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Court clears ex-Lagos speaker Ikuforiji, aide of money laundering
Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday acquitted former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, and his former aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, of 54-counts of money laundering.
Justice Mohammed Liman held that the prosecution failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on it by the provisions of the law.
Ikuforiji and Atoyebi were charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 54-count charge of alleged N338.8 million money laundering.
They pleaded not guilty and were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.
On March 17, 2021, the EFCC closed its case after calling the second witness for the prosecution. Prosecution called two witnesses in support of its case.
Meanwhile, Justice Liman was transferred out of the Lagos division and the case suffered several setbacks.
On May 4, 2023, defence counsel Dele Adesina (SAN) opened the case for the defence and called three witnesses, including the first defendant (Ikuforiji).
Among others, Ikuforiji had testified how he was being prosecuted on a faceless petition. He told the court that the instant case arose from a petition written by an unknown person, alleging that he stole about N7 billion from the House of Assembly.
Parties adopted their final addresses on May 17, while the court reserved judgment.
Delivering judgment yesterday, Justice Liman first struck out count one of the charge, on grounds of discrepancies in the timeline.
“Charging a person under a law that was non-existent at the time of an alleged offence runs foul of the law. The Money Laundering Prohibition Act of 2004/2011 requires clear evidence of intent and the actual act of laundering money.
“It is difficult to prove the offence of money laundering without the predicate offence; the prosecution has failed to prove this. The prosecution has not proved the offence of money laundering beyond reasonable doubts.
“Consequently, the defendants are acquitted of all the allegations of money laundering against them in counts two to 54 of the charge,” Justice Liman said.
Bishop Godwin Elim, the Senior Pastor at Live for Christ, aka Lifting Assembly in Abuja has said God’s Kingdom is the birthright of believers as this is not negotiable.
Naijablitznews reports Bishop Elim made this assertion on Saturday in his sermon drawing vivid examples from bible passages and real life examples.
This is part one of the series to run through the week.
Watch clip below;
The All Progressives Congress, APC has won all 20 Chairmanship and 236 Councillorship seats in the Ogun LG Polls.
Naijablitznews reports that the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) on Sunday, declared all the 20 chairmanship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winners of Saturday’s local government elections conducted in the state.
The Chairman of the commission, Babatunde Osibodu also declared all 236 APC councillorship candidates as winners of the election while presenting the official results of the polls at the commission’s headquarters at Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, the state capital.
Osibodu said the ruling party, APC, emerged victorious across all the 20 local government areas and 236 wards in the state by polling a total of 613,156 votes cast in the exercise which witnessed major political parties like the Accord Party (AP), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Democratic Party (ADP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), participating.
Other political parties that participated in the exercise included the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Action People’s Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Boot Party (BP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the winner of the guber election conducted in Ondo State on Saturday.
Aiyedatiwa, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.
He polled a total of 366,781 votes to defeat his closest rival in the election, Agboola Ajayi, who is the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the election.
The APC cleared all 18 local government areas.
While the PDP polled a total of 117,845 votes, the Labour Party (LP) polled 1,162 votes and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) polled 2,692 votes.
Prof Olayemi Akinwunmi announced the result of the Ondo governorship election at the State headquarters of INEC in Akure.
VIDEO: God’s kingdom is your birthright it’s not negotiable -Bishop Elim(Part 1)
BREAKING: APC Picks All 20 Chairmanship, 236 Councillorship Seats In Ogun LG Polls
BREAKING: INEC declares Aiyedatiwa of APC winner of Ondo guber election
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