Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has discharged and acquitted a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu.
Yakubu was arraigned before Justice Ahmed Mohammed on March 16, 2017, on a six-count charge of fraud having admitted to owning over $9.8 million in cash found in a house that also belongs to him in Kaduna state.
During the trial, the prosecution called six witnesses to prove its case against Yakubu, after which Defendant entered a no-case submission.
Ruling on the application, the Court upheld the no-case submission on counts 5 and 6 only.
However, on appeal, the appellate court further dismissed counts one and two.
In a judgement on April 24, 2020, the Court of Appeal Abuja Division ordered Yakubu to enter defence at the trial court on counts 3 and 4 of the charge.
The effort by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to amend counts three and four were rejected by Justice Mohammed in a ruling on June 17, 2021.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Mohammed noted that Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering Act, forbids cash payment of over N5m for an individual and N10m for a body corporate without going through a financial institution.
The Court said to convict Yakubu on both counts, the onus was on the prosecution to prove its case.
According to Justice Mohammed, during the trial, prosecution witnesses 1, 2, 5, and 6, all testified that the money was recovered from the house of the defendant.
However, Yakubu in proving ownership of the money, said it was gifts and goodwill, thanksgiving services, he got between 2010 and 2014 from friends and well-wishers during occasions, insisting that the monies were given to him in tranches that did not exceed USD10, 000 and 5,000 Pounds sterling.
Yakubu confirmed that the monies belong to him and that he kept the money to decide on what to do with it upon retirement.
The court noted that over 25 years, the defendant had reason to travel abroad and received estacodes, which he saved.
More so, the court said the move to amend counts 3 and 4, “cast a reasonable doubt” on the case of the prosecution.
The court agreed with the defence counsel that the prosecution failed woefully to prove that the monies were given to Yakubu in one fell swoop or as a whole, and not in bits that exceeded the N5million threshold.
Having said how he got the money, the court said a prudent investigator ought to have called all those Yakubu mentioned as sources of the money to testify, “but that the prosecution did not do”.
