A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has discharged and acquitted a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, of all charges bordering on money laundering and fraud, effectively bringing to an end a protracted legal battle that lasted over seven years.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, ruling on a no-case submission on Tuesday, held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to establish a prima facie case against the former governor and his company, Spotless Investment Limited.
The EFCC had re-arraigned Fayose on an 11-count charge, accusing him of laundering N6.9 billion while serving as governor.
Among the allegations was that Fayose received ₦1.2 billion in cash for his 2014 governorship campaign and an additional $5 million from a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, without routing the funds through any financial institution.
The commission also alleged that Fayose retained over ₦1.6 billion, which he purportedly used to acquire choice properties through proxy companies including De Privateer Ltd and Still Earth Ltd — transactions that allegedly violated provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.
However, in his no-case submission filed on May 19, Fayose’s lead counsel and former Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), contended that the EFCC failed to link his client directly to the alleged crimes.
He argued that the prosecution’s failure to charge Abiodun Agbele — the man who allegedly received the funds on Fayose’s behalf — significantly weakened the credibility of the case.
Agabi also criticised the prosecution’s case for relying on testimony from witnesses who could not establish any communication between Fayose and the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, from whom the funds allegedly originated.
The second defendant’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), also filed a separate no-case submission, insisting that key prosecution witnesses — especially Obanikoro — gave contradictory or inconclusive evidence that failed to directly implicate the defendants.
But EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the no-case submissions, questioning why Fayose would have used proxies and refused to document such large transactions in his name if they were legitimate.
“If the money was clean, why not buy the properties in his name?” Jacobs asked, while referencing testimonies from Obanikoro and EFCC investigator, Abubakar Madaki, who claimed that Fayose used associates to secretly acquire assets in Lagos, Abuja, and overseas.
Despite these arguments, the court ruled in favour of the defence, upholding that there was no sufficient evidence to require the defendants to open their defence.
With this ruling, Fayose, who governed Ekiti State from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2014 to 2018, walks away from one of the most high-profile corruption cases instituted by the EFCC in the post-2015 era.
The case, which had drawn widespread media and public attention, adds to the growing list of politically exposed persons who have been acquitted after years of trial.
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