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.