Federal High Court acquits Mutu, two companies of money laundering charges

ELIZABETH VINCENT, Yenagoa

The federal high court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, discharged and acquitted the lawmaker representing Bomadi federal constituency, Hon. Nicholas Ebomo Mutu, and two companies of all 13-count amended charges bordering on allegations of money laundering, preferred against them by the economic and financial crimes commission, EFCC, in 2019.

In a charge number FHC/CR/123/2019 federal republic of Nigeria v. Hon. Nicholas Mutu Ebomo & 2 others, the first defendant was arraigned by the EFCC before the federal high court, Abuja division, on a 13 count charges bordering on allegations of money laundering, specifically, that as the chairman of the house of representatives committee on Niger Delta development commission, NDDC, he used two companies in which he is a director to receive monies as “appreciation or “gratification” from some contractors who had approached the house committee on NDDC to intervene and help them recover statutory remittances from the oil companies operating within the Niger Delta Region.

It was alleged in all the counts that the appreciation/gratification was paid through hon. Mutu for members of the House committee, in which case he had been standing trial since 2019.

The presiding Judge, Justice Ogunbanjo J, delivering her judgement on 15th April, 2026, discharged and acquitted the lawmaker and the two companies on all 13 counts of the amended charge.

Apart from the finding that none of the defendants or any member of the house committee on NDDC requested or demanded for any appreciation or gratification, and that none was traced to them, the court held that the prosecution (EFCC) failed to prove the essential elements of the alleged offences, and that the evidence adduced by the four (4) witnesses called by EFCC were speculative, unsubstantiated and not credible to warrant or justify a conviction.

The Court held, among other things, that there was no evidence that any money was paid to the hon. Mutu or that he converted any money, stressing the evidence showed there were bank transfers to and out of the two companies long before the alleged appreciation.

“The prosecution’s main witness, Bosun Arebuwa, having signed documents showing that the two companies rendered services on the NDDC contract and were paid through invoices, the alleged funds paid into the banks do not amount to appreciation or gratification.

“More importantly, since all the prosecution witnesses themselves admitted that the NDDC contract in issue was lawfully awarded and executed, the monies/funds cannot be said to be proceeds of unlawful activity under the money laundering Act, under which they were charged. money, which is clean, cannot be laundered and mere transfer or movement of money does not amount to money laundering”, the Court declared.

Having found that the prosecution failed to prove the essential elements of the alleged offences, and that the defendants’ side of the case was not impeached and created very reasonable doubt in the mind of the court, the court consequently discharged and acquitted the Defendants on all 13 count charges.

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