The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday struck out the no-case submission filed by Chief Raymond Dokpesi and his Daar Investment and Holdings Company Limited, and ruled that they must explain the N2.1bn they allegedly received from the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2015.
Justice John Tsoho ruled that the defendants, who are the founder and the parent company of African Independent Television and Ray Power Radio, had a case to answer in respect of the money laundering and procurement fraud charges.
Relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in a similar case involving a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, Justice Tsoho ruled that the prosecution had led a prima facie case warranting the defendants to explain their own side of the story.
The judge ruled, “I am guided by the decision of the Supreme Court’s decision in Metuh versus FRN and hold that a prima facie case has been made out against the defendants.
“This is not a stage to evaluate the evidence of the prosecution.
“The no-case submission filed by the defendants on June 19, 2018 is struck out.
“The defendants are hereby invited to explain their own side of the story.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, had in the seven counts of money laundering and procurement fraud it instituted against the defendants, accused them of fraudulently receiving the sum of N2.1bn from the ONSA between January and March 2015.
The defendants, however, through their lead counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), filed their no-case submission after the prosecution called 14 witnesses, urging the court to dismiss the case on the grounds that the essential ingredients of the alleged offences were not proved.
The defendants for whom Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), appeared on Wednesday, had also argued that the prosecution failed to lead any evidence linking them to the alleged offences.
But the prosecuting counsel, Mr Oluwaleke Atolagbe, opposed the application, urging the court to dismiss it and call on the defendants to enter their defence.
Ruling on Wednesday, the judge upheld Atolagbe’s submission.
Quoting from Atolagbe’s written submission, Justice Tsoho said, “In the instant case, the applicants knew they had no contract with the Office of the National Security Adviser, but received the aggregate sum of N2,120,000,000 from the office for doing no work at all.
“This money, the applicants are aware, does not belong to the then NSA, Sambo Dasuki, as it was not even paid from the personal account but from the account of the NSA.
“Knowing that the said money must have been received as part of the unlawful acts of the said NSA, the 1st defendant (Dokpesi) sought to wriggle his way out through the explanation he proffered in his statements.
“Certainly, the applicants ought reasonably to know that such money formed part of the unlawful activity of the then NSA.”
The judge maintained that the court was only concerned with whether “the proof of evidence discloses an offence or offences or whether the accused is linked to the offence to require his answer to his involvement therein”.
He fixed February 20 and 21, 2019 for Dokpesi and his firm to open their defence.
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