Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court in Lagos has acquitted a former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, and his former aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, of 54-count of money laundering.
Justice Mohammed Liman held that the prosecution failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on it by the provisions of the law.
Mr Ikuforiji was charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Atoyebi on a 54-count charge bordering on alleged N338.8 million money laundering.
They had each pleaded not guilty and were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.
On March 17, 2021, the EFCC closed its case after calling the second witness for the prosecution.
The prosecution called a total of two witnesses in support of its case.
Meanwhile, Justice Liman was later transferred out of the Lagos division and the case suffered several setbacks.
On May 4, 2023, defence counsel, Dele Adesina (SAN), had opened the case for the defence.
The defence had called three witnesses, including the first defendant (Ikuforiji).
Among others, Ikuforiji had testified how he was being prosecuted on a faceless petition.
He had told the court that the instant case arose from a petition written by an unknown person, alleging that he had stolen about N7 billion from the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Parties adopted their final addresses on May 17, while the court reserved judgment.
While delivering judgment in the case, Justice Liman first struck out count one of the charges, on grounds of discrepancies in the timeline.
The court then asked a pertinent question as to what was the substantive law at the time the defendant was charged.
The court held: “Charging a person under a law that was non-existent at the time of an alleged offence runs foul of the law.
