The 87-year old distinguished Nigerian Merit Award laureate, and parasitologist was among some top officials of Zinox Group and its affiliate, Technology Distributions Limited (now TD Africa) and their allies listed as defendants in the case filed by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on November 28, 2024.
Others listed by Falana in the 15-count charge No. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 before the court include the Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh; his wife, Chioma, who is also the Managing Director of TD Africa, as well as the Legal Adviser/Company Secretary, Zinox Group and TD Africa, Chris Eze Ozims.
Other defendants include a director in TD Africa, Folashade Oyebode; an Accountant with TD Africa, Charles Adigwe, and Obilo Onuoha and Agartha Ukoha, both staff of Access Bank PLC. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Ad’mas Technologies Limited and Pirovic Engineering Services Limited, Onny Igbokwe, was also listed along with Femi Dosunmu and Nnenna Kalu, while Zinox Technologies Ltd, Ad’mas Digital Technologies Ltd and TD Africa were corporate entities also listed as co-defendants in the case.
Prof Anya is linked to the case in his capacity as the Chairman of the Board of TD Africa alleged to have given approval to the fraudulent transaction, while Leo Stan Ekeh, his wife, Chioma, Charles Adigwe, Obilo Onuoha, Agartha Ukoha, and Onny Igbokwe were accused of aiding and abetting the criminal misappropriation of the money involved in the fraud.
Specifically, Eze Ozims and Folashade Oyebode were accused of opening the fake account in Access Bank using forged documents that made them directors of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd and used to commit the fraud, while Obilo Onuoha was accused of facilitating the opening of the fake account with Access Bank without due diligence.
Trial against all odds
The trial of the powerful and highly-connected suspects is coming despite desperate attempts to thwart their prosecution and arraignment for the crime.
On May 10, 2022, former AGF Abubakar Malami approved a November 2018 request by Falana, counsel to the nominal complainant, for a fiat to prosecute the high-profile suspects after the police refused to do so despite the conclusion of investigations since 2014, which found the suspects culpable .
Based on the approval of the prosecutorial Fiat, Falana, on September 9, 2022, on behalf of the AGF, filed a 17-count charge against the suspects in suit No. FCT/HC/CR/469/2022 at the FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja.
However, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the date fixed for the arraignment of the suspects by the FCT High Court, Apo, presided by Justice C. O. Oba, the process was unceremoniously halted at the last minute in suspicious circumstances.
Strangely, on that day, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Babadoko Abubakar presented to the court, a letter back-dated to October 28, 2022 purportedly approved by AGF Malami, and addressed to Falana to inform him about the decision to withdraw the prosecutorial powers earlier granted him to arraign and prosecute the suspects.
DPP Muhammad Abubakar who signed the letter did not offer any explanation for the decision, except that he was directed to inform Falana that the AGF, in the exercise of the power conferred upon him by Section 174 (1)(c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), decided to withdraw the May 10, 2022 authorization earlier granted to him for the prosecution of the suspects in charge No. CR/8327/2013.
Abubakar said Falana was requested to withdraw forthwith from court proceedings on charge No. FCT/HC/CR/469/2022 ”in the interest of justice.”
Consequently, presiding judge, Justice Oba struck out the case, thereby effectively derailing the prosecution of the case, and paving a safe passage for the suspects to walk away free of all charges.
Like Phoenix, Fiat restored for Falana
Like the proverbial cat with many lives, the case takes a new life and bounces back each time forces of oppression strike.
Following his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the AGF, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, on assumption of office, moved immediately to reinstate the authorisation to Falana earlier withdrawn for the prosecution of the suspects.
On December 2023, when all hope for justice appeared to have been lost, Fagbemi wrote to Falana to inform him of his decision to reinstate the Fiat previously issued by his predecessor and later revoked in controversial circumstances.
The AGF said the letter was in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 174(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which empowers the AGF to intervene and terminate any case at any time if, in his judgment, based on his review of the trial, there are reasons for him to suspect the possibility of a miscarriage of justice against the accused.
The AGF directed Falana to again take up the prosecution of the suspects on his behalf, by refiling the charges in case No. CR/827/2013.
The reinstatement of the prosecutorial powers followed a judicial review of the case file based on a petition to the AGF by the nominal complainant, Benjamin Joseph, the managing director of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, alleging fundamental breaches in the handling of the matter and pleaded for the AGF’s urgent intervention to avoid a miscarriage of justice.
Falana files 15-count charge
Pursuant to the restored prosecutorial powers conferred on him, Falana, on November 28, 2024, prepared and filed the 15-count charge No. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 at the High Court of the FCT, Abuja.
The charge was between the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as the complainant, and the 13 suspects (as defendants) over allegations of criminal misappropriation of the sum of N162.3 million in account No. 0059202675 domiciled in Access Bank PLC, being proceeds of a Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) headquarters, Abuja contract awarded to Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd for the supply of laptops, which was fraudulently diverted and received in the name of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd without its consent. The amount did not include about N8 million deducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as value added tax (VAT) in respect of the full value of the controversial contract awarded to Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, but was illegally diverted and executed by the fraudsters.
Case File
In October 2013, Benjamin Joseph, the Managing Director of an Ibadan-based ICT retail firm, Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd, petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over a fraud he suspected was committed against his company by some top officials of Zinox Group and its affiliate, Technology Distributions Ltd in connivance with some allies, including Chief Onny Igbokwe, Chief Executive of Ad’mas Digital Technologies Ltd. and Pirovic Engineering Services Ltd, in connivance with one Princess Kama.
Joseph said the fraud involved a N170.3 million contract awarded in 2012 to his company by the FIRS for the supply of laptops, which was hijacked by the suspects, who illegally executed and its proceeds shared, without his knowledge and consent, while the appropriate taxes were not remitted to the Federal Government.
The businessman alleged that the suspects also connived with the officials of Access Bank PLC to remove his company’s corporate profile from the bank and used in committing the fraud.
Apart from Eze Ozims and Folashade Oyebode appointing themselves signatories to the fake account No. 0059202675 opened in his company’s name at Access Bank PLC, Joseph said the suspects forged his company documents, including a fictitious board resolution dated December 18, 2012, bearing a caricature of his signature used to commit the fraud.
Police frustrates the prosecution of suspects
Although the police in its investigations report of September 26, 2014 signed by Salawu K. A., a Principal State Counsel, said it found reason to believe the suspects were culpable in the crimes of “forgery, conspiracy, impersonation and fraud” and recommended their being charged to court, their arraignment and prosecution was stalled.
Despite repeated requests by the DPP, the police refused to release the case file to the AGF’s office for the commencement of prosecution.
On March 9, 2015, the DPP Mohammed Saidu Diri wrote to the then Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Bureau (FCIB), Solomon Arase, to inform him that his office, after the review of the case file, found “enough convincing evidence to prosecute the suspects” for the crime. Diri requested the original case file from the police to be sent to the AGF for the prosecution of the suspects.
On April 7, 2015, Olayinka Ajeigbe, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), wrote the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Special Enquiry Bureau, FCIID, Olufemi Oyeleye to again request for the case file to be forwarded to the AGF to enable the prosecution of the suspects to commence without further delay. On April 16, 2015, CP Oyeleye forwarded the police investigations report No. CR:3000/X/FHQ/ABJ/SEB/Vol.4/105 to DIG Arase for further directive.
Curiously, latwr the same CP Oyeleye was compelled by DIG Arase to write to the AGF on June 5, 2015 to misinform him that the suspects were already facing prosecution in the Lagos State High Court in civil suit No. LD/4335/14, and that instituting another court action against them would be subjudicial. He advised that the prosecution of the suspects on the same matter should be withheld pending the outcome of the civil case.of “forgery, conspiracy, impersonation and fraud”.
But, suit No. LD/4335/14 was a civil suit instituted by Joseph against the suspects in 2014 when the fraud was uncovered, and not by the police based on the outcome of its investigations.
On May 8, 2015, following the appointment of Arase then as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Joseph wrote to him to highlight his frustrations to get the suspects face trial for the crime. But IGP Arase on May 14, 2015, through a letter by his Principal Staff Officer II, Abubakar Yahaya, and Assistant Commissioner of Police, advised that the civil matter be allowed to run its full course to “prevent a miscarriage of justice.”
On May 20, 2015, Joseph wrote again to IGP Arase to highlight the various efforts he made to get the police to release the case file to the AGF for the prosecution of the suspects, and expressed his worry over his frustrations.
On June 1, 2015, following the examination of the documents used in committing the fraud, the Police Forensic Report signed by Reginald Odunze, and Assistant Superintendent of Police, confirmed that the signature on the Board Resolution used by the suspects in opening the fake account in Access Bank was “simulated”.
Presidency intervened
In September 2015, Joseph took his case to the then the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who, on December 21, 2015, directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to look into the matter.
However, in June 2016, IGP Arase, shortly before leaving office, ordered the businessman to be arraigned and tried on a one-count charge of “false petitioning”, while the suspects were shielded from prosecution.
Arraigned under charge No CR/216/16, the police, police prosecutor, Simon Lough, then an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), accused the businessman of misleading the DIG FCIID through false petitioning in case of identity theft, impersonation and criminal conversion of contract sum against his company. Witnesses in the case against the businessman were the suspects.
The trial, which began since 2016, was last year ordered stopped by AGF Fagbemi and the charge withdrawn, as the Minister said the prosecution, which he called “unjustified persecution”, should not have been allowed against any citizen.
EFCC findings and its selective trial
The EFCC had conducted an independent investigations which confirmed the allegations against all the suspects, But on June 18, 2018, the anti-graft agency opted to selectively arraign and charge only two of the suspects – Chief Igbokwe and his accomplice, Princess Kama, despite protests by the nominal complainant’s counsel on the ground that the prosecution of the two suspects by EFCC prosecutor, Jude Obozuwa, was based on strange charges not derived from the facts contained in the petition by his client to the IGP.
While the petition said the fraud was committed based on the forgery of the complainant’s company’s Board Resolution dated December 18, 2012, the EFCC prosecutor charged the suspects based on a non-existent document dated December 14, 2012. After several petitions highlighting the flaws in the charge against the suspects, the EFCC prosecutor refused to amend them. As a result of the non-diligent prosecution by the EFCC, the suspects were on February 24, 2021 discharged and acquitted by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Jabi, Abuja, presided over by Justice Danlami Senchi. An appeal against the judgment is still pending at the Court of Appeal.
Unending harassment, persecution
Since the report on the controversial withdrawal of the Fiat earlier granted Falana by the then AGF Malami, to effectively derail the prosecution of the suspects and grant them a safe passage, our medium has come under serious attacks, harassment and persecution by various agents sympathetic to the suspects.
Apart from continuing the N10 billion defamation suit previously initiated against my previous employers, which has since been withdrawn, the suspects’ legal counsels, Mathew Burkaa, SAN, and Innocent Eremionkhale, have ensured sustained legal battles in Abuja snd its environs by filing various processes against our platform aimed at pressuring us into abandoning our resolve in defence of justice.
At the Chief Magistrate Court, New Kaura in Nasarawa State, both lawyers filed an application preferring “criminal defamation” by our platform against Zinox Technologies and its Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh. The consistent pressure by the suspects’ legal counsels forced the former presiding Chief Magistrate of Nasarawa Chief Magistrate Court in Karu, Vincent Gwahemba to initiate an action to issue an arrest warrant against our Team Lead, despite knowing the court lacked the legal jurisdiction to entertain such a matter.
After an administrative inquiry, both Justice Gwahemba and his successor, Jeremiah Sunday, are currently facing disciplinary actions for alleged abuse of office.
Credit: The Conclave
