Court frees business woman, others of N80m land theft
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of Lagos High Court, Ikeja on Thursday, discharged a business woman, Moji Yakubu and nine other persons of N80 million land theft charge filed against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
The commission had charged Yakubu along with her company, Monan Trading Company Limited and eight others for allegedly stealing 10 hectares of land at Sagotedo, Lekki which belongs to one Joko Trade Estate Resources Limited.
The eight persons joined with Yakubu in the 11 count charge includes: Chief Muka Bajulaiye, Alhaja Ajimot Adisa, Alani Shirawu, Bajulaiye Hakeem, Akeem Giwa, Rachael Tokede, Adelaja Raji and Nuniru Mushafau.
In the charge, the EFCC had alleged that the defendants forged several documents to facilitate the alleged theft.
The defendants however pleaded not guilty to the charge and were granted bail by the court.
Prior to the commencement of the trial, counsel to Mrs Yakubu, Yemi Adeshina filed an application before the court seeking an order to quash the charges against his client on the ground that they were incompetent.
In the application, Adeshina contended amongst other things that the charge against his client was an abuse of court process as his client has not committed any crime known to law.
In a counter motion, the EFCC insisted that there is sufficient evidence for the defendants to stand trial.
However, Justice Ipaye upheld the submissions of the defence and struck out the 11 count charges against all the defendants.
The judge ruled that from the prove of evidence before her, the EFCC failed to established a prima facie case against all the defendants.
Justice Ipaye stated that while it was not in dispute that the 1st defendant and her company purchased the said 10 hectares of land, the EFCC failed to provide prove that the transaction was an act of crime triable under the criminal law.
The judge said that from her perusal of the proof of evidence by the EFCC, the simple deduction is that there was a controversial sale of the land in question by some persons who belong to the family that rightfully owns the land.
She noted that the defense counsel had exhibited a petition against one Sade Ogundare challenging her power of attorney over a large parcel of land from which the 10 hectares of land was sold.
She said ” From the quick perusal of the proof of evidence filed before me by the EFCC, my deduction is that there has been at best a controversial sales of land by some persons who belong to the family that owns the land. This, I believe is an issue that falls within the jurisdiction of civil dispute.
” From the proof of evidence before me, the prosecution has failed to prove that there is sufficient ground for the trial to continue. The application filed by the 1st and 2nd defendants succeeds and the amended information dated March 14, 2016 is hereby quashed.”
Earlier, Justice Ipaye had lambasted the EFCC prosecution team led by Babatunde Sonaiki for fraudulent obtaining a temporary forfeiture order from another Lagos High Court judge sealing the Monan Garden Estate development project which was ongoing at the disputed 10 hectares land.
Justice Ipaye who wondered why the EFCC would secure such an order from another court while the matter is still before her, threatened to file a formal complaint against Mr Sonaiki before the appropriate disciplinary authority.
In another incident during the trial, Justice Ipaye also berated the commission for freezing the bank account of Monan Trading without any court order.
She ordered that the freeze order placed on the Monan Trading bank account be lifted as it was done without following due process.
