For the second time,
the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of
Justice has withdrawn the fiat donated to Femi Falana SAN, purporting to
prosecute a case against Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of Zinox Technologies, and
12 others.
The case, which has dragged on for many years, arose from a transaction about 13 years ago between Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm owned by an Enugu state indigene, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), a project in which Technology Distributions fully extended credit to Citadel and which has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh.
In the latest
development, the current AGF, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, in a letter dated 2nd May
2025, addressed to The Principal Partner, Falana and Falana Chambers, and
signed by Mr. M. B. Abubakar, Director, Public Prosecutions of the Federation,
directed Falana to withdraw charge No: FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 (FRN. v. Leo Stan and
12 others), in the interest of justice; signifying that the fiat ought not
to have been donated to him in the first place.
The letter titled:
Withdrawal of Authorization Under Section 174 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended, reads: “I am directed to write in
reference to the above caption and to inform you that the Honourable Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in exercise of the power
conferred upon him by section 174 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, 1999, as amended and section 106 of the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act, 2015, has withdrawn the fiat earlier granted to you dated 20th
December 2023 to prosecute the case mentioned below at the expense of the
nominal complainant Mr. Joseph Benjamin: FRG V. Chris Eze Ozims and 6 others,
Charge No: CR/827/2013.
“You are, accordingly,
requested to withdraw Charge No: FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 between FRN v. Leo Stan
Ekeh and 12 others in the interest of justice.”
The Director, Public
Prosecutions of the Federation, conveyed the message of the withdrawal to the
chamber of Matthew Burkka & Co., chief counsel to the defendants, via a
letter dated 6th May 2025. The letter read inter alia: “You may wish to refer to
the above-mentioned subject matter and be informed that the office of the
Honourable Attorney General of the Federation is in receipt of your letters
dated 24th December, 2024, 27th March 2025 and 10th April 2025 respectively,
requesting for the withdrawal of the fiat donated to Messrs. Femi Falana SAN
dated 20th December 2023.
“I am to inform you
that after a consideration of your request, the facts and circumstances of the
case, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation has withdrawn the fiat
donated to Messrs. Femi Falana SAN, dated 20th December 2023 vide a letter dated
2nd May, 2025.”
It would be recalled
that the former AGF and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN, had in a
letter dated 28th October 2022, withdrawn a similar fiat that was donated to
Femi Falana, upon his own application, on the same set of facts and allegations.
Based on the withdrawal, the charges filed by Falana, pursuant to the fiat,
were struck out by two justices of the FCT High Court, Abuja (Honourable
Justice Christopher O. Oba, and Honourable Justice Ade. S. Adepoju)
However, upon the
appointment of the current AGF and Minister of Justice, Femi Falana, again
applied and got a fiat with which he filed a new case: Charge No:
FCT/HC/CR/985/2024 between FRN.v. Leo Stan and 12 others, still on the same set
of facts and allegations. But upon a further review of the file at the Ministry
of Justice, the AGF and Minister of Justice came to the conclusion that “in the
interest of justice” the fiat and the Charges filed pursuant to it should be
withdrawn.
Recall that this case
and its adjunct suits had been dismissed three times by three different courts.
The latest dismissal was on 20th March 2025 by Justice Akpan Okon Ebong of the
FCT High Court who struck out the case filed by Mr. Femi Falana SAN, against
the Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, and 12 others, based on
the fiat (that has now been withdrawn from him.)
The other defendants,
who were discharged and acquitted upon the dismissal of the Charges by the
courts, are Mr. Chris Eze Ozims, Oyebode Folashade, Charles Adigwe, Obilo
Onuoha, Agartha Ukoha, Anya O. Anya, Femi Dosumu, Nnenna Kalu, Admas Digital
Technologies Limited, Technology Distributions Limited and Zinox Technologies
Limited.
The suit No.
FCT/HC/CR/985/24 filed in November 2024 by Falana on behalf of his client,
Benjamin Joseph, before the Federal High Court in Abuja for the same alleged
diversion of N162,247,513.80 being payment for laptop supply contract at FIRS
Headquarters was dismissed.
In the certified true
copy of the judgment dated 20th March, 2025, Justice Ebong ruled as follows:
“It is my conclusion based on the foregoing that this charge (No.
FCT/HC/CR/985/2024, Federal Republic of Nigeria v Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 ORS)
constitutes a gross abuse of court process and is liable to dismissal. I
accordingly hereby dismiss it.”
Justice Ebong averred:
“One intriguing aspect of this matter is that none of the law enforcement
agencies involved in the investigation of the nominal complainant’s (Mr.
Joseph) numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against
the defendants. When called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Z. Senchi)
to prove his said allegations to the court, he failed to turn up in court. One
then wonders on what premise he wants to maintain this campaign of persecution
against the defendants.”
Previous judgments on
the matter had established that rather than being the culprit, Ekeh and the 12
others were actually the victims of a failed money diversion scheme plotted by
Mr. Joseph and Citadel.
The most recent
charges filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General was
the third in a row as Mr. Joseph had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which
was struck out by Honorable Justice Christopher O. Oba of the FCT High Court,
by an order dated 8th November 2022.
Justice Oba ruled:
“Upon hearing the counsel for both the Prosecution and the Defendants in court,
the basis for which the law firm of Femi Falana filed the present charge is the
authority gotten from the Attorney General of the Federation. The said authority
has been withdrawn, there is legally no basis for the present charge before
this court. Therefore, this charge is hereby struck out.”
Determined to push
through his case, Mr Joseph filed the same charges before Honorable
Justice Ade S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, and the charges were, once again,
struck out by the Honorable Court on 19th March 2024, with Honorable Justice
Adepoju holding that: “This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be
confined into the dustbin of history…I hold that the instant suit is an abuse
of the process of court and it is hereby struck out accordingly.”
It will be recalled
that in his petition to the police in 2013, it was discovered by police
authorities that Mr. Joseph provided false information to the police, prompting
the Inspector General of Police to charge him for false information in charge
no.CR/216/16.
In another case filed
by the EFCC, at his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no.
FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High
Court (as he then was), dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin
Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false
petitioning in relation to these same allegations.
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