A Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos State, on Monday discharged a son-in-law to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Abdullahi Babalele, of a two-count charge of laundering $140,000 brought against him by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The presiding judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, discharged the accused, on grounds that the anti-graft body filed a suit at the wrong venue. Aneke held that the charge against Babalele shouldn’t have been filed in Lagos State when EFCC claimed that the alleged offence was said to have been committed in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Relying on the Supreme Court’s judgement in a case between the EFCC and Mohammed Dele Belgore on territorial jurisdiction, the judge discharged charges.
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It will be recalled that Babalele was arraigned in 2018 and was re-arraigned on Thursday, October 8, 2019 on a two-count charge, bordering on money laundering to the tune of $140,000.00.
He was accused to have on 20 February 2019 procured Bashir Mohammed to make a cash payment of the sum of $140,000 without going through a financial institution, thus violating the money laundering act. He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge, prompting his trial.
The defendant lawyer Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had earlier brought a no-case submission before the court, asking the court to hold that the defendant has no case to answer while the prosecuting counsel, U.U. Buhari, in his response, urged the court to dismiss the defendant’s no-case submission.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK