After almost seven years of legal fireworks, the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, acquitted the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Ltd., Jide Omokore of fraud and money laundering charges.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba discharged Omokore and two of his companies, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Limited, on the ground that the prosecution, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), failed to prove ingredients of the charges.
The anti-graft agency had arraigned the defendants in 2016 for allegedly diverting over $1.6 billion belonging to the Federal Government under the guise of oil swap.
It had claimed that the defendants, under alleged false pretence, obtained crude oil from government when they reportedly never had the required funds or expertise to execute the agreement.
But delivering judgment, yesterday, Justice Dimgba described the issues as “a relationship, which has gone bad.”
