By Bassey Udo
After being subjected to some of the most incriminating trials over the last nine years, the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, Benjamin Joseph, was on Thursday finally discharged and acquitted over a one-count charge of false petitioning by the police.
Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja, who has been handling the trial instituted by the Police since July 2016, said the Ibadan-based ICT retail firm boss was discharged and acquitted following a directive by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for a nolle prosequi to terminate further prosecution of the case.
Before the pronouncement to halt the trial during the resumed sitting of the court on Thursday, the police prosecutor, Simon Lough, a deputy Commissioner of Police and SAN, sought to sidestep the AGF’s directive and continue the prosecution.
Lough told the court that although he received the directive from the AGF to withdraw from the case, he was served with an originating motion in suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/376/2024 between two of the suspects in the case, Chief Onny Igbokwe and others versus the IGP and four others seeking an order for an interlocutory injunction, with the court directing that status quo be maintained.
However, lawyer to the businessman, Bob James of Bob James & Co., fought back, saying the injunction referred to by DCP Lough came after the AGF’s directive to the IGP on February 5, which was received the following day.
Besides, Messrs James said his client was yet to be served the said order by the Federal High Court, arguing that the purported order was not directed at the court, and since the directive by the AGF for police withdrawal from the case was received before the said order, the correct position in the eyes of the law was that the proceedings of the court in respect of the case were deemed to have been halted and the case withdrawn forthwith.
He urged the court to discountenance the claim by the police prosecutor and dismiss the charge against his client, citing the authority from the provisions of Section 108 (2) a & b of the law.
Before resuming his sit, James drew the attention of the court of the presence of a legal counsel from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, which he said had a vital information to pass to the court.
When the official was recognised by the Judge and given the opportunity to speak on her mission, she introduced herself as FN Umoh, an Assistant Chief State Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, who was directed to appear in court to take over the trial, withdraw the case and discontinue further prosecution of the matter by the police.
Ms Umoh, who said the directive was pursuant to the provisions of Section 174 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Section 108 of the Administration of Justice Act (ADJA) 2021 2015, which empower the AGF to intervene in a criminal case at any time there was potential or real threat to the fundamental principles of equity, fairness and justice of any of the parties.
She told the court that the AGF has already indicated in his correspondences to both the Inspector General of Police and the court registrar that he was not interested in continuing with the prosecution of the matter.
Section 174 (1) of the Constitution empowers the AGF to institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court of law in Nigeria, other than a court-martial, in respect of any offence created by or under any Act of the National Assembly.
The provision also authorizes the AGF to take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other authority, or person, and to discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted, or undertaken by him, or any other authority, or person.
Following the announcement by the State Counsel, Justice Kekemeke said considering the vast powers conferred by the Constitution on the Attorney General to order the prosecution of anyone accused of any crime, and his right to order the termination of same at any time before judgment, he was duty bound to obey the directive to discontinue the trial.
Consequently, the Judge ruled that the one-count charge of false petitioning preferred against the businessman be terminated forthwith.
AGF’s letter to IGP
On February 5, 2024, the AGF wrote to the IGP letter No. HAGF/IGP/2024/Vol.1/2 entitled: “Re: Malicious Prosecution by DCP Simon Lough, SAN, And Appeal For A Review of Charge No.CR216/16 – IGP vs Benjamin Joseph”, to inform him of his instruction for the criminal proceedings against the businessman by the police to be terminated immediately.
The AGF told the IGP that after reviewing the entire case file, he could not understand how the businessman, who was the victim of a fraud against his company over which he petitioned the police, became the defendant.
He said his view was that the facts and circumstances of the case revealed the trial was not only malicious, but grossly oppressive. “I do not think a citizen of this nation should be subjected to such harrowing experience,” the AGF concluded in his letter.
The AGF’s letter was sequel to a petition dated November 1, 2023 by the businessman to complain about his malicious prosecution by DCP Simon Lough, SAN, while the perpetrators of the fraud against his company were allowed to walk freely.
Since 2016, the businessman has stood trial in a case filed by the police for alleged false petitioning.
Backstory
In October 2013, the businessman petitioned the then Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Bureau (FCIB), Solomon Arase, over a N170.3m fraud he said was committed against his company by a fraud syndicate.
In his petition, he accused some senior officials of Zinox Technologies Limited and its subsidiary, Technology Distributions Limited (TD) of conspiring with their allies in Ad’mas Digital Technologies Limited and Pirovics Engineering Services Limited to hijack and illegally execute a contract awarded to his company by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in 2012 for the supply of laptop computers.
The businessman named the suspects to include the Chairman of Zinox Group, Leonard Stanley Ekeh, and wife, Chioma; Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Zinox Group and TD, Chris Eze Ozims, and a director of TD, Folashade Oyebode.
He said they connived with the Chief Executive of Ad’mas Digital Technologies Limited and Pirovics Engineering Services Limited, Onny Igbokwe, along with one Princess O. Kama, and two officials of Access Bank PLC – Obilo Onuoha and Deborah Ijeabu, to commit the fraud.
Oyebode and Ozims, the businessman said, appointed themselves signatories of a fake account opened in his company’s name at Access Bank with forged documents, including a board resolution dated December 18, 2012, using a caricature of his signature.
To facilitate the fake account opening, the businessman said Onuoha and Ijeabu betrayed the company’s confidentiality and illegally gave out to the syndicate the original copies of his company’s documents with the bank.
The businessman said transaction documents also showed that Chioma Ekeh, wife to Stan Leo Ekeh, issued the instructions to the accountant at TD, Charles Adigwe, for the disbursement of funds from the fictitious company account at Access Bank to various benefiting parties in the fraud.
Police frustrates prosecution of suspects
Since 2014, the businessman said the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the police in Lagos had concluded investigations into allegations in the petition and found the suspects culpable of the crime.
However, he said the police refused to release the original case file to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for their prosecution.
He said several requests by the then DPP, Muhammad Diri, to then DIG Arase, demanding the release of the case file for the prosecution of the suspects failed to persuade him. The businessman said this development necessitated a reminder he sent in a letter to Arase on July 3, 2014
Following Arase’s appointment as Inspector General of Police (IGP), the businessman said he sent another reminder to him on May 8, 2015 highlighting his company’s frustrations in getting the police cooperation to prosecute the suspects.
But he said Arase deliberately sold a dummy to him by advising that he allowed the civil case, which was not pending anywhere against the suspects, to be concluded first, ostensibly to prevent a miscarriage of justice.
The businessman said when he read through the smokescreen of Arase’s diversionary scheme, his lawyer wrote to him, accusing him of an attempt to shield the suspects from prosecution.
Angered by his lawyer’s letter, the businessman said rather than give the needed approval for the prosecution of the fraud suspects, IGP Arase, few days before his retirement, directed that a one-count charge be filed against him for allegedly misinforming him in the petition to his office on the matter.
On June 2, 2016, he said he was formally arraigned before Justice Peter Kekemeke, then at Court 14, Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo, Abuja, on a one-count charge of “false petitioning” in case No FHC/HC/CR/216/2016.
In the charge sheet read during the arraignment, the police prosecution counsel, Simon Lough, said the businessman provided false information to mislead the IGP through his petition of July 3, 2014, which accused the suspects of using a fictitious Board resolution of his company dated December 18, 2012 to open a fake account with Access Bank PLC used in committing the fraud.
Businessman Petitions VP Osinbajo
Not satisfied with IGP Arase’s handling of the matter, the businessman said he petitioned then acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, who directed the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to wade in and investigate the matter.
He said the Commission swung into action immediately by inviting and quizzing some of the key suspects, except Stan Leo Ekeh.
Despite that the report at the end of the probe corroborated all the allegations in his petition against the suspects, the businessman said the police remained adamant on not prosecuting them.
Not first time AGF takes over prosecution
Following his arraignment and charge by the police, the businessman said he again petitioned then VP Osinbajo, who directed the then AGF, Abubakar Malami, along with then Solicitor General of the Federation, Taiwo Abidogun, to intervene.
Malami, acting on Osinbajo’s directive, asked then DPP, Mohammad Umar, to take over the prosecution of the case by the police to avoid a miscarriage of justice.
On December 7, 2016, he said the DPP, pursuant to the AGF’s directive, detailed a senior counsel from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Aniekan Ekong, to appear in court and take over the case.
Although Ekong, indeed, took over the case, asked the police to withdraw its prosecution and transfer the case file to the DPP, Police Prosecutor Simon Lough disobeyed the AGF’s directive.
At the resumed hearing in the case on February 28, 2017, the businessman said Lough presented a letter purportedly signed by the same DPP Umar, upturning the AGF’s earlier directive, and reinstating the police to continue with the trial.
Lough claimed the AGF was misinformed about the status of the case, as there was a petition by one Innocent Eremionkhale of Integrity Law Firm, whom he claimed to be counsel to the police, pending against the businessman in another court.
The businessman said he wrote again to then VP Osinbajo and Malami on April 11, 2017, to demand a probe of the then director, International and Comparative Law in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Stella Anukam, whom he accused of abuse of office, a sister to Innocent Eremionkhale and also an ally of the suspects. He accused Anukam of using her position in the Ministry and her company, Integrity Law Firm, to obstruct the prosecution of the suspects.
The businessman said his findings showed Anukam was not only the lead partner in Integrity Law Firm used by the police to file the purported petition to the AGF to reverse his earlier directive for the take-over of his prosecution, but also the sister to Innocent Eremionkhale, the signatory to the petition, who doubles as the legal counsel to suspects in the fraud against his company.
Again, the businessman said in 2017, when the EFCC quizzed the suspects over their roles in the fraud against his company, Anukam stood surety to some of the suspects, including Chioma Ekeh, the director of TD and wife of the Chairman of Zinox Group, Stan Leo Ekeh.
He said Integrity Law Firm and Eremionkhale also featured as legal counsels to four of the fraud suspects – Chioma Ekeh, Chris Eze Ozims, Folashade Oyebode and Charles Adigwe, in their applications before the Federal High Court in Lagos presided by Justice Tijjani Garba Ringim, as they sought to shield themselves from police prosecution for the fraud.
He said it was Eremionkhale who filed separate applications for the four suspects asking the court to restrain the police from inviting them for interrogation and prosecution over their roles in the case of conspiracy, forgery, and fraud against them.
EFCC deceitful games
Meanwhile, in February 2021, the businessman said the EFCC, after much pressure, decided to arraign only two of the seven suspects (Onny Igbokwe and Princess Kama) it found culpable of the crime.
But the businessman said it was another shadow-boxing by the anti-graft agency, as the four-count charge filed against the suspects, was fundamentally flawed.
Although the businessman said his petition was based on the forgery of his company’s document dated December 18, 2012, the EFCC charged the suspects based on a non-existent document dated December 14, 2012.
He said despite the observed discrepancies, the EFCC Prosecutor, Jude Obozuwa ignored all requests to effect the necessary correction.
Consequently, in his ruling in the matter, Justice Danlami Senchi, then presiding judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Jabi, Abuja, relied on the deliberate contradictions and non-diligent prosecution by the EFCC to discharge and acquit the suspects, while imposing a controversial N20m fine against the businessman, who was neither a party to the case, nor granted permission to join in testifying as interested party.
Following the shocking ruling by Justice Senchi, the businessman said he again petitioned then AGF Malami, seeking his intervention in the “unjustified persecution”.
On November 15, 2021, the DPP, this time Babadoko Mohammed, through a letter No. DPP/ADV/1009/14, by Abdulrahim Opotu Shuaibu, an Assistant Director of Public Prosecution in the Ministry, conveyed the directive of the then AGF to again take over the case, the second time since December 7, 2016.
The businessman said a senior state counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Bagudu Sani, who represented the DPP, was actually in court at the resumed sitting to effect the directive of the AGF.
But, Sani said the prosecution of the suspects would not commence immediately until the AGF studied the case file before deciding on the legal advice to pursue.
Businessman Petitions Fagbemi
On assumption of office as the new Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the businessman said he sent a petition to Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on November 1, 2023 detailing his travails in court and frustrations by the police in his quest for justice.
On February 5, 2024, the AGF wrote to the Inspector General of Police to express his reservations against the continued trial of the businessman by DCP Simon Lough, despite several directives for him to withdraw the case.
“It is my instruction that the said charge be withdrawn and the ongoing criminal proceedings terminated. How the victim of the alleged offence became the defendant under prosecution, in view of the facts and circumstances of this case, is not only malicious, but grossly oppressive. I do not think a citizen of this nation should be subjected to such harrowing experience,” the AGF wrote to the IGP.
Despite the strong-worded letter, DCP Simon Lough, SAN stuck to his guns and refused to withdraw the charge and terminate the prosecution of the businessman.
On March 21, 2024, the DPP MB Abubakar sent another letter to the IGP, for the attention of DCP Simon Lough, SAN, to remind him of the AGF’s directive conveyed in his February 5 correspondence directing to withdraw forthwith the charges.
Celebration as businessman is acquitted, discharged
On Thursday as Justice Kekemeke pronounced the discharge and acquittal of the businessman, it was celebration galore, as scores of his associates and loved ones who were in court embraced and hugged him, heaving a huge sigh of relief that the nine years of his travailing search for justice finally came to an end.
The businessman was short of words as he struggled to address journalists who sought his reaction outside the court shortly after the ruling.
“I am short of words to describe how I feel right now. I can only thank God for using a righteous man, in the person of Lateef Fagbemi, the AGF, to give me justice. For the past nine years, I battled in several courts to show my innocence over the gross injustice done to me and my company. I have lost a lot. My name and integrity were dragged in the mud. My business is almost run aground. I don’t want to talk about the toll on my health and risk of traveling every other month for this case. But I am happy today, I have been vindicated that I did not lie against my traducers,” he said.
He thanked his legal team, and the special intervention by JS Okutepa, SAN, for fighting valiantly on the side of equity, fairness and justice.
His lawyer, Bob James, who spoke on behalf of about seven lawyers in the defence team, gave kudos to the AGF who, against all odds, stood firm to do what is right for his client, whom he said he knew all along that he was wrongly persecuted by the police for telling the truth.
James refused to disclose what the next line of action would be, saying he was only waiting for further directives from his client on the matter.
