Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has adjourned till January 20, 2026, for adoption of final written addresses in the alleged N3.1 billion fraud charge filed against former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam, and his then Commissioner for Finance, Omodachi Okolobia, by the Federal Government.
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The judge, who fixed the date for adoption of final written addresses filed by counsel in the matter, after Suswam and his co-defendant closed their defense, gave the prosecution 14 days to file and serve their final written address and 14 days for the defendants to respond upon service and adjourned till January 20, next year for adoption of the final written addresses filed in the matter.
Suswam and his co-defendant are facing an 11-count amended charge over the alleged misappropriation of N3.1billion, said to be part of proceeds from the sale of shares owned by the Benue State Government through the Benue Investment and Property Company Limited.
The transactions were allegedly carried out through Elixir Securities Limited and Elixir Investment Partners Limited.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), prosecuting the defendants on behalf of the Federal Government, had closed its case after calling nine witnesses, and instead of the defendants opening their defense, they opted for a no-case-submission as they argued that they didn’t have a case to answer
on the alleged diversion of N3.1 billion of public funds.
Justice Lifu, however, in a ruling on July 23, dismissed the no-case submission filed by Suswam and his co-defendant and ordered them to open their defence.
According to the court, the totality of evidence the anti-graft agency adduced before it established a prima facie case that warranted an explanation from the defendants.
It dismissed as lacking in merit a no-case-submission that the defendants filed to be discharged and acquitted of the charge against them.
Suswam, who piloted the affairs of Benue State from 2007 to 2015, alongside his co-defendant, had, in the application they anchored on sections 302 and 303 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015, prayed the court to terminate further proceedings on the case against them.
They contended that the EFCC failed, by way of credible evidence, to link them with allegations it raised in the charge before the court.
Their request was, however, opposed by the prosecution, which insisted that both documentary and oral evidence of witnesses who testified in the matter nailed the defendants to the alleged crime.
Delivering his ruling, Justice Lifu held that he found no merit in the defendants’ applications and accordingly dismissed them.
“Consequently, upon my conclusion on the above stated, the defendants’ no-case submission is hereby refused and dismissed. The defendants are hereby called upon to enter their various defences,” Justice Lifu held.
The EFCC had, in 2015, charged the erstwhile governor and his former Commissioner of Finance to court following an allegation that they looted proceeds of shares owned by the Benue State government and Benue Investment and Property Company Ltd.
EFCC alleged that the duo laundered about N3.1bn using two companies—Elixir Securities Limited and Elixir Investment Partners Limited—as their conduit pipes.
The defendants were subsequently re-arraigned before the court on November 2, 2020.
In the amended charge, the EFCC, among other things, alleged that the 2nd defendant, Okolobia, transacted a total sum of N578 million in four tranches, in excess of the threshold of cash transactions permitted by the money laundering law.
He was said to have committed the offences between December 2014 and January 2015.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as the court ordered their release on bail, pending the determination of the case.
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