The Supreme Court has dismissed an application filed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by one Frank Amah, who was prosecuted by the EFCC in 2007 before a Lagos State High Court for an alleged N190 million property fraud.
The EFCC had brought Amah and his company, Chyfrank Nigeria Limited, before Justice M.O. Obadina on a six-count charge of conspiracy, and obtaining by false pretence in counts one to four, and stealing in counts five and six.
Specifically, the EFCC accused him of presenting himself as an agent of one Alhaji Abubakar Mallam, to sell a property located at Ikoyi, a highbrow suburb in Lagos which was said to cost N190 million. The property was said to have been listed for sale by the Federal Government in February 2005. Amah claimed that it was allocated to Abubakar, then a serving Deputy-Comptroller of Customs who he said was his “bosom friend”.
However, after the transaction with Dunu had been concluded, the Federal Government, cancelled the sale of the government houses in Ikoyi, including the one which Amah purportedly sold to Dunu. Abubakar was to later testify in Court, that somebody used his name fraudulently to buy Federal Government house in Ikoyi, and that he never owned any house there.
The EFCC had accused him of fraudulently collecting N102, 400,000 from Dunu, which was never delivered to any Alhaji Abubakar Mallam, but instead used N94, 800,000 out of it to purchase a house at Thompson Avenue, Lagos from the Federal Government Implementation Committee. He was also accused in counts five and six of fraudulently obtaining N86, 900,000 and N7, 900,000 from Dunu, for the said transaction.
Justice Obadina, however, in the ruling, sustained Amah’s “no-case” submission, and invariably discharged and acquitted him.
But the EFCC appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal, which on February 27, 2015 sustained counts five and six preferred against Amah, overruling the decision of the lower court to exonerate him of all the charges, holding that “the respondent had adduced a prima facie evidence on counts five and six, which require some explanations from Amah and Chyfrank Nigeria Limited”.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Amah approached the Supreme Court, which on January 11, 2019 upheld the decision of the Appellate Court, ordering him to stand trial for counts five and six.
Tony Orilade
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
18th January, 2019
