Justice Folasade Giwa-Ogunbanjo, of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday quashed an amended five count charge of fraud and money laundering brought against a former Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Dr Moddibbo Kawu and two others.
Justice Giwa-Ogunbanjo quashed the charge against the defendants in a judgement delivered in the fraud case filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
After quashing the charge for being incompetent, the judge subsequently discharged and acquitted the defendants.
The ICPC had in 2019 arraigned Kawu alongside the Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Mr Lucky Omoluwa, Chief Operating Officer of Pinnacles, Dipo Onifade and Pinnacle Communication limited as 1 to 4th defendants, on a 12-count criminal charge bordering on alleged misapplication of the N2.5 billion seed grant for Digital Switch-Over (DSO) programme of the federal government.
Specifically, they were accused of misleading a public officer with the intent to defraud the federal government in contravention of Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
They pleaded not guilty and were granted bail in the sum of N100m and two sureties each in the like sum.
However, Mr Omoluwa died in 2020, leading to the amendment of the charge to five-count.
In proving its case the prosecution called in eight witnesses, who gave evidence of how the defendants conspired among themselves to confer corrupt advantage and laundered the sum of N2.5 billion.
The witnesses also told the court how the then Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed was misled in approving the seed grant and payment of sum to the 3rd defendant, Pinnacle Communication Limited.
However, delivering judgement in the suit on Thursday, the judge who observed that the case of the prosecution succeed on its strength and not on the weakness of the defendants, held that the prosecution failed to establish the ingredients of the charge.
According to the judgement while the prosecution did not tender any exhibits to prove conspiracy, it made no efforts in leading its witnesses to establish evidence of conspiracy.
Similarly, the court observed that the prosecution did not testify that the Lucky Omoluwa was related to the 1st defendant or how the 1st defendant used his office to confer corrupt advantage on himself or on the late Omoluwa.
On the claim that the minister was misled by the 1st defendant in approving the payment of N2.5 billion as seed grant to Pinnacle Communication Limited, the court observed that there was no documentary evidence to support the statement of the witnesses.
She added that despite several adjournments to enable the prosecution to call the minister to give evidence of how he was misled in approving the seed grant, the prosecution failed to do so.
“There is no evidence before the court that the defendants committed the offense they were charged.
“I find them not guilty as charged. They are hereby discharged and acquitted “, Justice Giwa-Ogunbanjo held.
Recall that the presidency had in 2016, released N10 billion to the Ministry of Information and Culture for the DSO programme and a White Paper was issued directing how the process should be executed.
Based on the guidelines provided by the White Paper, two companies were nominated to handle the process, one of which was ITS, an affiliate of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
N1.7 billion was released to it as seed grant for the commencement of the switch-over.
It was alleged that Kawu fraudulently recommended Pinnacle Communications Limited, a private company, to the Minister of Information and Culture, for the release of N2.5 billion against the guidelines contained in the White Paper.
As a result, ICPC filed charges against him and his alleged accomplices.
Part of the charge reads: “That you, Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, Sir Lucky Omoluwa and Dipo Onifade sometime between December 2016 and May 2017, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired with each other to use the position of Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, as Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to confer corrupt advantage on Sir Lucky Omoluwa, your friend and associate by recommending to the Hon. Minister of Information to approve payment of the sum of N2.5 bn to Pinnacle Communications Ltd, a private company owned by Sir Lucky Omoluwa as “Seed Grant” under the Digital Switch-Over programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, when you knew that the company was not entitled to receive such grant and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 26(1)(c) and punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Court quashes N2.5bn fraud charge against Ex- NBC’s boss, Kawu, Onifade, others
