A Federal High court in Lagos on Monday dismissed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission money laundering case against Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie a lawyer of former Nigeria’s Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke ruled that the anticrime grant failed to establish it claims that the money alleged to have been delivered to Giwa-Osagie during the 2019 election was illegal.
In 2019, a three-count charge, signed by prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, was filed at the Court in Lagos against Giwa-Osagie and his brother Erhunse Giwa-Osagie.
“That you Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, on or before the 12th day of February 2019 in Nigeria, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, procured Erhunse Giwa-Osagie to make cash payment of the sum of $2,000,000.00 without going through financial institution,” part of the charge reads:
“That you Erhunse Giwa-Osagie, sometimes in February 2019 in Nigeria, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, made the payment of the sum of $2,000,000.00 without going through a financial institution, which sum exceeded the amount.”
Giwa- Osagie was first arrested in March in 2019 after a bureau de change operative Alhaji Abdullahi Usman allegedly identified him as the owner of $2 million found in his possession.
The commission alleged the money was to be used for the 2019 elections.
The prosecution counsel, Kufre Uduak, had also informed the court that the Commission, sometime in 2019, received intelligence that some politicians were moving around with US Dollars to influence the result of the 2019 general elections.
But Abubakar condemned the investigation and said the antigraft commission was intimidating him and his supporters.
Justice Aneke, however, ruled that the EFCC failed to establish its case against the defendants.
