The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged and acquitted a former chief of air staff Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko (retd.) on six out of the seven-count money laundering charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled that the court found merit in a no-case submission the defendant filed in relation to counts one to six.
The judge held that a holistic review of the totality of evidence before the court showed that the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case that would warrant the defendant to be called upon to enter his defence to the six counts.
He held that allegations in the counts were based on “speculation, suspicion and assumptions”.
However, the court held that the former air chief has a case to answer with respect to count seven of the charge which bordered on allegation that he transferred N66million from the official bank account of the Nigerian Air Force in Stanbic IBTC Bank into the account of his lawyer, and used same to renovate his property in Asokoro, Abuja.
Dikko, who piloted the affairs of the NAF between September 2010 and October 2012, was arraigned before the court on January 25, 2017.
EFCC had in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/92/2016 accused him of complicity in money laundering and procurement fraud to the tune of about N9.7 billion.
