Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja has discharged and acquitted Andrew Yakubu, former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu over his alleged involvement in money laundering charge of $9.8million and £74,000.
Delivering his judgment on the matter on Thursday, Justice Mohammed held that the prosecuting Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt to result in the conviction of the former NNPC boss.
According to the judge, to sustain the conviction of the defendant (Yakubu) in this Act, the burden of proof is on the prosecution.
He described the vital ingredients in counts three and four which the anti-graft agency preferred against the ex-GMD to include receiving cash payment above N5 million, failure to go through a financial institution and that the defendant is a natural person.
Justice Mohammed said, “Though the EFCC called six witnesses against Yakubu, the ex-GMD, while demonstrating the ownership of the money allegedly laundered, said the money were received as gifts and goodwill from friends and well wishers after his retirement in 2014.
The judge added that Yakubu, while giving his evidence as first defence witness, said that the monies, which are in naira and foreign currencies, were received in bit not as a whole as alleged by the prosecution.
The judge also ordered the EFCC to refund the said money lodged in the coffers of the CBN to Yakubu forthwith.
Acting on a tip-off, operatives of the EFCC had in February 2017, raided the residence of the ex-NNPC boss in Kaduna State and recovered the sum of $9.8million and £74,000 stashed in a fire-proof safe.
Yakubu was subsequently arraigned on March 16, 2017, on six counts of money laundering and other offences.
But the trial court, after the EFCC closed its case, struck out two of the counts on May 16, 2019.
On April 24, 2020, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, where an appeal regarding the decision of the trial court was lodged, also struck out two additional counts, and asked Yakubu to defend only the two remaining counts – Counts 3 and 4.
The two counts have to do with Yakubu’s failure to make full disclosure of assets to EFCC upon his arrest, receiving cash without going through a financial institution in alleged violation of Section 1(1) of the Money Laundering Act, 2011 and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the Act.
Yakubu also denied the charge in his testimony while testifying for himself as a defence witness in the case, claiming that the money seized from him was an accumulation of gifts he received at different times after leaving office.
