Court acquits Jide Omokore, firms

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, acquitted Jide Omokore, the chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, of fraud and money laundering charges.

Mr. Omokore and his associates were indicted in 2016 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on nine counts of criminal diversion of approximately $1.6 billion in petroleum products owned by the Nigerian government.

They were also accused of underhand transactions in relation to the Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) between the company and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Mr. Omokore is the first defendant in the matter, while his companies, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, are the second and third defendants.

The EFCC charged Mr. Omokore with allegedly buying a house for the former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani-Alison-Madueke. He was also accused of buying cars for some NNPC staff and some politicians.

However, the defendant denied all the allegations, stating that his business dealings with federal government agencies were legal and that he had never violated any relevant laws.

Delivering judgment in the suit on Tuesday, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba stated that the EFCC failed to prove its case against the first, second and third defendants.

ThisDay newspaper reports that in the first three counts, the anti-corruption commission alleged that the first three defendants made false representations to obtain approval to carry out projects for NNPC Limited and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).

However, the judge held that the EFCC failed to prove that the three defendants falsely represented themselves as having the necessary technical and financial competence to carry out the project.

In financial capacity, the judge admitted that the EFCC should have shown that the three defendants have bad creditworthiness instead of settling the account balance.

The judge also agreed with the testimony given by the first prosecution witness, Andrew Yakubu, former group managing director of NNPC.

Mr. Yakubu earlier testified that the defendants were awarded the project because the NNPC had previously recorded “tremendous success and value addition” while working with them.

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In the counts related to “fraudulent intent,” the judge said that “the 1st-3rd defendant did not attack me as a person with fraudulent intent”.

The court also acquitted the defendants of charges related to money laundering and conversion.

“The sale of crude oil by defendants 1-3 was done legally as per the agreement.

“They do not sell crude oil that is not authorized by the authorized authorities,” the court said.

The court also stated that there was no evidence of conspiracy between the defendants as alleged by the prosecution. Moreover, the allegations related to the procurement fraud were not proved by the prosecution, which they did.