August 03, (THEWILL) – The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice John Tsoho, on Tuesday issued an order unfreezing the N2.1 billion bank account of the Founder of Daar Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi.
Justice Tsoho ordered that the account, domiciled at First Bank of Nigeria, be immediately unfrozen since the criminal charges, which precipitated the restriction on the account, had been dismissed and Dokpesi discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal.
Delivering ruling in an application filed and argued by Kanu Agabi (SAN), on behalf of Dokpesi, Justice Tsoho said that the Federal Government has no basis to put a Post-No-Debit Order on the account in view of the subsisting and valid order of the Court of Appeal.
Justice Tsoho delivered judgement after taking arguments from Dokpesi’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi, and counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Oluwaleke Atolagbe.
The Chief Judge held that since the Court of Appeal delivered the judgement that invalidated the criminal charges against Dokpesi, the EFCC had not applied for stay of execution of the judgement.
Justice Tsoho said that in the absence of a stay of execution, his court was bound by law to give effect and implementation to the judgement.
He thereafter ordered that the freeze order and post-no-debit on the account be immediately removed in compliance with the appellate court’s decision.
On the claim of EFCC that it has gone on appeal to the Supreme Court, Justice Tsoho held that the notice of appeal filed at the apex court cannot in law stay the execution of the subsisting judgement, adding that the antigraft agency ought to have obtained a stay of execution of the judgement.
He also ordered that all documents seized from Dokpesi or voluntarily surrendered to the Federal Government be immediately returned to him.
Atolagbe, in a bid to convince the Judge, had drawn the attention of the court that the Department of State Services (DSS), and National Intelligence Agency (NIA), made respondents in the matter, did not appear before the court and as such the court cannot make valid orders against them.
Recall that the EFCC had in 2015 arraigned Dokpesi before the Federal High Court on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N2.1 billion.
It had accused Dopkesi of unlawfully receiving financial inflows from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and using it to fund the programmes of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
During the trial, the court had struck out his no-case submission while agreeing that the prosecution had a valid case against him.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had on April 1, acquitted Dokpesi of the N2.1 billion money laundering charges.
A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Williams-Daudu, disagreed with the trial court, and said the EFCC had no case against Dokpesi.
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