Seven Years After, Court Dismisses N300m Money Laundering Case Against Ex-AGF, Adoke

A money laundering case to the tune of N300m against former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke has ended after seven years.

The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the trial on Friday.

Ekwo upheld Adoke’s “no-case” submission against the money laundering charges against him because the prosecution, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

In 2017, the EFCC had prosecuted Adoke and a property developer, Abubakar Aliyu, alleging money laundering.

In 2020, the antigraft brought similar
charges before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT High Court, even though the case did not mention the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 transaction.

Although the EFCC admitted before Ekwo that it was a mortgage that Adoke took from Unity Bank, it alleged before Kutigi that the money was a bribe from the sale of the oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd. in 2011.

However, on March 28, Kutigi identified the paradox, and subsequently dismissed the charges against Adoke and other defendants, chiding the EFCC for wasting the court’s time for four years.

Ekwo further upheld the no-case submission, and consequently discharged and acquitted Adoke.