An Ikeja Special Offences Court has discharged social media personality Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, and struck out all eight money laundering charges involving about N6 billion brought against him.
In her ruling on Tuesday, Justice Mojisola Dada held that continuing with the prosecution amounted to an abuse of court process, pointing out that a similar case was already pending before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The judge faulted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for pursuing the cases in different courts, describing the move as forum shopping. She subsequently struck out all eight counts and discharged Mompha.
The EFCC had arraigned Mompha and his company, Ismalob Global Investment Limited, on January 12, 2022, over allegations of money laundering and other financial offences.
He was tried in absentia on allegations of conspiracy to launder funds suspected to have been generated through unlawful activities, retaining and laundering proceeds of crime, failure to declare assets, possessing documents containing false pretences and using properties allegedly derived from illegal activities.
Mompha had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The EFCC alleged that he, alongside one Ahmadu Mohammed, who is currently at large, and Ismalob Global Investment Limited, conspired in 2016 to carry out financial transactions valued at N6 billion to facilitate unlawful activities, including obtaining money by false pretences.
During the trial, the prosecution, led by Suleiman Suleiman, presented six witnesses and tendered several documentary exhibits to establish its allegations against the defendants.
However, the defence did not call any witness in response to the prosecution’s evidence.
Mompha was reportedly admitted to bail on the condition that he surrendered his international passport but subsequently stopped attending court proceedings.
On April 28, the court had closed the defence’s case after Mompha’s lawyer, Kolawole Salami, of Gboyega Oyewole, SAN’s law firm, failed to produce witnesses.
Tuesday’s decision effectively ends the proceedings against Mompha before the Ikeja Special Offences Court. However, the judge’s ruling was based on the existence of a similar case pending before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
