An Ikeja Special Offences Court has discharged social media persona Ismaila Mustapha, popularly referred to as Mompha, and struck out all eight counts of alleged money laundering involving about N6 billion filed towards him.
Delivering her ruling on Tuesday, Justice Mojisola Dada held that the continued prosecution of the case amounted to an abuse of courtroom course of, noting {that a} comparable matter was already pending earlier than the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The decide described the EFCC’s determination to pursue the instances in separate courts as discussion board buying and consequently struck out all eight charges towards Mompha, discharging him.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned Mompha and his firm, Ismalob Global Investment Limited, on January 12, 2022, over allegations bordering on money laundering and different monetary crimes.
He was tried in absentia on allegations of conspiracy to launder funds suspected to have been generated by illegal actions, retaining and laundering proceeds of crime, failure to declare property, possessing paperwork containing false pretences and utilizing properties allegedly derived from unlawful actions.
Mompha had pleaded not responsible to the charges.
The EFCC alleged that he, alongside one Ahmadu Mohammed, who’s at the moment at massive, and Ismalob Global Investment Limited, conspired in 2016 to hold out monetary transactions valued at N6 billion to facilitate illegal actions, together with acquiring money by false pretences.
During the trial, the prosecution, led by Suleiman Suleiman, introduced six witnesses and tendered a number of documentary displays to ascertain its allegations towards the defendants.
However, the defence didn’t name any witness in response to the prosecution’s proof.
Mompha was reportedly admitted to bail on the situation that he surrendered his worldwide passport however subsequently stopped attending courtroom proceedings.
On April 28, the courtroom had closed the defence’s case after Mompha’s lawyer, Kolawole Salami, of Gboyega Oyewole, SAN’s legislation agency, failed to provide witnesses.
Tuesday’s determination successfully ends the proceedings towards Mompha earlier than the Ikeja Special Offences Court. However, the decide’s ruling was primarily based on the existence of an analogous case pending earlier than the Federal High Court in Lagos.
