N855m Fraud: Appeal Court Fixes May 4 to Hear EFCC Objection to Pardon Granted Convicted Indian, Others

The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has fixed Thursday, May 4, 2023 for hearing of the objections raised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the purported pardon granted to an Indian businessman, Ashok Israni and three others by the Lagos State government.

Justice Kudirat Jose of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Igbosere, had on December 9, 2019, convicted Israni, and two officials of Keystone Bank, Anayo Nwosu and Olajide Oshodi, on an amended 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N855 million.

The Judge had sentenced them to five years imprisonment each for stealing. Justice Jose also convicted NULEC Industries Limited belonging to Israni and Keystone Bank Limited, in her judgment.

Besides, the companies were also ordered to pay a fine of N20 million to the federal government on counts 1, 10 and 13, while the convicts were ordered to restitute the sum of N395 million to the victim of the fraud.

Curiously, just four months after their conviction,  they were released from prison by officials of the Kirikiri Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS), allegedly on the directive of the Lagos State Government, despite the pendency of their appeals before the upper court.

The EFCC, in the objections filed by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), submitted that it was the law that pardon cannot be granted to convicts whose rights of appeal had not been exhausted.

He urged the appellate court to declare the purported pardon “illegal” since the appellants’ appeals had been filed and entered since February 13, 2020, though, it could not be heard due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forestalled judicial activities.

The EFCC further claimed that immediately after one of the appellants, Anayo Nwosu, was released, he allegedly made so many publications on many social media platforms, stating that he was wrongly convicted, jailed and maltreated because of the whims and caprices of the nominal complainant.

At the last hearing of the matter sometimes November 2022, the court had ordered the lawyer of the convicts/applicant, Bode Olanipekun (SAN), to produce the instrument of their pardon issued to them by the Lagos State government.

At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, Olanipekun informed the court that he had filed an affidavit of facts which contained the instrument of the pardon granted to his clients by the Lagos State.