By Uche Mbah
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aid, Waripamo Owei-Dudafa, has been discharged and acquitted by a Federal High Court in Lagos of allegation of Fraud to the tune of N1.6 billion.
The presiding Judge, Justice Mohamed Idris said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, failed to prove the 22 count charge beyond reasonable doubt. The charges were against  Owei-Dudafa and a Heritage Bank worker Joseph Iwejuo, who the anti-graft agency dragged to court on an alleged fraud amounting to N1.6 billion. He said the agency based their entire case on suspicion. According to him, suspicion cannot take the place of hard evidence. Besides, the anti-graft agency failed to call the two very vital witnesses-Former President Goodluck Jonathan and his National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki. Dasuki has been incarcerated since the inception of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
In a landmark Judgment that ran into 190 pages, the judge submitted that the EFCC could not prove that the bag that was handed over to former president Jonathan was filled with dollars. According to him, that has not been proved. “How did the EFCC know the bag contains dollars? (And) Why did the prosecution fail to call Sompre Omiebi to testify?” he queried.
Omiebi was cited in the case by the EFCC but was not summoned to testify.
He concluded that the investigations by the Agency were not thorough.
