A Federal High Court in Abuja has discharged a former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Inde Dikko, and two others.
The two other defendants are Garba Makarfi, a former Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, and Umar Hussaini, a lawyer, and owner of Capital Law firm.
The ICPC had accused Dikko, Makarfi, and Hussaini of inducing the Managing Director of Cambial Limited, Yemi Obadeyi, to pay N1.1 billion (N1,100, 952,380.96) into the account of Capital Law Office as a refundable “completion security deposit” for the purchase of 120 units of duplexes as residential accommodation for officers of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The anti-graft agency also accused Hussaini of distributing the money into various other bank accounts and for his part in the deal, he was rewarded with the sum of $3 million.
But in a ruling on Wednesday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, dismissed a fraud charge leveled against Diko and two other defendants by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
According to the judgement, the court freed the defendants in view of the oral application by ICPC’s lawyer, E. A. Sogunle to withdraw the charge.
Sogunle told the court that despite a bench warrant issued on Dikko, who has not attended court since the charge was filed early last year, the prosecution has been unable to arrest him and produce him in court.
