The Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos has ruled that a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, has a case to answer.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Akpobolokemi alongside five others in December 2015 for allegedly diverting N2.6bn from the coffers of NIMASA between December 2013 and May 2015.
Presiding Justice Ibrahim Buba held on Monday that the anti-graft agency has established a ‘prima facie case’ against Akpobolokemi.
The court overruled the ‘no case submission’ by the defendants and ordered them to open their defence on October 30, November 7 and 9.
The five other persons who allegedly conspired with Mr Akpobolokemi to divert the monies are Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Ltd, as well as Al-Kenzo Logistic Ltd.
They had all pleaded not guilty to the 22 counts of conspiracy and fraud made against them.
EFCC had claimed that the funds were approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan for the implementation of a security project.
The commission then opened its case against them and during trial, it called 12 witnesses and tendered 77 exhibits in a bid to establish its case.
After the EFCC closed its case, the defendants through their lawyers, filed various ‘no-case submissions’ contending that the prosecution failed to establish ‘a prima-facie case’ against them to warrant entering any defence.
Akpobolokemi through his lawyer, Joseph Nwobike, had argued that the EFCC failed to link him with the alleged diversion of funds from NIMASA.
Nwobike pointed out that his client’s signature authorising the said diversion was never presented in court and as such, the former DG could not be held liable for the offence.
He had also described the evidence given by the prosecution witnesses as mere hearsay, which he contended had no legal weight.
He then urged the court to come to the conclusion that the first defendant could not be called upon to enter any defence because no ‘prima-facie case’ had been established against him.
EFCC’s prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, however, argued that the testimonies of the 12 witnesses and the 77 exhibits had successfully linked Akpobolokemi to the alleged fraud.
He noted that being the head and chief accounting officer of NIMASA at the time of the alleged fraud, Akpobolokemi could not by any stretch of imagination claim to be innocent.
Oyedepo further submitted that even if it was the former president that approved the security project, Akpobolokemi as the head of NIMASA at the time, had constituted a committee to handle the project, the funds of which were subsequently converted to his personal use.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice Buba held that the evidence of all the prosecution witnesses who testified dwelt extensively on the conspiracy of all six defendants and as such, a prima facie case had been made against them which required them to explain the roles they allegedly played.
