrant any defence whatsoever, submitted that the commission had not made out a prima facie case against them.
Oyo-Ita was sacked by the late President Muhammadu Buhari government on Sept. 18, 2019 after allegations of corruption and replaced by Mrs Folashade Yemi-Esan, who was the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources at the time.
