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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has discharged and acquitted a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, and five others of the N544 million contract fraud brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court held that the anti-graft agency failed to establish a prima facie case against the Ex-SGF and his co-defendants.
Delivering judgement on the no case submission made by Lawal and his co-defendants on Friday, Justice Charles Agbaza, held that no ingredient of any offence was made out by the 11 witnesses who testified for the EFCC.
The judge also held that the EFCC did not establish that Lawal was either a member of the Presidential Initiative for the North East that awarded the contract or a member of the Ministerial Tenders Board that vetted and gave approval to the disputed contract.
Justice Agbaza stated that the EFCC also failed to link Lawal with the Bureau of Public Procurement that issued a certificate of no objection to the contract before it was awarded.
The judge subsequently discharged and acquitted all the defendants of the 10 criminal charges against them for want of evidence to link them with the purported offences.
Lawal, alongside his younger brother, Hamidu Lawal; Suleiman Abubakar; Apeh Monday and two companies, Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited, were prosecuted by the EFCC before Justice Agbaza.
They faced 10 charges bordering on fraud, relating to the removal of evasive plant species to the tune of N544 million, for which they pleaded not guilty.
The EFCC had on November 30, 2020 re-arraigned Lawal before Justice Agbaza.