A Federal High Court in Lagos has quashed a criminal charge preferred against a former Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, and two others, over alleged N21.5 billion money laundering.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) first arraigned Amosu, alongside two other military officers – Jacob Adigun, and Gbadebo Olugbenga – before Justice Mohammad Idris, on June 29, 2016, on a 26-count charge.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty and were each granted bail.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Chukwujeku Aneke upheld Amosu’s preliminary obj ection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case on the grounds that they were serving officers of the military at the time the case was instituted.
The court held that as at June 23, 2016, when the original charge was filed before the court, one was not sure if the first defendant was still a serving officer of the Armed Forces, since his exact date of retirement was not stated.
But the court held that in the proof of evidence the prosecution filed at paragraph 1,688 and 1,695 were letters written by the prosecution to a popular commercial bank and dated January 30, 2015.
The court held that the letters showed that investigations into the instant charge had already begun as at January 30, 2015, by which time the affidavit of evidence proved that the first defendant was still in service of the Armed Forces.
Reiterating the decision of the apex court in the case of Ja’faru Mohammed, the court held that the investigation of the first defendant was null and void.
The court also reached a similar decision for the second and third defendants and, accordingly, quashed the charges.
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