The Federal High Court in Abuja has discharged and acquitted businessman Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and six other defendants in the $1bn money laundering case tied to the disputed Oil Prospecting Licence 245, Punch Newspapers reported on Thursday.
Justice Inyang Ekwo held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt, ending a legal battle that began with charges filed in December 2016.
What the court said
The judgment centred on a 43-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016, filed by the EFCC over alleged fraudulent dealings involving OPL 245. The commission claimed about $1bn and N673m were involved in money laundering offences connected to the block.
Justice Ekwo did not mince words. He faulted the EFCC for filing charges despite a 2018 letter from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, then led by Abubakar Malami, advising against prosecution because the evidence was insufficient.
The judge also found that the investigation had not been concluded before the defendants were charged.
To this end, the IPO must actually demonstrate that he conducted an investigation and not that he merely assumed the existence of the state of fact by guessing them.
He was referring to the Investigating Police Officer. He went further: investigation must be concluded before a charge is filed, and in this case, it clearly was not.
No agency above the nation's chief law officer
The strongest part of the ruling targeted institutional arrogance. Justice Ekwo stressed that no prosecuting agency is superior in law to the Attorney-General of the Federation.
No action should be taken by any prosecuting agency that gives any indication that it can defy the advice or directive of the HAGF and have its way in the court.
He added that the court would not endorse government agencies working at cross purposes. With that, all eight defendants walked free.
The EFCC had listed Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, A-Group Construction Company Limited, Rocky Top Resources Limited, Mega Tech Engineering Limited, Novel Properties and Development Company Limited, Imperial Union Limited, Carlin International Nigeria Limited and Abubakar as the first to eighth defendants respectively.
In two of the counts, the commission alleged that Malabu Oil and Gas, alongside Seidougha Munamuna, Amaran Joseph and Dauzia Loya Etete, said to be at large, took control of $401.54m and $400m transferred by the Federal Government into company accounts at First Bank of Nigeria and Keystone Bank. The EFCC claimed the funds were proceeds of unlawful activities under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, as amended. The defendants pleaded not guilty throughout.
Second acquittal for Abubakar
There is more. In a separate case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/31/2017, Justice Ekwo also discharged Abubakar of five counts of money laundering involving an alleged N300m, again because the EFCC failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The allegations in counts five, six, seven, eight and nine cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt. I so hold. I made an order discharging the defendant.
That case initially involved former Attorney-General of the Federation Mohammed Adoke and Abubakar. The judge discharged Adoke on April 19, 2024, after upholding his no-case submission, but ruled that Abubakar had a case to answer. At the close of his trial, the prosecution simply could not deliver.
Why this matters for Nigeria
This is bigger than one businessman walking out of court. The ruling draws a hard line: Nigerian institutions must respect their own chain of authority. When the chief law officer says the evidence is not there, an agency that pushes ahead anyway is not fighting corruption, it is fighting itself.
OPL 245 has for years been a magnet for foreign pressure and international scrutiny, with Nigeria's energy assets dragged into courtrooms far beyond its borders. Thursday's judgment hands the matter back to Nigerian institutions and Nigerian law. Sovereignty is not a slogan; it is a judge in Abuja telling an agency that it cannot override the Attorney-General of the Federation and hope the court will rubber-stamp it.
Nigerians who want the country's development agenda to move forward should read this alongside the wider conversation about who sets Nigeria's priorities, as explored in