A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday cleared Andrew Yakubu, a former group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), of money laundering.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to prove the three ingredients of Section I of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act which it relied upon.
He described the vital ingredients in counts three and four which the anti-graft agency charged the ex-GMD to include receiving cash payment above N5 million, failure to go through a financial institution and that the defendant is a natural person.
“Though the EFCC called six witnesses against Yakubu, the ex-GMD, while demonstrating the ownership of the money allegedly laundered, said the money were received as gifts and goodwill from friends and well wishers after his retirement in 2014,” he said.
Mohammed noted that Yakubu, while giving his evidence as first defence witness, said that the funds, which are in naira and foreign currencies, were received in bits not as a whole as alleged by the prosecution.
The EFCC had raided Yakubu’s Kaduna residence in 2017 and found $9.7m and £74, 000 in a safe, funds which they claimed were laundered.
