A Federal High Court in Abuja has set free Ishaq Modibbo Kawu the suspended Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), from allegations of involvement in the N2.5 billion Digital Switch-Over (DSO) fraud for the inability of prosecution to prove it.
Justice Ogunbanjo-Giwa discharged Kawu of the alleged crime while delivering judgment on Thursday, on the criminal charges filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2019 against the defendants
Kawu, the late Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Lucky Omoluwa, and the Chief Operating Officer of the same company, Dipo Onifade, were jointly charged before the judge in 2019.
They were accused of misapplying the N2.5 billion seed grant released to NBC by the federal government for the DSO project at the time.
Delivering her judgement on Thursday, the judge held that the evidence presented by the prosecution witnesses did not substantiate the allegations levelled against the defendants.
“The onus of proving that anyone is guilty of a crime is on the prosecution,” the judge stated.
“I, therefore, find the defendants not guilty as charged. The defendants are hereby discharged,” she ruled.
The judge had held in the judgement while reviewing the case that all disbursements related to the DSO project were carried out under the purview of the then Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed.
She noted that there was no NBC board in place at the time Kawu was in office, meaning that all financial decisions were made by the ministry.
“Again, I must stress that no oral evidence is strong enough to discredit documentary evidence,” she stated.
The judge concluded that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of money laundering against the defendants.
Recalled that ICPC had accused them of abuse of office, money laundering, and misleading a public officer with the intent to defraud the federal government, in violation of Section 26(1)(c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and punishable under Section 19 of the same law.
The ICPC also alleged that, during investigations, a government White Paper that governed the execution of the DSO programme was allegedly flouted by the ex-NBC head.
However, Kawu and others denied the allegations, leading to the trial.
During the proceedings, Kawu, through his counsel, A. U. Mustapha (SAN), argued before the court in February 2020 that he had no case to answer in the alleged fraud.
He prayed the court to absolve him of the charges brought against him by ICPC.
However, on June 3, 2020, Justice Ogunbanjo-Giwa ruled that the ICPC had established a prima facie case against Kawu, Onifade, and Pinnacle Communications Limited and directed them to enter their defense.
Unfortunately, Mr. Omoluwa died during the cause of trial, His name was removed from the charge after his counsel, Alex Iziyon (SAN), informed the court that he had died from heart failure during the trial.