A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Monday, discharged and acquitted a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr Stephen Oronsaye of the N2 billion money laundering charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In a judgement that was delivered by trial judge,Justice Inyang Ekwo, the court held that the anti-graft agency failed to by way of credible evidence, establish its case against the former HoS and his co-defendants.
Justice Ekwo stressed that the totality of the evidence the EFCC adduced in the course of the trial was not convincing enough to move the court to convict the defendants.
According to the court, the prosecution, failed to effectively discharge the evidential burden that was placed on it by the law.
Consequently, the court discharged and acquitted the defendants of the 27- count charge the EFCC preferred against them.
Oronsaye was charged before the court in 2015, alongside the Managing Director of Fedrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Mr. Osarenkhoe Afe and three companies- Cluster Logistic Limited; Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.
EFCC alleged that the defendants had between 2010 and 2011, used the firms and siphoned public funds totalling about N2 billion, through procurement fraud.
It alleged that the funds were subsequently diverted into private accounts by the defendants.
