Court discharges, acquits A. A. Zaura over money laundering charges

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano has dismissed a suit on money laundering filed against a politician, Abdulkareem Saleh Abdulsalam, also known as A. A. Zaura.

Solacebase reports that Abdulsalam Saleh Abdulkareem, the governorship candidate of Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) in 2019 general elections was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged $1.3 million fraud in November 2018.

Abdulkareem and his co-accused, Ebere Nzekwe, were arraigned before the federal high court, Kano, on a nine-count charge of criminal conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretence.

The EFCC said the petitioner, Jamman Al-Azmi, a Kuwaiti national accused the defendants of fraudulently obtaining $1.3 million from him after assuring him that it would be used for business investment.

At the court sitting on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Justice Ambrose Lewis Allagoa ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, adding that the prosecution did not establish criminal evidence against the defendant in any way.

‘’The prosecution left a serious doubt in the mind of the court, explaining that the prosecution pursued its case based on suspicion as against the defendant while failing to prove the charges against him,” said Justice Allagoa.

He said that the failure of the nominal complainant to appear before the court to give evidence had rendered all the testimonies by the prosecution witnesses null.

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Justice Ambrose Lewis Allagoa noted that the two witnesses brought by the anti-graft are not in the position to relate what transpired between the nominal complainant and the defendant.

The judge then dismissed all the nine-count charges filed against the defendant and acquitted him