Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has debunked reports that the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to seize his international passport.
The erstwhile Minister, in a statement that was signed by his lawyer, Mrs Patience Omoike-Mark, maintained that the trial court had in a ruling it delivered on April 25, struck out a 17-count money laundering charge that was preferred against him by the anti-graft agency.
He said the trial judge, Daniel Osiagor, struck out the charge and discharged him and his co-defendants, among whom included a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenandi Usman, following a judgement of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal.
According to him, the judge, upon declaring that his court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the matter, ordered that all exhibits and documents that were tendered during the trial, should be released back to the parties.
He said the court neither ordered that the case should be transferred to Abuja for refiling and retrial nor ordered the defendants to hand over their international passports to the EFCC.
While insisting that his trial was politically motivated, Fani-Kayode, who is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, described the charge against him as dead.
The statement, titled: "The Victory of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode against the EFCC at the Federal High Court in Lagos," read in part: "We refer to case number FHC/L/251C/16, FRN vs NENADI ESTHER USMAN & 3 ORS.
"The matter, wherein we represent the 2nd defendant (Fani-Kayode), came up on the 25th of April, 2023.
"The court was informed of the judgment of the Court of Appeal quashing the charge in the Federal High Court Lagos on the issue of lack of jurisdiction.
"And after counsel applied for their documents in the matter, the court, in abiding by the decision of the Court of Appeal, ordered that documents belonging to parties be released them in the suit.
"What this implied is that all parties, including Chief Fani-Kayode, should have access to their documents.
"The court struck out the suit from its own docket since it no longer has jurisdiction to hear it.
"Contrary to media reports, these are the facts and this is what happened at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday.
"We wish to state the following in order to clarify the situation and let the Nigerian public know the truth.
"The Learned Judge simply ordered that the case be struck out and that our client's passport should be returned to him.
"As at today, there is no case in respect of these charges in the court against our client and after seven years of prosecution, we are not only grateful to the courts for administering justice in a fair and just manner but we are also overjoyed at the fact that what can only be described as yet another seven-year ordeal has been brought to an end.
"They prosecuted him from 2008 till 2015 on politically-motivated, bogus spurious and trumped up charges and after seven years, he was discharged and acquitted by Justice Rita Ofili Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
"One year later in 2016, they went after him again and charged him on yet another set of politically-motivated and spurious charges again at the Federal High Court in Lagos and last Thursday, which was again seven years later, all those charges have been quashed by the Court of Appeal.
"It is instructive to also mention the fact that they are prosecuting him in two other courts, at the Ikeja High Court in Lagos and the Federal High Court in Abuja respectively, for again what we consider to be spurious and politically motivated charges.
"Despite their loss at the Court of Appeal last week and the decision of the learned and distinguished Court of Appeal judges to quash all the charges, if the EFCC deems it fit to go to an Abuja court after seven years of unsuccessfully prosecuting the same matter in Lagos and wasting taxpayers money to refile the case and start the matter all over again, that is their prerogative.
"In the event of them doing so, we shall of course meet them in court and resist them with as much vigour, skill and aggression as we have done over the last 14 years in their quest to jail our client who is totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
"Whatever they choose to do, as at now, the matter is completely dead. They have lost the case; the charges have been quashed and the matter has been thrown out", the statement further read.
EFCC had in the charge that was quashed by the court, accused the former Minister of engaging in money laundering, to the tune of about N4.6 billion.
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