Alleged fraud: Court discharges Babalakin, four others

A Lagos High Court on Monday discharged chairman of Bi-Courtney Limited, Chief Olawale Babalakin, from the N4.7 billion fraud allegation filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo also discharged four others charged along with him for similar offences.

The four other defendants are – Babalakin’s companies, Stabilini Vision Limited, Bi-Courtney Limited and Alex Okoh and his company, Renix Nigeria Limited.

Ruling in an application for quash of charges filed by Babalakin and co-defendants, Justice Lawal-Akapo, formulated four issues raised by the defendants to determine his ruling.

The issues, according to the judge, are whether the EFCC can prosecute a defendant without fiat, whether James Ibori is a public officer, whether two prosecuting authorities can jointly sign a charge and whether the charge on the surface contains sufficient information.

Justice Lawal-Akapo, however, resolved three of the issues in favour of the defendants and only upheld that the EFCC has the power to prosecute any criminal matter in court without fiat.

The EFCC had arraigned Babalakin and co-defendant on a 27-count charge bordering on conspiracy, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct and corruptly conferring benefit on account of public action.

The commission had alleged that Babalakin and his co-defendants fraudulently assisted former Delta State Governor, James Ibori ,to transfer huge sums of money through various parties to Erin Aviation account in Mauritius for the purchase of a plane.

But the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.