By 
Tayo AFOLABI
Mrs. Ochuko Momoh, wife of a former Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, Haruna Momoh, and five others have been discharged of money laundering related charges.
In a judgment on Thursday, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of Federal High Court in Abuja, held that the prosecution failed to discharge the burden of proving its case against the defendants beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Taiwo, who also ordered the discharge of an earlier interim forfeiture order made against Mrs. Momoh and her two firms – Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms – noted that the case of the ICPC was based on mere speculation and conjecture.
Mrs. Momoh was tried with Blessing Azuka-Agozi, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Energopol Nigeria Limited, Blaid Construction Limited and Blaid Farms Limited on a 22-count charge brought by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
The ICPC, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/278/2019, accused Momoh of laundering funds estimated at about N3 billion through her companies – Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms.
Azuka Agozi was alleged to have reneged on her promise to provide ICPC’s investigators with documents relating to the contracts Energopol Nigeria Limited allegedly executed for the PPMC, for which it was allegedly paid huge sums.
The ICPC accused Stanbic IBTC of failing to report suspicious transactions in the accounts of Blaid Construction and Blaid Farms to the relevant authorities as required by law.
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