‘N3.5bn Paris loan scam’: Court clears energy firm of wrongdoing

A federal high court in Lagos has cleared GCA Energy Limited, an oil and gas exploration service company, of any wrongdoing over alleged N3.5 billion Paris loan scam.

The court had struck out a suit filed against three aides of former Senate President Bukola Saraki.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on September 2019 arraigned Gbenga Makanjuola, Saraki’s deputy chief of staff; Kolawole Shittu, a cashier in the senate president’s office; Robert Chidozie, a former managing director of Societe Generale Bank (now at large); a company, Melrose General Services Limited, and Obiora Amobi, its operations manager, on the alleged offences.

However, in the suit, with charge no: FHC/140C/18, court documents revealed that neither GCA Energy Limited nor its officials were charged before the court despite EFCC stating in a report dated December 21, 2016, that GCA Energy Limited paid the sum of $25,000 to Asterio Energy Services Limited, and subsequently got the sum of N12million from a company called Acarast Commercial.

However, when the EFCC concluded its investigation and decided to arraign those indicted in the alleged N3.5 billion Paris loan scam, GCA Energy Limited, and its officials were left out.

After almost three years of adjudication, Akintoye Aluko, the presiding judge, upheld the preliminary objection raised by the defendants and struck out the charge on the grounds that the charge is invalid and incompetent.

The judge stated that having examined the 11 counts on the first amended charge, apart from stating that the alleged acts or offences were committed in Nigeria, there was no mention of either Lagos or Abuja in the said charge.

The judge held that, “I cannot see or find anywhere on the face of the charge showing that all instructions or instruments relating to the accounts from which the defendants were alleged to have received proceeds of the alleged illegal activities were addressed to or received by the head office in Lagos. No mention was made of Lagos in any of the counts. Rather, Abuja was repeatedly mentioned in the statements contained in the proof of evidence as the place where the acts and activities alleged to constitute an offence took place”

The judge further stated that what the prosecution had done was a fundamental and mandatory breach of section 45 of the Federal High Court Act regarding territorial jurisdiction.

“The extant position of the law remains that an incompetent process cannot be amended. You cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand,” the judge said.

“In any case, an incompetent and invalid process is null and void.

“Coming from the foregoing, the sole issue in this case is resolved in favour of the objectors against the prosecution.”

He then went on to strike out the case.