An Ikeja High Court on Friday discharged an accountant, Ezekiel Ejidele, who was tried for complicity in a N1.9bn fuel subsidy fraud. Justice Lateefat Okunnu discharged Ejidele, an employee of Akintola Williams Delloite, after upholding his no-case submission application.
The Ejidele was charged alongside two oil marketers — Walter Wagbatsoma and Adaoha Ugo-Ndagi. Also charged with them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is Fakuade Babafemi, a staff member of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority.
They are facing a nine counts of conspiracy, obtaining property by false pretences, forgery and altering. The defendants had all filed their respective no-case submission applications, urging the court to discharge them. Continue..
In her ruling, Okunnu held that the prosecution had not been able to provide sufficient evidence linking Ejidele to the alleged offences.
The judge said the prosecution solely relied on the testimony of an EFCC Investigative Officer, Mr Shehu Mohammed, who claimed to have interrogated one Danjuma Edeko.
She said Mohammed had claimed that Ejidele instructed Edeko not to monitor the discharge of the petroleum product imported by the defendants at the Integrated Oil and Gas Depot.
“This piece of evidence is inadmissible. There is nothing before the court to prove that he gave the said instruction to Edeko,” Okunnu added.
She noted that Ejidele had calculated the amount and endorsed the Shore Tank Certificate, which the marketers used to process the subsidy payment in dispute.
According to her, there is no evidence that he knew that the document contained false representation.
The judge said, “In my humble view, there is no evidence linking the fourth defendant (Ejidele) to the crime.
“I hereby uphold his no-case submission and he is accordingly discharged.”
Okunnu, however, dismissed the applications of the other four defendants, adding that sufficient evidence had been established against them.
No comments:
Post a Comment