N167.8m: Court discharges Lawyer, Oyo state council official over alleged fraud
- A court case against a council official in Oyo state and a lawyer has been struck out
- The judge presiding over the case declared that the accused persons have no case to answer
- The judge had relied on a piece of legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution
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Justice E. A. Ashade of the Lagos State High court, sitting in Tafawa Balewa Square has struck out a N167,886,591,60 theft charge preferred by the police against an Oyo state local government council official, Badmus Adesina, and a lawyer, Ibukunoluwa Konu.
Justice Ashade struck out the charge with No: LD/11439C/2020 and discharged Adesina and Konu after a Director of Public Prosecution's (DPP) report stated they have no case to answer.
The police had claimed that the defendants stole N167,886,591,60 from the estate of the Late Godfrey Konu.
Source: Twitter
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The estate of the late Mr. Godfrey Kwashie Konu is being administered by the Administrator-General and Public Trustee of Lagos state and the alleged theft were payments made to Mr. Ibukun Konu's mother as a beneficiary to the estate in her capacity as the first and legal wife of the late Mr. Kwashie Konu.
In a legal advice of November 23, 2020, the DPP, Mrs. A.O. Adeyemi stated that no prima facie case was established against the defendants.
It noted that no document had been forged, adding that the issuance of the letter of attestation by Adesina was part of his duties.
Following the DPP's advice, Justice Ashade struck out the charges against the defendants.
Ruling on the defendants' application, Justice Ashade held:
“The prosecution has not opposed the application, he equally submitted that the power of the police to prosecute is subject to the Attorney-General of Lagos state.
“In view of there being no opposition to the application by the defendants to be discharged upon striking out of the charge against them by the prosecution and position of law in the matter, I, therefore, order that the charge against the defendants is hereby struck out for non-prosecution and the defendants are hereby discharged.”
Meanwhile, an Ekiti high court has sentenced an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Okubo Aboye, to life imprisonment for buying a stolen vehicle from kidnappers in the state.
According to the report, the car was tracked down to the compound of ACP Okubo who on interrogation by investigative officers confessed that he bought the vehicle from his mechanic who received it from the kidnappers.
In a related development, a former assistant director of the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree, has asked the federal government to prioritise the welfare of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
According to him, the Nigerian government cannot continue to relegate the NPF and expect maximum performance from its personnel.
He further stated that the morale of the average policeman in Nigeria is low because they are not well taken care of.
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