Davidson Iriekpen
A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja yesterday convicted a former Managing Director of the defunct Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, on charges of stealing the sum of N25.7billion belonging to the bank.
In a judgment that lasted over 10 hours, Justice Lateefat Okunnu convicted Atuche alongside a former Chief Financial Officer of the bank, Ugo Anyanwu.
The court convicted the duo on 21 of the 27-count amended charge of conspiracy to commit a felony and stealing brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Okunnu held that the EFCC successfully proved its case against the convicts beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge rejected the claims of the defendants that they were merely professionally negligent.
She specifically held that Atuche and Anyanwu abused their powers, ignored established rules and regulations thereby putting the bank and depositors’ funds in danger.
The court also came to the conclusion that the convicts corruptly took advantage of their positions to confer on themselves undue financial benefits without regard to the health of the bank.
Justice Okunnu however, cleared Atuche’s wife on the charge of conspiracy and stealing.
According to the judge, the EFCC failed to link her to the crime and insisted that suspicion no matter how strong cannot take the place of fact.
The judge held that it was not proven that she was aware of the source of the funds she received into her account from her husband and she had no powers to take any decision to influence the transaction.
The EFCC had alleged that between November 2007 and April 2008, the accused persons stole about N25.7billion belonging to the bank.
The anti-graft agency had also claimed that of the total N25.7billion, they stole about N14.7billion by fraudulently describing it as a loan to some companies and subsequently converted the said sum to personal use.
The commission had listed the companies as Future View Securities, Extra Oil Limited, Resolution Trust and Investment Limited, and Tradjek Nigeria Ltd.
The EFCC also alleged that another N11billion stolen by the defendants was used to purchase about 984,375,000 units of Bank PHB shares for themselves.
According to the commission, the sum used for purchasing the shares was described as a loan to some companies including, Guesstrade Services, Sentron Trading, Montrax Investico, Claremount Management Ltd., Trenton Trade, and others.
In proof of its case against the accused persons, the EFCC called 12 witnesses who gave oral evidence. It also subpoenaed six others to present some documents which were admitted as exhibits by the court.
After about three years into the trial, Atuche and co-defendants approached the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal to challenge their trial by the lower court for lack of jurisdiction.
In a judgment delivered in September 2016, the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, stopped the lower court from going ahead with the trial.
The appellate court also failed to quash the charges against Atuche, his wife and others but ordered Justice Okunnu to hands off the trial.
The appellate court further directed the Chief Judge of Lagos State to re-assign the case to another judge.
Following the decision of the Court of Appeal, the EFCC approached the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the lower court and order trial in the matter.
When the case came up at the apex court for hearing, EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) told the court that the matter had gone far at the lower court and that the decision of the appellate court hampered the expeditious conclusion of the trial.
After listening to the EFCC’s counsel, a panel of the apex court, in a unanimous decision, overturned the decision of the appellate court.
The panel agreed that the lower court’s decision on the matter was “perverse” and, therefore ought to be set aside.
Justice Ejembi Eko, who prepared and read the lead judgment of the apex court, said the order which the Court of Appeal made on September 23, 2016, for the remittance of case to the Lagos State Chief Judge for the purpose of re-assigning the case to another judge, was not aimed at serving the interest of justice.
The Supreme Court panel noted that the appellate court did not adduce any reason for disqualifying the trial judge that took the plea of the defendants in the first instance.
Justice Eko also stressed that such order, being “a contentious one”, required the lower court to give reasons why Justice Okunnu should not be allowed to continue with the trial.
The apex court panel equally noted that neither Justice Okunnu nor Justice Lawal-Akapo were accused of any wrongdoing by any of the parties to the case to warrant the transfer of the matter to a new judge.
The apex court consequently directed that the case be returned to Justice Okunnu for continuation of trial of the defendants.
Other Justices of the apex court that concurred with the lead verdict were Justices Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Paul Galinje and Iyang Okoro.
