A Lagos High Court in Ikeja set free the former Managing Director of the Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, his wife, Elizabeth, and a former Chief Financial Officer of the Bank, Ugo Anyanwu, dismissing the N25.7billion criminal charge against them.
Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, presiding at an Ikeja High Court in the Lagos State capital, said he found no merit in the case. He declared that his court was bound by the decisions of the Appeal Court in similar cases involving bank chiefs Okey Nwosu and Erastus Akingbola.
Justice Lawal-Akapo acknowledged that the prosecution had properly preferred counts 1 to 10 bordering on criminal stealing against the defendants, but ruled that counts 11 to 27 of the charges did not connect the defendants' theft with shares and stocks.
But critical to his dismissal of the charges, he said, were those previous rulings in favor of Nwosu and Akingbola, which he said have established a precedent.
Atuche had anchored his application for dismissal of charges against him on the rulings in those cases. Nwosu was a Managing Director of Finbank Plc, and Akingbola a Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank. They were both discharged in a ruling by the Court of Appeal, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
Atuche's counsel, Tayo Oyetibo, pointed the court to the decision of the Court of Appeal, which, on November 21, 2014, struck out the theft charges levelled against Nwosu and others.
“The appellate court held that such capital market-based matter was an exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court,” Oyetibo informed the court.
He also drew attention to a similar decision by the Court of Appeal on December 31, 2014 in the case of Mr. Akingbola, arguing that the cases were similar because they emanated from capital market transactions.
In response, the EFCC had on April 2nd filed an application seeking to adjourn ruling in Atuche's case, noting that it had challenged the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the case of Nwosu and was waiting for judgment. It urged the court to adjourn until the judgment in that case.
In his ruling, however, Justice Lawal-Akapo refused the EFCC's plea. He stated that the court would prefer an accelerated hearing and could not go against the existing judgment by Court of Appeal, which had set defendants free in a similar matter. The judge said no one could determine when the Supreme Court would give a judgment.
"If adjourned sine-dine, decision of this court will be antagonistic to the ruling of the Court of Appeal", the judge said today.
"I find no merit in the application and the application is hereby dismissed."