ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- A former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, has been freed, by the Federal High Court in Lagos State.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had earlier accused him of N8.5bn Fraud.
Akpobolokemi was acquitted and discharged by Justice Ayokunle Faji, on Monday while ruling on a no-case submission filed by him and one other defendant, a staff of NIMASA, Josphine Otuaga, in the 22-count charge made against them.
In his ruling, Justice Faji held that the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against the two.
Also, the court ruled that a former Commander of the Joint Task Force Operation Pulo Shield, Major-General Emmanuel Atewe (rtd), who is the (second defendant) and staff of NIMASA, Kime Engonzu (who is the third defendant), have to open their defence, as they have a case to answer especially with regards to counts 12 to 22 of the charge.
The former NIMASA boss had in a no-case submission filed by his lawyer, Joseph Nwobike, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, asked the court for an acquittal, insisting that no case had been made against his client, requiring him to present a defence.
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Nwobike maintained that the prosecution, with all its witnesses and the evidence tendered, failed to link him to the alleged offences.
Akpobolokemi was arraigned before the court in 2016 alongside a former Commander of the Joint Task Force Operation Pulo Shield, Major-General Emmanuel Atewe (rtd), and two other staff of NIMASA, Kime Engonzu and Josphine Otuaga.
The anti-graft agency had prosecuted them on an amended 22-count charge bordering on conspiracy, conversion; and stealing by fraudulent conversion.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, Major General Emmanuel Atewe, Kime Engozu, and Josphine Otuaga sometime in 2014, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Court, with intent to defraud, conspired amongst yourselves to commit an offence to wit: Conversion of the sum of N8,537,586,798.58 property of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
They had pleaded “not guilty” to the counts prompting the commencement of their trial.
After the prosecution’s case, all the defendants filed a no-case submission.
Delivering his judgement, Justice Faji held that none of the witnesses called by the prosecution led any shred of evidence linking the first defendant, Patrick Akpobolokemi and the fourth defendant to the offences for which they were charged.
The court also held that having regard to the totality of evidence, the prosecution failed to provide any credible evidence linking the 1st Defendant with the commission of the crimes.
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Also, the court ruled that the evidence led against him in proof of Counts 1-11 of the first amended Charge did not establish a prima facie case against him warranting him to enter his defence.
The court also noted that only one witness, (PW 2), out of the eleven witnesses fielded by the Complainant, gave evidence where the name of the first defendant (Akpobolokemi) featured, while other witnesses made it abundantly clear that, they did not know the 1st Defendant and did not have any dealings with him.
Furthermore Justice Faji held that: “If there is no sufficient evidence linking the accused with the statutory elements and ingredients, a court of trial must as a matter of law discharge him. It has no business searching for evidence that is nowhere and therefore cannot be found.”
Following today’s ruling, the former NIMASA boss has now been discharged on 4 out of 6 charges made against him by the EFCC.
Meanwhile, there are still 2 charges pending against him, one before Justice Bukola Adebiyi of the Lagos High Court and another before Justice Faji.