After almost seven years of legal fireworks, the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, acquitted the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Ltd., Jide Omokore of fraud and money laundering charges.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba discharged Omokore and two of his companies, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Limited, on the ground that the prosecution, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), failed to prove ingredients of the charges.
The anti-graft agency had arraigned the defendants in 2016 for allegedly diverting over $1.6 billion belonging to the Federal Government under the guise of oil swap.
It had claimed that the defendants, under alleged false pretence, obtained crude oil from government when they reportedly never had the required funds or expertise to execute the agreement.
But delivering judgment, yesterday, Justice Dimgba described the issues as “a relationship, which has gone bad.”
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For clarity, the court split the 15 allegations into four points – obtaining by false pretence; conspiracy to obtain by false pretence, money laundering and taking possession of proceeds of money laundering.
In his ruling, the presiding judge stated that after a careful analysis of both oral and documentary evidence before him, there was no proof that the first to third defendants obtained by false pretence the said oil swap deal from the Federal Government.
According to the judge, the testimony of one of the witnesses, a former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the defunct Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, revealed that the agreement between the first to third defendants was legally filed and entered into by the parties.
Justice Dimgba, while stating that his findings showed formal procedure was followed by the defendants in the lifting and subsequent sale of crude oil to third party, pointed out that the agreements were not procured by fraud or any other unlawful means.
On competence and capacity, the judge noted that the defendants demonstrated that they had the expertise and wherewithal to procure crude oil from NNPC, process same and deliver the monetary equivalent of 5,652,227 barrels of crude oil.
Consequently, he discharged Omokore on counts one to three, but the fourth and fifth defendants, Victor Briggs and Abiye Membere, were found guilty of collecting gifts from Omokore contrary to laws guiding conduct of public servants.
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