Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja agreed with the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, that there was not enough evidence to prove his involvement in money laundering.
In 2017, the EFCC accused Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, who build houses, of laundering N300 million.
The EFCC said in one court that the money was a loan Adoke got from Unity Bank, but in another court, they said it was a bribe from selling an oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd in 2011.
On March 28, 2024, Justice Kutigi said there was a mistake and dropped the charges against Adoke and others. He also scolded the anti-corruption agency for taking up the court’s time for four years.
In his decision on Friday, Judge Ekwo said that the EFCC did not show any proof that Adoke committed the crime he was accused of. Adoke was the main person accused in the case.
The court agreed that there was not enough evidence, so they let Adoke go free.
However, the judge decided that Aliyu, the second person accused, must present his side of the story because there is evidence against him for some of the accusations.
After the EFCC finished presenting its evidence against Adoke and Abubakar in November 2023, they asked the Federal High Court to drop the charges because the commission didn’t prove their case.
Adoke said the charges were not serious and silly.
In 2011, Adoke borrowed N300 million from Unity Bank to buy a property worth N500 million from Abubakar.
But, he didn’t pay his own N200 million and the mortgage was canceled in 2013.
Abubakar gave back the N300 million to Unity Bank because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) wanted to buy it.
In 2017, the EFCC said Adoke gave N300 million to the acting Managing Director of Unity Bank to pay back a loan.
The Commission said that the bank broke the laws about laundering money because it exchanged too much money, more than the allowed limit of N10 million. They also said that using a bureau de change to change dollars to naira is not allowed because it’s not a real financial institution.
The EFCC says Adoke and Abubakar planned to do money laundering.
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