The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has discharged and acquitted a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi, of alleged N8,537,586,798.58 fraud preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Akpobolokemi was appointed Director-General of NIMASA by former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan on December 22, 2010 and was sacked on July 16, 2015, by the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari.
By July 30, 2015, Akpobolokemi, was arrested by the EFCC in Lagos and was detained at the Lagos office of the commission in the Ikoyi area of the city.
He has, since, been facing a series of trials in cases preferred against him by the EFCC.
Akpobolokemi was first arraigned on December 4, 2015, at the Federal High Court in Lagos, over the alleged diversion of N2.6bn from the coffers of the NIMASA between December 2013 and May 2015.
The prosecution claimed that the funds were approved by ex-President Jonathan for the implementation of a security project tagged, ‘International Ship and Ports Security Code in Nigerian Ports.’
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos, on October 16, 2017, dismissed Akpobolokemi’s no-case submission to the case.
Not satisfied, the former NIMASA DG approached the appeal court for a retrial of the N2.6 billion fraud case
The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on June 1, 2018, discharged and acquitted Akpobolokemi.
Others charged alongside Akpobolokemi were Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Ltd and Al-Kenzo Logistics Ltd.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Yargatta Nimpar, the court upheld the no-case submission filed by Akpolokemi in response to the criminal charges preferred against him by the EFCC and overruled the decision of the lower court.
Justice Nimpar discharged and acquitted Akpobolokemi of the entire 22 counts.
He, however, ordered that Agaba, Nwakuche, Juan, Blockz and Stonz Ltd and Al-Kenzo Logistics Ltd, had cases to answer and returned them to the lower court for trial to continue.
